Addresses Future Oriented - Photos & Ideas

Set on a narrow hillside lot overlooking the San Francisco Bay in Point Richmond, California, Bay Heirloom is a Mid-Century Modern family home restored, modernized and adapted for contemporary living. Oriented south-southwest toward the Marin Headlands, with views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the residence captures shifting Bay light throughout the day, from fog-muted mornings to vivid, glowing sunsets. The home was built by Karlyn Neel’s grandfather, the owner of the construction company Flo-Crete, one of the Bay Area’s early concrete pumping firms. Flo-Crete completed the foundation and structural concrete work, with family photographs documenting the original cinderblock walls and pours. The firm also contributed to major regional infrastructure projects, including the Transbay BART tube and Candlestick Park, situating the house within a broader legacy of Bay Area construction. Growing up, Neel spent considerable time in the home, developing an early appreciation for mid-century modern principles. Instead of parting with this family heirloom, she purchased the home from her grandfather’s estate. While her grandfather continued to live in the Point Richmond house, Neel purchased a Mid-Century Modern residence in Palm Desert. In contrast to the Bay Area’s cool temperatures, salt air, and persistent winds, the desert home is shaped by heat and sun and requires a different material response. A substantial renovation she led there emphasized thermal performance, filtered light, and restrained detailing. The experience later informed the restoration of her Bay Area family home. What began as a modest Mid-Century Modern update expanded when decades of exposure to marine conditions revealed leaks and significant structural and seismic deficiencies. Neel was determined to honor her grandfather’s perseverance and without hesitation pivoted to a much more intensive project. Addressing these challenges required close coordination between Neel, Klopf Architecture and Kasten Builders, with architectural restraint and construction precision guiding each intervention. Rather than alter the home’s defining features, the project focused on reinforcing the structure from within. Discreet beams were embedded along the rear facade and in an upstairs wall, strengthening the building while maximizing the wall of glass facing the Bay and opening the wall between the kitchen and the living space. These structural interventions allowed the space to open fully to the Bay without visual interruption, with the kitchen repositioned as the social and functional core of an open, continuous living space. The building envelope was updated using weather- and corrosion-resistant materials appropriate to the marine environment. The house unfolds vertically from the street, beginning with a modest garage level and workshop, with the main living spaces located below. Original slate flooring at the entry was preserved, along with select furnishings and artwork collected by Neel’s grandfather, anchoring the restored interior in its past. A restrained palette of black accents and pale, natural finishes replaces darker wood tones, reinforcing openness and calm. A naturally illuminated stair connects to the lowest level, where a former basement was transformed into a guest suite and family room opening onto a deck. From there, steps lead directly to a small concrete boat ramp at the water’s edge. Throughout the project, decisions were guided by continuity rather than transformation for its own sake. Lessons drawn from both desert and coastal climates informed a material strategy rooted in performance and restraint. Bay Heirloom stands as a measured evolution of a family house, structurally renewed and carefully modernized, grounded in the discipline and care that first shaped it. Klopf Architecture Project Team: John Klopf, AIA, Angela Todorova and Fernanda Bernardes Landscape Architect: Huettl Landscape Architecture General Contractor: Kasten Builders Photography: ©2025 Mariko Reed Year Completed: 2022 Location: Point Richmond, CA

Hospitality designs - Hotels and Restaraunts

Vanguard Development

The best interior designers & architects in NYC! Residential interior design, Common area design, Hospitality design, Exterior design, Commercial design - any interior or architectural design basically from a unique design team :) Our goal is to provide clients in Manhattan, New York, New Jersey & beyond with outstanding architectural & interior design services and installation management through a unique approach and unparalleled work quality. Our mission is to create Dream Homes that change people's lives! Working with us is a simple two step process - Design & Installation. The core is that all our design ideas (interior design of an apartment, restaurant, hotel design or architectural design of a building) are presented through exceptionally realistic images, delivering the exact look of your future interior/exterior, before you commit to investing. The Installation then abides to the paradigm of 'What I See Is What I Get', replicating the approved design. All together it gives you full control and eliminates the risk of having an unsatisfactory end product - no other interior designer or architect can offer. Our team's passion, talent & professionalism brings you the best possible result, while our client-oriented philosophy & determination to make the process easy & convenient, saves you great deal of time and concern. In short, this is Design as it Should be... Other services: Lobby design, Store & storefront design, Hotel design, Restaurant design, House design www.vanguard-development.com

Common area designs

Vanguard Development

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Observatory Park Mid-Century Modern Living Room

TVL Creative Ltd.

