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Table of Contents 2012

Features

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    Your Move

    When it comes to diversification, custom builders may have more options than they realize.

     

Editor's Page

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    Under the Bus

    Custom builders and architects should refrain from badmouthing the other to clients.

     

Business

Master Class

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    Fluid Dynamics

    A sideline in rainwater harvesting systems helps stabilize Rex Bost's custom home business while giving him a stake in the sustainable future.

     

Kitchen & Bath Design Guide

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    Once Upon A Time Right Now

    These kitchens and baths are classic, lovely, and thoroughly modern all at the same time.

     
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    Three-Season Special

    The kitchen in this 1915 house includes nice views from the sink and a 5-foot-by-5-foot pantry tucked into a corner.

     
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    Pattern Play

    This separate master quarters' bath features high windows and traditional lighting fixtures used in a modern way.

     
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    Old Meets New

    Old meets new in a Seattle master bath.

     
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    Covert Operation

    An elegant Washington, D.C., kitchen quietly anchors a great room.

     
  • In this Cape Cod, Mass., bath designed by Hutker Architects and Eileen Peretz Interiors, a glass tile mosaic pattern adds interest underfoot.

    Floor Show

    A glass-tile mosaic takes center stage at this Cape Cod., Mass., bath.

     
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    The Long View

    A long, lean remodeled kitchen in the Twin Cities.

     

Products

K+B Studio

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    Full Bodied

    Re-engineered hinges allow for a fully flush installation of the Freedom built-in wine columns.

     
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    Cover Story

    Kirei Windfall engineered panels clad cabinetry and walls in old-growth wood salvaged from demolition sites.

     
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    Open Invitation

    Crafted from brushed aluminum and high-pressure laminate, these pulls blend with the metal accents and appliances in modern or European-style kitchens.

     
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    Record Lows

    High-speed ribbon elements in the 36-inch Electric Cooktop heat up fast and give cooks precise and even temperature control.

     
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    Cold One

    Northstar 1950s-style refrigerators now offer cold beer on tap with the Brew Master draft system.

     
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    Dynamic Duo

    Dacor's latest double wall oven features a digital temperature probe that senses when food is done.

     
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    Eternal Glow

    The Adjustable Eco-Downlight lasts 50,000 hours and uses only 16 watts.

     
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    Trick Tile

    The 3D look of the Ebb & Flow stone and glass mosaic might be deceiving, but the tiles are smooth and easy to clean.

     
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    Reverse Play

    The Beside collection of porcelain stoneware explores a new concept in Italian tile design: the back side.

     
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    Well Trained

    A closed coil and magnetic hook-up replace tangled pull-down faucet hoses in Blanco's Culina semi-professional faucet.

     
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    Street Style

    Aster Cucine designs each Avenue luxury kitchen system to fit any kitchen space.

     
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    Suspended

    The Omnia architectura wall-mounted toilet hides its tank within the wall to increase floor space.

     
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    Paper Delivery

    Crafted from Duralight, an acrylic-based composite, the tubs in the Paper collection slip comfortably into any setting.

     
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    To Elle and Back Water

    The Elle floor-mount washbasin unit unites its sink with table space, towel holders, and storage.

     
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    Erode Show

    Artist Patricia Urquiola classifies her Bas-Relief handmade extruded porcelain tiles as a more rigorous and less romantic exploration of the theme of eroded cracks.

     
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    Finding Mimo

    Laufen now has a line of faucets to complete its ceramic bath furniture collections such as Mimo, a whimsical take on a modern model.

     
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    Haute Relief

    The raised relief on the Coimbra Bronze Vessel recalls Portuguese artistry of the 15th and 16th centuries.

     
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    Sleek Second

    This contemporary floor-mount tub filler stands straight and sharp, giving modern freestanding tubs a statuesque companion.

     

Outdoor Products

Last Detail

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    House Boat

    A boatlike solid mahogany tub graces a shorefront master bath.

