A plain manila envelope arrived in the mail the other day with return address "Farmboy Fine Arts". Out of a sense of duty rather than curiosity, I opened it, planning on adding another brochure to my ever growing pile of "stuff to look at some day"... Inside was a wonderful array of beautifully creative artwork including backlit art, acrylic digital art, art on canvas, art on glass, 3D sculptural art and more. I was captivated by each page. Both the catalog and the website that I subsequently visited provide a comprehensive look at all of the offerings and mediums available. With over 40,000 images to choose from in many different types of applications, the possibilities seem endless.
CEO Todd Towers and his team have put together quite an enterprise. Here's a PDF of a recent article that I found on their website. The catalog and website illustrate many projects and installations, including hotels, restaurants, casinos, offices and residential applications. Each project is unique and dramatic in its own way, and the website's client list is impressive. Their site also offers a newsletter, blog and a podcast that changes monthly, featuring music mixes from guest DJ's.
The print brochure is available through a link on the website, and Farmboy Fine arts says they will be at the HD Las Vegas Trade Show, May 14-16 2009. Here's a sampling of just some of their creations:
Farmboy Fine Arts - ADA Designs
Farmboy Fine Arts - Architectural Elements (AE)
Farmboy Fine Arts - BADA BOX
Farmboy Fine Arts - EGO Tempered Glass
Farmboy Fine Arts - LUMA Acrylic Panels
Farmboy Fine Arts - META Aluminum Composites
Farmboy Fine Arts - OPTICA Lenticular Imagery
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You've probably already heard about the small town of Greensburg, Kansas?
Greensburg was hit by a devastating EF-5 tornado in early May, 2007. The twister leveled 95% of the town's homes and buildings. In the aftermath, Greensburg city officials committed to using 100 percent renewable energy and mandated that every city building be built to the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED Platinum standards.
GreenTown is a community-based organization which has worked alongside Greensburg and Kiowa county officials, business owners, and local residents to help make Greensburg a model of sustainable living for the rest of the country. According to the GreenTown website, the ogranization serves as "an educational resource for the community, a conduit through which donations can be distributed, and a representative to those outside the community who are interested in the Green Initiative".
I found both the website and the town's story quite compelling. The site offers a comprehensive database of each of the green homes and buildings that has been built as part of the reconstruction, as well as a walk through the town in the form of a "Green Tour" PDF. As an example, the site describes the materials and techniques used to build the town's new City Hall (pictured below).
Greensburg's GreenTown City Hall
The town is still a work-in-progress, but what an amazing story!
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The International Code Council (ICC), American Institute of Architects (AIA) and ASTM-International co-introduced the ICC's International Green Construction Code (IGCC) "Safe and Sustainable By the Book" initiative yesterday. The program's goal will be to reduce the carbon footprint of commercial buildings by developing and maintaining a model code focused upon new and existing commercial building construction.
According to the ICC, buildings consume roughly 40 percent of energy used and contribute about the same percentage of carbon emissions in the United States.
We believe the time has come for us to develop a code that will stand as a useful and credible regulatory framework for creating a greener commercial building stock,” said Code Council Chief Executive Officer Richard P. Weiland. “We applaud and plan to utilize the good work of those who have developed systems, guidelines and standards to address green buildings.”
The ICC's development schedule calls for a public comment period on the Committee’s initial draft, and a final draft that will be made available as a resource document in 2010 before it moves through the development and final action hearing stages. The AIA and ASTM will each share in the code development process. For the full press release, click here.
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Roughly 75 awards were recently announced for contract furnishing products during NeoCon® 2009 at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. It was the 20th year for the "Best of NeoCon" awards, co-sponsored this year by Contract magazine, Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc., the International Interior Design Association (IIDA), the International Facility Management Association (IFMA), and McMorrowReport.com.
Products were judged by a group of management executives from corporate, government and institutional facilities along with selected international designers and architects. The 42 jurors were split up into seven teams, with each team visiting the product showrooms and market suites to view and judge the products in person. Over 1200 companies competed in 44 product categories for the awards.