This project focuses on the transformation of a living room in the Observatory Park neighborhood of Denver. Our client for this project is a young, design-appreciating mom who wants a functional space that also addresses her love for good design. With a heavy Mid-Century Modern influence, we've developed a design that provides warmth, texture, and an entirely new orientation for her modern lifestyle.

Contemporary Colorado Mediterranean

Bucher Design Studio

The site sits within a Tuscan-themed subdivision, but the owners wanted the home to have contemporary styling, both outside and in. The result was a blend of Colorado contemporary meets Mediterranean villa. The exterior blends the clean lines of contemporary architecture with the durable Colorado finishes of stucco, stone and heavy timber. The site was a nice-sized lot, but the true “million dollar view” was at a distinct 40 degree angle from the street. The final design both addresses the street with its garage and angled entry, and then re-orients you within to a truly spectacular view of the Colorado Front Range, anchored by Pikes Peak. The massing and appearance of the home transforms drastically from front to rear. While the front of the home unfolds around a second floor, it guards the privacy of the living space within. The rear of the home guards this privacy, but completely opens up to the views from its elevated location. The entire rear of the home is a series of exterior living spaces on three separate levels, each with protection from intermittent weather. The home is a beautiful synthesis of light, form and contemporary materials that result in a comfortable, open living environment.

Dining room designs

Vanguard Development

Warm and Inviting

Elements Architectural Group

Situated in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, we worked closely with a strong owner to transform a fatigued and inefficient 3-level townhouse, constructed in the 1980’s, into America’s first LEED Platinum (pending) townhome. Outdated systems, poor insulation, unbalanced & unclean air, worn finishes, and outdated kitchen and bathrooms required attention. Yet a replacement project did not address other high concerns. Though the home at 2,400SF offered the right amount and quantity of rooms, the home lacked a sense of openness and more was needed than high-efficiency systems, great insulation, and selection of no VOC finishes to create a warm, inviting and comfortable place to live and enjoy their art and photography collection. An oddly-located, creaky, carpet-covered stairway enclosed in drywall walls was on the list of items needing repairs. The stair seemed to disorient a person and disconnect the levels of the home. Our design focused on opening the core of the home to provide long diagonal views that visually connect adjacent rooms and levels of the home and beyond. An architectural skylight floods the void with light and opens to bring fresh air. A steel, glass and wood stairway suspends into the core- it’s every detail and every angle thoughtfully considered to create a feeling of connection, orientation and lightness. It seeks to solve the functional while daring to be more. It dares to be beautiful. It dares to bring delight to those who use it or simply look upon it. We long to create experiencially rich places where functional needs are solved with creativity and beauty. We search for meaning and believe that places can be both enjoyed and connect us to truth beyond ourselves. As we look upon the stairway in this home, we are drawn to consider beautifully designed objects in the natural world- a tree is one such example. To sustain life it needs to gather sunlight and keep the ground beneath cool and moist. As a result, we see wooden branches of great weight extend effortlessly from a trunk to hold leaves. This functional need is solved, so perfect, so mysterious, so beautiful. As we gaze upon, it has the capacity to move us to something more beautiful.

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Columbus, OH

Structural Remodeling

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Gabes Sprinkler Systems | Sprinkler System Installation | Wichita, KS

Gabes Sprinkler Systems

Each sprinkler system installation performed by Gabes Sprinkler Systems in Wichita is customized to fit the clients’ specific needs. The sprinkler systems we install addresses such problems as: changes in elevation, sun and shade areas, foundation requirements, plants needs and more. Your sprinkler system installation is more than just putting together equipment during installation; it’s also knowing how to answer the right questions. As it becomes increasingly important to conserve water for the future, now more than ever, so should your irrigation design. Visit Gabes Sprinkler Systems website at http://wichita-sprinklers.com

