Basement Media Room

Builder: Dunn Builders Inc Architect: Art Dioli, Olsen Lewis Photographer - Jamie Salomon

Rear facade in Brooklyn Heights brownstone addition by Ben Herzog, architect in conjunction with designer Elizabeth Cooke-King. Photo by Michael Lee.

Decorative Iron work, Custom Hand Forged Iron screens were used as window treatment embellishments between the Interior Courtyard and Garage of this luxury Southern California home. Geometric shapes combine to create a subtle yet striking division between the spaces. Installed within the window casings, the screens measure 24" X 48" allowing the viewer a subtly look from room to room while creating a decorative element within the space. When Iron work in a home has traditionally been reserved for Spanish or Tuscan style homes, Interior Designer Rebecca Robeson finds a way to incorporate Iron in a new and fresh way using geometric shapes to transition between rooms. Custom welders followed Rebeccas plans meticulously in order to keep the lines clean and sophisticated for a seamless design element in this home. All staircases and railings in this home share similar linear lines while window embellishments and room divider screens include softer curves to add grace to the geometric shapes. For a closer look at this home, watch our YouTube videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsNt46xGavY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj6lv21a7NQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvr4eWXljqM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JShqHBibRWY

© Marco Joe Fazio, LBIPP

Cabinetry by Ingrained Wood Studios: The Lab. Staircase/wall paneling by Ingrained Wood Studios: The Mill. © Alyssa Lee Photography

Outdoor Movie area

The renovation of the Woodland Residence centered around two basic ideas. The first was to open the house to light and views of the surrounding woods. The second, due to a limited budget, was to minimize the amount of new footprint while retaining as much of the existing structure as possible. The existing house was in dire need of updating. It was a warren of small rooms with long hallways connecting them. This resulted in dark spaces that had little relationship to the exterior. Most of the non bearing walls were demolished in order to allow for a more open concept while dividing the house into clearly defined private and public areas. The new plan is organized around a soaring new cathedral space that cuts through the center of the house, containing the living and family room spaces. A new screened porch extends the family room through a large folding door - completely blurring the line between inside and outside. The other public functions (dining and kitchen) are located adjacently. A massive, off center pivoting door opens to a dramatic entry with views through a new open staircase to the trees beyond. The new floor plan allows for views to the exterior from virtually any position in the house, which reinforces the connection to the outside. The open concept was continued into the kitchen where the decision was made to eliminate all wall cabinets. This allows for oversized windows, unusual in most kitchens, to wrap the corner dissolving the sense of containment. A large, double-loaded island, capped with a single slab of stone, provides the required storage. A bar and beverage center back up to the family room, allowing for graceful gathering around the kitchen. Windows fill as much wall space as possible; the effect is a comfortable, completely light-filled room that feels like it is nestled among the trees. It has proven to be the center of family activity and the heart of the residence. Hoachlander Davis Photography

Balthazar Korab

This Modern home sits atop one of Toronto's beautiful ravines. The full basement is equipped with a large home gym, a steam shower, change room, and guest Bathroom, the center of the basement is a games room/Movie and wine cellar. The other end of the full basement features a full guest suite complete with private Ensuite and kitchenette. The 2nd floor makes up the Master Suite, complete with Master bedroom, master dressing room, and a stunning Master Ensuite with a 20 foot long shower with his and hers access from either end. The bungalow style main floor has a kids bedroom wing complete with kids tv/play room and kids powder room at one end, while the center of the house holds the Kitchen/pantry and staircases. The kitchen open concept unfolds into the 2 story high family room or great room featuring stunning views of the ravine, floor to ceiling stone fireplace and a custom bar for entertaining. There is a separate powder room for this end of the house. As you make your way down the hall to the side entry there is a home office and connecting corridor back to the front entry. All in all a stunning example of a true Toronto Ravine property photos by Hand Spun Films

A complete interior remodel of a top floor unit in a stately Pacific Heights building originally constructed in 1925. The remodel included the construction of a new elevated roof deck with a custom spiral staircase and “penthouse” connecting the unit to the outdoor space. The unit has two bedrooms, a den, two baths, a powder room, an updated living and dining area and a new open kitchen. The design highlights the dramatic views to the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge to the north, the views west to the Pacific Ocean and the City to the south. Finishes include custom stained wood paneling and doors throughout, engineered mahogany flooring with matching mahogany spiral stair treads. The roof deck is finished with a lava stone and ipe deck and paneling, frameless glass guardrails, a gas fire pit, irrigated planters, an artificial turf dog park and a solar heated cedar hot tub. Photos by Mariko Reed Architect: Gregg DeMeza Interior designer: Jennifer Kesteloot