Powermat won Best of Show and a gold medal in the Technology Support category for its ultra-thin wireless technology by showcasing its streamlined wireless charging devices for kitchen applications and wire-free charging and real-time powering capability which Powermat had embedded into Teknion Corporation's FX workplace accessories collection.
"Powermat was an 'unknown' to the contract furniture industry," said Eileen McMorrow, Director, Best of NeoCon 2009. "As a technology provider, the judges realized how the product contributes to all contract office furniture and how it will impact office planning in the future. This is why it received the Best of Competition award from 42 best of NeoCon jurors."
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The Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA), a trade association for the North American office and institutional furniture industry, recently announced " level", a multi-attribute, sustainability standard and third-party certification program for the furniture industry.
The program offers a means for evaluating and communicating the environmental impacts of furniture products by accounting for companies' energy consumption, material selections, manufacturing, shipping and handling practices, social actions, and impact upon human health.
Retailers and consumers can use the level brand to make better informed choices knowing that a given commercial furniture product has been tested by an accredited third-party certification organization such as NSF International or SCS. A marking of 1, 2, or 3 indicates the level of certification that a particular product has achieved. And manufacturers can use the level brand to describe the environmental footprint of a given product in simple to understand terms in a consistent manner.
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It's hard to believe that it's been over 10 years since The Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka first arrived on the scene. On the closing side of a decade filled with oversized homes, oversized rooms and oversized furniture, The Not So Big House created a breath of fresh air for the building, architecture and design industry.
Susanka's newest not so big book is Not So Big Remodeling: Tailoring Your Home for the Way You Really Live. Based on the reviews, the book asks homeowners to consider how they live, what they need in terms of space, and teaches them how to renovate their existing spaces in an efficient, sustainable, and meaningful manner, paring down to the basics but not giving up on quality or good design practices. I'm looking forward to reading it in detail.
More and more of my clients are embracing sensible, scaled-down approaches to renovation and design.
On the same note, I always enjoy Renovation Style magazine. The features consistently include reasonably scaled projects, straightforward design solutions, interesting materials, and well written articles.
When looking through magazines with clients to help them realize their design, style and color preferences, I'd have to say that Renovation Style is probably the one magazine that elicits the most responses from my clients. Renovation seems to embrace the same "build better, not bigger" philosophy that Sarah Susanka shared with us over a decade ago.
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Most of my clients, both commercial and residential, ask me to specify paint colors, but I frequently encourage my clients to incorporate wallpaper, especially in powder rooms (not bathrooms where moisture can be an issue), dining rooms, and bedrooms. Wallpaper in powder rooms can create many different wonderful effects: drama and sophistication, whimsey, an outdoor/garden feeling, a cabana effect, an architecturally detailed/moulded effect, and more. Powder room ceilings are often papered to complete the look.
Dining rooms are part of the home where a bit of formality can prevail, and wallpaper can add formality much better than paint is able to. Crisp stripes, subtle damasks and beautiful florals are time tested and relevant wallpaper styles that allow significant room for creativity and provide a formal backdrop for dining room furniture, area rugs and window treatments. For more casual dining areas, wallpaper can still provide a lot of charm through color and pattern.
Bedrooms can be wonderful spaces to personalize with wall coverings. Without getting locked in to something too cute, kids' rooms allow for many different fun and colorful patterns. I generally encourage clients to choose something that seems a bit grown up - kids seem to really love it, and the selection then lasts many years. Master bedrooms, often viewed as private oases, allow for favorite colors in wallpaper or paint. Wallpaper contributes to a specific look or feeling, be it garden-like, tailored, or posh and elegant.
For commercial use, wallpaper can contribute in a big way to a customized, finished look. I've used wallpaper on numerous office projects in bathrooms, hallways, waiting rooms, and lounge areas. It adds a layer of visual interest and keeps things from being too bland. There are many commercial grade wallcovers available in terrific colors and patterns.