     

Web Only

  • Ready to Remodel

    The baby boomer generation is again poised to impact the housing market, this time with the full thrust of its punch intertwined with the financial solvency of its members’ kids.

     
  • Green Building Portal

     
  • Design: Doreve Nicholaeff, Architect

    Breakfast Rooms

    With strong connections to the kitchen and usually offering ample daylight, breakfast rooms are used for much more than sitting down to the morning meal.

     
  • Future Activity in Residential Construction

    Economists from the Associated General Contractors of America, the AIA, and Reed Construction Data addressed the expected length and strength of the construction market’s recovery in a webinar May 3. The private residential sector received significant attention as the discussion evaluated how...

     
  • Residential Energy Codes Changing

     
  • Report Predicts Hardships in Housing Older Adults

    The Center for Housing Policy recently published a report concluding that adults age 65 and older soon will face a severe shortage of affordable housing that meets their physical and social needs.

     
  • Green Building Continues to Impact Residential Market

    Sustainable building in the market for single-family homes should contintue to increase, offering builders and remodelers who can keep pace the opportunity to boost business during a period of slow recovery, a new report from McGraw-Hill finds.

     
  • Finnish Flashback

    Artex reintroduced Finnish designer Tapio Wirkkala’s TW002, a turn-molded opalescent glass pendant originally designed in 1951, for this year’s Milan Furniture Fair.

     
  • Profile: Nils Finne, AIA

    Nils Finne, AIA, has long exemplified the highly skilled regional practitioner. Based in Seattle, he draws on Asian, Scandinavian, and mid-century modernist influences in work that distills the environmental and cultural currents of the contemporary Pacific Northwest.

     
  • NKBA 2012 Design Competition Winners

    The National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA) announced the winners of its 2012 Design Competition on Tuesday at its annual show in Chicago. The winners were pulled from a collection of nearly 500 entries from association members across the U.S. and Canada.

     
  • Registration Open for 2012 WaterSmart

    Registration for the fifth annual WaterSmart Innovations Conference and Exposition opened Tuesday.

     
  • Non-Linear Recovery Expected for Residential Construction

    An early spring boost to housing activity likely has left the market in “pause mode,” according to David Crowe, chief economist at the NAHB. And although the long-term growth charts upward, Crowe and other market-watchers who participated in the association’s spring construction webinar last week...

     
  • Companion Door

    Jeld-Wen is targeting its four-legged clientele by adding a separate, secure-closing pet panel to its Vinyl Sliding Patio Door as a way for pets to easily move between indoor and outdoor spaces.

     
  • Herman Miller Goes Outdoors, Again

    For the first time in decades, the famed office furniture design company once again is offering a line of outdoor furniture.

     
  • Hearst Castle-Inspired Wood Tiles

    The Hearst Celestial Wood Series features hand-painted or carved wood tiles that interpret the California compound’s opulent design.

     
  • Dynamic Sinks

    A new line of glass sinks from Modono Glass uses a proprietary color-changing thin-film coating to give off a dynamic look on the vessel installations.

     
  • Sweet App

    The new Sweets App is an all-in-one mobile source for building products, CAD details, and BIM objects.

     
  • German Passive House Tours North America

    Das Haus’ passive model can be seen in action across the U.S. and Canada through November. Upcoming stops include Toronto, Cambridge, Mass., and Washington, D.C.

     
  • Announcing the Winners of the 2012 Custom Home Design Awards!

     
  • Harvard’s JCHS Reports Remodeling Recovery

    According to the quarterly Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) released by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS), the home remodeling market is predicted to pick up steadily throughout the rest of the year.

     
  • House Permits Increase 30 Percent

    Private residential construction permits and starts for March 2012 show significant improvement when compared with the figures for the same time period last year.

     
  • Construction-Material Costs Up For March

    Contractors face difficulty passing new costs to consumers according to the AGC .

     
  • Data Indicates Slower Private Construction Recovery

    Private construction’s 5.6 percent February hiring rate in February is higher than the national average, but still represents dip in industry growth.