Stacy Thomas

Pilar House (2010) Project, Works Management and Construction Location Altos de Pilar Country Club, Pilar, Buenos Aires, Argentina Total Area 706 m² Photo Eugenio Valentini Principal> Arq. Alejandro Amoedo Lead Designer> Arq. Lucas D’Adamo Baumann Project Manager> Hernan Montes de Oca Collaborators> Federico Segretin Sueyro, Luciana Flores, Fausto Cristini This weekend house was designed on a large lot. Framed by two large walls placed orthogonally over one of the corners of the lot, an H-shaped layout was designed, dividing the lot in three well differentiated areas. To the front, there is the access driveway for cars and pedestrians; on the northeastern side, there is the pool and leisure area; and, finally, on the southern side, there is the service and garage area. The plan is very big and more developed on the ground floor, which allowed for the creation of a big terrace that benefits from the views onto the garden and the swimming pool and also articulates functionally the private area of the upper floor bedrooms with the playroom and the gallery on the ground floor. The white image with pure lines of this house, inspired in the Bauhaus principles where form follows function, is broken by some walls paneled in black slates, steel, wood and mainly by large glass areas that are integrated into the views and natural light in all its rooms. From the front of the lot, we access the house under a folded wall that organizes the main hall and we face an inner yard around which we find: the sitting room, half a level below, and the formal dining room, after which is the home theater room, especially conditioned for its function. The large cantilever proposed by the upper floor over the sitting room forms a semi-covered sector adjacent to it where a sunken space especially devised for leisure was designed over a wooden deck. It is accompanied by a double-sided fireplace which may be seen from the inside and from the outside. The access sector is completed with a wardrobe, a toilet and a guest bedroom with private bathroom, profiting from exclusive views onto an inner yard created by the stone wall that surrounds these sectors. In the center of the H there is the family area, made up of the kitchen, the informal dining room and the main gallery, which connects it to the playroom and the barbecue area. From the kitchen, access may be gained to the southern sector, comprising the service area and used as secondary access from the garages. A laundry, a pantry, a bedroom with bathroom, a storage room, a full bathroom with sauna for the pool and playroom make up this sector. The upper floor includes the master suite with bathroom, walk-in closet and views onto the garden; the girls' suite is made up of two bedrooms that may be integrated into a common playroom and a bathroom shared with the rest areas. From the central hall in double height, access is gained to the terrace through a steel and glass bridge that connects it to the stairs made of the same materials.

Ron Tan Photographer

This 1925 Jackson street penthouse boasts 2,600 square feet with an additional 1,000 square foot roof deck. Having only been remodeled a few times the space suffered from an outdated, wall heavy floor plan. Updating the flow was critical to the success of this project. An enclosed kitchen was opened up to become the hub for gathering and entertaining while an antiquated closet was relocated for a sumptuous master bath. The necessity for roof access to the additional outdoor living space allowed for the introduction of a spiral staircase. The sculptural stairs provide a source for natural light and yet another focal point.

Ottawa’s vibrant Glebe neighborhood stretches across the southern downtown edge of Canada’s National Capital. Its houses run the spectrum from prominent, architect designed heritage residences to modest, tightly packed workers’ homes from the early 20th century. Fold Place replaces on of the latter houses on a street boarded on its south by the open profile of Lansdowne Park and its Aberdeen Pavilion, one of North America’s few surviving Crystal Palace-style domed exhibition halls. The clients, professionals committed to the community’s casual urban lifestyle, asked Andrew Reeves for open, flowing spaces in which simplicity would make modest dimensions seem bigger. Reeves, who has recently made significant contributions toward returning Ottawa to its post war modernist heyday, responded with a tight composition of volumes that maximizes the potential of the narrow 20’by 60’ irregular shaped site while still generating a singular street profile. The street-side component of the two storey core volume steps in to facilitate an eastern side entrance. A cantilevered bay wraps around the corner at the second level, its crisp lines, layering of planes and contrasting materials producing a piece of geometric art. On the opposite elevation, a single storey garage, clad in richly stained pine in contrast to the neutral light-grey stucco of the main volume, is extruded on the angle of the lot. The same pine is used on soffits, in the bay and as a means to break up the major volume, the same kind of unapologetic use of natural materials that marked Alvar Aalto’s Nordic modernism. Inside, an animated “folding” of space creates horizontal and vertical fluidity and interconnectedness. The largely white walled and simply detailed interior rotates around two totemic elements centred on the west and east elevations of the house. One is a sculpted staircase whose ebony strained treads without risers seem almost to float. The other is a light chimney, a countering void marked by a soaring opaque window spilling light onto an interior garden at its foot. These elements also serve to separate the kitchen/dining area from the living room but without impeding a sense of openness. A generous and eclectic use of windows and glazed doors draws in from all sides the delightful ozone saturated light that theorist Christian Norberg-Schulz has identified as such an important element in a northern landscape. If large picture windows that provide stunning tableaus of the Aberdeen’s impressive cupola and the backyard facing wall glazed doors are boldly voyeuristic, many narrow vertical slot and horizontal clerestory windows contribute slices of views while protecting privacy. In sum, Fold Place is an urban dwelling for an informal lifestyle that is committed to engaging its community with openness and sass.