Although many clients are somehow under the impression that wallpaper is "out" - not sure where that comes from - I encourage using it in many projects! Here are some of my favorite vendors:
And here are a couple photos from the Thibaut website:
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Both residential and commercial projects frequently include art, accessories, and plants and florals as finishing details. Many clients prefer the ease and convenience of artificial plants, especially for their low maintenance. And designers like the continuity - the look will remain the same as originally intended.
The two biggest drawbacks for artificial plants are the dust factor and the fake factor. After a while, they can get really dusty but vacuuming or spritzing/washing are two care options. And if not well done, faux plants can seem downright tacky. Real plants provide a freshness and authenticity that is rarely duplicated, but there are some great faux plant / flower / arrangement suppliers out there.
A couple of my favorites are:
NDI - Beautiful, realistic plants that need to be examined closely to see if they're real or fake. Lovely floral arrangements, trees, greenery, holiday decorations, topiaries, grasses, etc. Plus great containers!
Forever Green Art - Real plants that have been preserved, including bonsai, topiary, florals, eucalyptus and palms. From my experience, these plants retain their color and beauty for the long term.
Containers make a big difference in the look, too. Baskets can seem a bit lightweight and insubstantial unless they're very well made, so I generally go with great looking ceramic or stoneware containers that complement the plants and add more visual interest. One of my favorite lines is New England Pottery, which can be found at many distributors nationwide. They carry a huge array of beautiful plant containers.
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 After a seminar that I recently attended, a few fellow designers and I were discussing the economy and how it's affected our businesses. Here are the highlights of our conversation:
- Designers and builders are taking on smaller jobs than usual, with the expectation that working with these clients will lead to more work with them in the future.
- Designers are offering smaller mark-ups on fabrics and furnishings in order to ease costs for clients while still allowing the designer to make a reasonable profit.
- Designers have shied away from reducing hourly fees. Clients generally feel that the services and expertise that we offer is fairly priced.
- Service professionals are generally being much more flexible with regard to meeting times (more evenings and weekends) in order to accommodate working couples and people who don't feel they can be away from work for an extended period.
- Designers and builders are helping clients find cost effective/affordable solutions for kitchen and bath renovations, flooring, lighting and more by exploring different suppliers and materials. We've seen many do-it-yourselfers who wish to install certain items themselves.
- Some designers are seeing a higher percentage of staging or redecorating type projects (on a fixed or hourly basis).
- One designer that specializes in residential design still has many large clients, including several that are still proceeding with projects involving millions of dollars worth of furnishings, artwork, and renovations.
- A builder I spoke with is continuing with construction of multimillion dollar homes for several clients.
The next year or so will prove challenging for the design field. Personally, during any down time that I have, I continue to educate myself about new products, green applications, and the like.
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The FSC is a non-profit dedicated to promoting responsible management of our world’s forests by offering certification for landowners and companies that purchase or sell timber or forest products to ensure that forestry is practiced in an environmentally responsible, socially beneficial, and economically viable way.
Independent, FSC-accredited certification organizations carry out assessments of forestry practices to determine whether FSC standards have been met. These certifiers also verify that companies claiming to sell FSC-certified products have tracked their supply back to FSC-certified sources.
Architects, builders and designers who purchase or specify building materials, furnishings, or paper or other products with an FSC label such as the one shown above can be confident that the products were harvested or manufactured using environmentally sustainable practices.
According to a recent study by The Freedonia Group entitled Green Building Materials, U.S. demand for green building materials will exceed $80B by 2013 and FSC-certified lumber and wood panels are expected to be the fastest growing green products, with demand more than tripling between 2008 and 2013.
The Forest Stewardship Council maintains a list of retailers who sell FSC-certified product on this page where you can search for retailers or download an up-to-date PDF list of all retailers. Notable retailers on the list include Pottery Barn, Pier 1 Imports, Crate & Barrel, L.L. Bean, Williams Sonoma and Restoration Hardware. Buy Green! And remember, look for the FSC Seal!
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