     
  • New Book Chronicles Old House Design Trend

    Richard Olsen looks back at the long-standing practice of building new houses with reclaimed elements and old architectural parts in Handmade Houses: A Century of Earth-Friendly Home Design.

     
  • NAHB Looks at Remodeling Spending

    The NAHB recently estimated money spent on home renovation and remodeling projects for every county in the United States. Analysts used figures from the American Housing Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau and HUD along with the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, which contains county-level...

     
  • Homeowners Still Want Home Energy Management Systems

    Lack of knowledge and fear of being monitored remain sources of hesitancy says a survey by energy market intelligence firm Pike Research, which looked at what consumers want from energy management systems, their opinions of current products on the market, and how likely cost affects decisions.

     
  • Scroll Style

    Turnstyle Designs’ Scroll cabinet pulls borrow the aesthetic of ancient scrolls in a handle application.

     
  • Net 2011 Construction Industry Growth to Segue Into 2012

    After five years of decline, 2011 finally saw some growth in the construction jobs sector and figures from early this year indicate that job growth for builders might become a steady trend.

     
  • Writing on the Wall

    Working in conjunction with the Easton, Pa.,-based company, Surfaces has translated Crayola’s iconic bright colors into equally vivid glass mosaic tiles in either solid or variegated hues.

     
  • Elegant Erosion

    Custom-crafted bathroom sinks replicate the organic forms of water-carved canyons out of laser-cut engineered concrete by Gore Design.

     

Web Extras

  • NAHB Forecasts Growth in New Markets

    Remodeling remains a bright spot in residential construction while the NAHB’s Improving Markets Index levels off with an overall gain of only one market in March.

     

Custom Home Outdoors

Outdoor Indulgences

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    Drop Box

    Rainwater trickles from the downspout into the Fitzwater collector, a sleek stainless steel 58-gallon tank that sources the runoff to pots, planters, or watering cans.

     

The Green Outdoors

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    Higher Ground

    The Sustainable Sites Initiative elevates the importance of landscape.

     

Case Study

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    Shades of Green

    This environmentally savvy house and garden in Mexico is based on universal design principles.

     

Other Articles

  • Llighthouses Available, Cheap

    I've been impressed on this visit with how my old hometown, DC, seems to be thriving, and that leads me to reflect on how cities in general will fare in the coming post-recession.

     
  • Regional Design at AIA 2012

    The AIA 2012 session "Connect to the World and Community: Region-Based Design and Its Connection to Culture, Community, and Place" on Thursday, May 17, was packed.

     
  • Legal Basics for Architectural Practice

    At the AIA 2012 National Convention in Washington, D.C., Charles R. Heuer, FAIA, Esq., presented “Did You Get the Owner’s Manual for Your Practice?”

     
  • The Urban Rebound

    I've been impressed on this visit with how my old hometown, DC, seems to be thriving, and that leads me to reflect on how cities in general will fare in the coming post-recession.

     
  • Gehry's Eisenhower Memorial

    I'm in DC for the AIA Convention and, it turns out, just in time for a dust-up over Frank Gehry's proposed design for the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial.

     
  • Buy a First House or Rent?

    Here's a good give-and-take on whether it's smart for first-time buyers to make their move--or really, really not.

     
  • Monstrum's Amazing Playgrounds

    Danish playground design firm Monstrum performs magic.

     
  • An Inflatable Annex for the Hirshhorn Museum

    Liz Diller's TED Talk on Diller, Scofido + Renfro's inflatable addition to the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C.

     
  • Net-zero Homes for the Aleutian Islands

    If you think designing a truly efficient building for your region is a challenge, try making one work in Alaska's Aleutian Islands.

     
  • Pod Houses, With and Without Wheels

    Maybe I'm just nostalgic for the days when my shelter needs were simpler, but I'm fascinated with compact, portable dwelling pods.

     
  • Highlights From Georgetown House Tour

    On Saturday I took the Georgetown House Tour, an annual Washington, D.C., institution put on by St. John's Episcopal Church. Of particular interest to me were the three architects' own houses on the tour.

