We’ve been working hard on our largest commercial project yet: a 24,323 SF tenant improvement project in Bellevue, Washington for a new Montessori school.  We’re on an extremely tight schedule since we need to open for the beginning of the school year in September.

We designed the project completely in Revit (a 3D BIM program by Autodesk).  This is our largest project yet done in Revit and it went pretty smoothly.

The project also includes a new playground and outdoor classroom area.  The playground incorporates outdoor learning opportunities such as organic gardening, a sound garden, and areas for kids to put on presentations (like ‘music in the park’).

It looks like the 2009 IRC will be requiring residential fire sprinkler systems but the requirement won’t likely go into effect until 2011. This is one of the largest changes in the code for a long time that will dramatically affect life safety of homes. Jurisdictions such as Phoenix AZ have required residential sprinkler systems for a few years now. Since then there has not been a single death by fire in a sprinkler equipped home.

The typical sprinkler system will run as low as 80 cents per square foot to as much as $4 per square foot, depending on where you are located and access to water. A house using well water will likely need large reserve tanks to supply the necessary water flow. A house connected to City water may face higher fees to connect to the water system. So it will definitely cost more to have a safer home, but what is the price you can put on a life saved?

When choosing tile for the bathroom I find that many people are so afraid to make a mistake they end up settling on basic white.  While a basic white tile has its place, it’s best installed on the walls, not on the floor where it will show every bit of dirt.  But if you must have a white tile floor, consider adding a pattern that incorporates white and one or two other colors.  For older homes, a hex tile is a great solution.  You can order a custom pattern like this (or create your own)  from Dal-Tile, which is available nationwide.  One thing to watch out for: the tile patterns are assembled by hand, and there are sometimes mistakes (like a white tile where there is supposed to be gray).  You can fix this in the field, or leave it and accept it as part of the hand created look of the tile.

The hot color for 2010 is supposed to turquoise, according to Pantone http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/index.aspx .

|
But I would say the colors I’m seeing that you might actually want to use in your home are natural colors especially colors similar to those from natural materials and raw fabrics. I’m also seen light purples and grays coming in (here is a good example page on West Elm, which tends to track color trends well): http://www.westelm.com/shop/rugs-windows/rugs-windows-new/?page=2 .  For prints, I’m again seeing nature based prints like this http://www.westelm.com/products/r779/?pkey=crugs-windows-new . You could do something like this in a wallpaper for an accent wall. If you want to mix styles with some funky vintage furniture, then you might consider a funky vintage print wallpaper too.

Gray’s tend to be popular during recessionary times, and I’m definitely seeing them make a strong comeback. And back to the turquoise . . . okay, a turquoise accent might be fun – but an entire room, probably not.

The two best things to reduce sound transmission are to add mass to the floor assembly (be sure floor can hold additional weight though), and uncouple the drywall ceiling on the floor below from the floor joists. This is done with resilient channels attached to the underside of the floor joists, then the drywall attaches to a rubber membrane in the channel. Adding a layer of homasote under flooring may help add some mass and absorb sound.

This may also sound obvious, but recessed can lights allow a lot of sound to be transmitted from floor to floor. So you may want to consider other lighting options if you want to reduce sound transmission.

A layer of UNFACED fiberglass insulation in the joist space will also help absorb sound.

My friend and contractor Rod McLamb at Spyglass Building Company and I have been discussing pebble stone tiles from Costco, which run about half the price of our local tile shops.  Since these tiles have a relatively wide grout joint, it’s important to choose the right grout color.  Typically my experience is that a grout color that is darker than the pebbles will look better than a lighter color.  A darker color will recede into the background and let you focus on the actual stones.  When the grout is significantly lighter than the stones, it tends to accentuate their shape, and almost ‘flatten’ them, making them look slightly fake and ‘cheap’. Since the grout plays an important part in the appearance of stone pebbles, my recommendation is to have the tile setter create a sample prior to grouting the actual installed pebbles.

Dark Pebble Stones with Dark Grout

Dark Pebble Stones with Light Grout

I launched the first Motionspace website in early 2006, and I’ve been adding new content to it ever since. Over the years, it got to a point where it was a little disorganized, so I recently went through and redesigned the website to better organize the content and also make it easier to add new content.  This past weekend I finally launched the new website as well as a new blog.  If you are a fan of Motionspace on Facebook you’ll automatically get my blog posts through Facebook, or you can follow me on Twitter to get updates, OR subscribe to my News Feed.  My hope with the new blog and being on Facebook and Twitter is that we can have an easy and quick way to exchange ideas, as well as an easy way to keep clients, friends, family, and contractors up to date about what’s going on in my (design) world.

I’m always on the lookout for a good looking freestanding tub that the average client can actually afford.  If you’ve ever considered a freestanding tub you know they can often cost thousands of dollars. If you’ve ever looked at Waterworks tubs, you know they can cost MANY thousands of dollars.  So I was pleasantly surprised to see a good looking large modern tub available through Costco for under $1200.  Plus the faucet can mount on the tub deck which makes choosing a tub filler easier since you don’t have to coordinate tub filler mounting locations with the tub.  Many times I’ll also add a tub deck mounted hand shower to make cleaning out the tub much easier after use (look for a small one since you’ll only be using it to wash the tub, you won’t need a large volume of water).

Advanta Tub from Costco

I am often asked the question of whether a time and material contract is better than a fixed price bid (and using a fixed price contract). The decision is different for every client, but for one recent client, putting his project out to bid resulted in big savings. The beauty of the bid is that it introduces competition into the equation. This works especially well when the economy is down since contractors are looking for work. You may even find a contractor who is bidding the job at cost to keep a team that he or she has spent many years assembling intact.

The results of a job put out to bid to several contractors can often be startling. It is not uncommon to find bids varying by thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. Sometimes it makes me wonder if they are looking at the same drawings! Many times contractors will say a bid is a waste of time because everyone is using similar subcontractors, and everyone has similar overhead, so everyone should be about the same price. This probably holds more true in a good economy, but my experience on projects put out to bid is that prices vary greatly. A recent project had bids from $270K to around $410K. Another project bid from $325K to $575K. And recently I had a basement remodel bid from $25K to $125K.

It’s important to be sure to qualify each contractor. In some situations you’ll want to throw out the lowest bid. But if the lowest bidder is qualified to do the job, there may not be any reason NOT to take the lowest bid and benefit from these savings.

Green design is not just something you do because it’s hip or the ‘in thing to do’. It’s something we do because it’s the right thing to do. All good architects have always incorporated certain green design principals into design, like using materials efficiently, siting the home correctly, and providing appropriate shading and day lighting. Today there are many more things to be concerned about like the embedded energy in a product. It’s much more complicated today because there is a lot more information to sort through. And there is a lot more hype too, so it’s important to wade through the hype to get to the facts. To learn more about green design visit seattle architects.