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 Clem Labine: Hard-Edged Houses for Those Who Love Machines
Modernist architects once again are trying to sell hard-edged houses to the American public. A new home plan service called Hometta has been set up to offer "modern homes for the masses." Hometta is a collaboration of several architectural studios whose goal is to provide "small, sleek, sustainable, affordable house plans for middle-class buyers." Few would quibble with the goals of "small" or "affordable" or "sustainable." Whether the market will applaud their version of "sleek" and "modern" remains to be seen. Read more.
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 Kim O'Connell: The Suburbanization of the Outer Banks
A barrier island is rarely still. The sand is always shifting, the winds are blowing and every so often, a hurricane bulldozes through. People and buildings come and go. Such is the case with the Outer Banks, a thin strip of barrier islands on the coast of North Carolina. I've been vacationing on the Banks off and on for 30 years – ever since I was a little girl – and was there again just last week with my family. Despite the growing popularity of the area, it retains its natural beauty and a strong sense of place, owing to the fact that much of the islands are protected as Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Still, on this trip I saw evidence of a strange sort of "suburbanization" of the Banks that I found troubling. Read more.
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 Dan Cooper: Houses and Spouses
Last week, I gave a lecture at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute in Utica, NY, entitled "Houses & Spouses: The Dark Side of Preservation." It's autobiographical, and based upon my travails in The Butchy Chronicles and my Carpenter's Stigmata blog. The talk relates what I've learned about old houses and how they can simultaneously destroy bank accounts and spousal relationships.
And the audience found it pretty darned funny.
Read more.
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 Rudy Christian: Windows to Networking
This last weekend I had the pleasure of representing the Preservation Trades Network (PTN) as a guest speaker at a hands-on historic window restoration workshop in San Antonio, TX. I shared the guest speaker role with Walter Sedovic, AIA, LEED, who gave a very concise presentation about the research he has been doing on performance and investment return of modern replacement windows. His presentation was eye opening and appropriate to kick off the workshop, which took place at historic Fire Station #11 in San Antonio. Read more.
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 Aimee Buccellato: These Logs Won't Burn
Several years ago, my husband and I were approached to design a summer home on the north shore of trout-rich Henry's Lake in the northeastern corner of Idaho. Our client, an avid sports fisherman and North Countryman, had developed over the years a deep affection for the traditional log construction of the Big Sky region and hoped that we might realize for him a log home that was both beautiful and fit for its site but also low maintenance, low impact and energy efficient. His goal – and ours: to build an environmentally responsible log house. Could it be done? Read more.
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