     
  • Smart House? How About a Smart City?

    A company called Living PlanIT is building a new city in northern Portugal that will apply computer monitoring and control technology to the task of managing an entire urban environment.

     
  • Can You Find the Sewage Treatment Plant in this Picture?

    Last week on vacation in Florida, my family and I visited the Green Cay Wetlands, a constructed wetland and nature preserve that also serves as the final-stage treatment facility for municipal wastewater.

     
  • House & Home at Nat'l Building Museum

    Last night I attended a press preview for the National Building Museum's House & Home exhibition.

     
  • Open-Plan Backlash?

    In my experience, homeowners have over the past decade expressed a consistent desire to have the kitchen and living/dining or family rooms completely integrated. Are people now moving back toward wanting a clearer division of spaces?

     
  • Great Buildings on TV

    Public television station WTTW Chicago is at work on a program about "ten influential American buildings that changed the way we live, work, and play."

     
  • Have We Passed Peak Sprawl?

    Sprawl has been a dirty word--not to mention a lousy model of land use--for more than 50 years, but that never slowed its inexorable spread.

     
  • Italian Hill Town Art Installation in Seattle

    Architectural photographer Lara Swimmer and her husband, Seattle-based architect Robert Zimmer, have collaborated with artist Perri Lynch to produce a multi-media study of an Italian hill town.

     
  • New Ferrari Museum

    There is a new museum in Modena, Italy, dedicated to the work of automotive legend Enzo Ferrari.

     
  • Profile: Mark Hutker, AIA, Hutker Architects

    Hutker Architects is no stranger to the pages of Custom Home and residential architect. Mark Hutker recently shared how he maintains high design standards worthy of such extensive coverage while juggling three offices spread throughout Cape Cod—two of which require boat or plane trips to reach.

     
  • Foreclosures to Rentals: The Marketplace at Work

    There may well be more elegant, less painful ways to keep houses occupied and roofs over people's heads, but investors buying up foreclosed properties and renting them out will probably play a large role in cycling distressed properties back into the system.

     
  • More Evidence that the iPad is Changing Your World

    Portable digital devices are changing our lives with amazing speed, and furniture design is running to catch up. Will architecture follow?

     
  • Lego Architecture

    Downstairs in our living room is a display of architectural models--Fallingwater, the Robie House, the Farnsworth House--all courtesy of one precocious 9-year-old and his generous grandparents.

     
  • Mapping the Economic Rebound

    Builders and architects have a pretty good sense of business conditions in their market.

     
  • Paul Rudolph's Disappearing Oeuvre

    Among prominent 20th century architects, Paul Rudolph is the one I find most problematic.

     
  • The Beauty of Vermont Quarries

    Based on this amazing slideshow of Vermont's marble and granite quarries, the Green Mountain State may have the rest of the country licked in that department.

     
  • Bouroullec Brothers on Display

    The whimsical, organic furniture of Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec has long captivated the design world.

     
  • Bank of America to Rent Back Foreclosed Houses

    I know that banks prefer not to be landlords, but under the current circumstances, this foreclosure-to-rental pilot program seems like plain common sense.

     
  • Safer-Table Saw Law Proposed

    Mandating injury mitigation technology in table saws, as in a recently proposed California law, seems like a fine idea to me

     
  • High Temperature Geothermal Heat Pump

    This new unit from WaterFurnace delivers water at 150 degrees fahrenheit, hot enough for use with existing radiators and baseboard convectors.

     
  • Modern Houseboat Development in Amsterdam

    While offering owners the incomparable experience of living on the water, this development by Dutch architect Marlies Rohmer also proved an ideal application for prefabrication.

     
  • Blower Door Test

    We finally did a blower-door test done on our old (early 19th c.) house yesterday, and the results were quite a revelation.

     
  • American Architects in China

    It looks as if the streets are paved with gold for young architects in China.

     
 
Resources:
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