Chic High-Rise Primary Bathroom Makeover

Drury Design

THE SETUP This client lives in a great high-rise condo in downtown Chicago. Alicia has already remodeled a few areas of her home, including her kitchen and home office. The bathroom is one of the last big places the client wanted to update. The existing bathroom had a large, outdated whirlpool tub in the corner. It was a darker space that had a lack of natural light. There are no windows (due to the bathroom’s location within the high-rise building). So, the idea was to brighten up the space and give the client an updated, elegant primary bathroom that is more her style and tailor-made for her routines. Design Objectives: - Make the space brighter. - Create different daily routine stations to maximize functionality while keeping things clutter-free – a makeup station, a blow-dry station, and a sink-needs station. - Achieve the client’s specific style and function needs while also keeping the look and design open to future possibilities: different users of the space/resale clients. Design Challenges: - Toilet cannot be moved. (In a high-rise, you can’t really move plumbing around too much when reimagining a space) - Existing bathroom had a soffit that hid a lot of electrical wiring, so completely removing the soffit wasn’t an option. - The blow-dry station needs to accommodate the client’s preference for standing up. - Finding a place for the make-up station, which the client wants oriented for sitting. - Create storage within the shower that can eliminate the clutter of personal care products that are actually needed every day. Do this, while keeping the client’s favorite things about the existing shower: the shower bench, a tub filler faucet (for rinsing shaving cream when shaving legs) and a low niche for placing her foot when shaving her legs. THE RENEWED SPACE Design Solutions: - Extended a bit of wall near the toilet to give the commode its own area within the space, but without closing it off into a claustrophobic WC. - Worked within the reality of the existing soffit situation, reshaping it to align with the new shower. Can lights were also added. Installed a beautiful ceiling light fixture that works within the new soffit shape, commanding attention and adding light, as if the sofit shape was chosen for it. - Created a nice, furniture-looking 42”-high cabinet with pullout drawers to be the blow-dry station, complete with a mirror and a nice top. The pullout drawers are all powered, concealing a Dyson dryer and curling iron (and all the accoutrements) while keeping them plugged in, which is ideal for easy usage and put away. A stylish mirror on the wall above the cabinet, and proper lighting, make this the perfect blow-dry station. The top has a grommet that can accommodate a power cord should the client ever want to have a powered device on top of the cabinet. - Put the sit-down makeup station where the tub used to be, putting the mirror back into a new recessed wall just a bit, allowing the area to have more room. - Created a niche in the shower’s inner wall so that you can’t see it unless you are literally inside the shower. At the client’s request, it also has a hook so she can hang her loofa. Hiding the utility niche in this way allowed us to use the full main wall of the shower as a canvas for a beautiful accent stripe of raised decorative tile. The new shower has her old favorites, too: the tub filler, foot niche and bench. Alicia’s client loves her new primary bathroom, especially the blow dry area. It is very accommodating for her, as a tall lady, while being very easy to use. The drawers store everything. Being powered, they make using already-plugged in appliances very easy to use and put away. Her previous makeup station was a freestanding vanity with a single drawer, so beauty products were all over the surface top. With her new makeup station, everything is nicely tucked away and organized in drawers. The new lighting is fantastic and the colors are light and soft. The clients loves the overall look and feel of her new bathroom and raves about how well the functionality-minded design makes her morning routine – and her life – easier and enjoyable!

Eccentric Influences

TaylorPro Design and Remodeling, Inc.

"From the very beginning, it was obvious that Kerry Taylor is a creative, calm, solution oriented person who deals with challenges extremely well. His professionalism, knowledge, and work ethic are exemplary and his crew mirrors every one of those qualities. From structural problems that required immediate resolution to working around other contractors (flooring, windows), to everyday cleanup and protection of our surroundings, they did it all. Kerry designed and built special structures to support the cabinet crown moldings that we had purchased and which turned out not to be as we expected. We hadn't decided on everything ahead of time and the necessary resulting change orders were very decently priced and well documented in his invoices and receipts. He came in absolutely on budget and on time because he knows how to efficiently manage a project so that the workflow is smooth. We will absolutely call on him for future projects." ~ Avis D, Client Single bowl sink, double faucets, under cabinet led lighting, TV center, key cabinet, spice rack pull out, toe kick drawer, rollouts, stainless steel hood, pendant, solar tube, appliance garage. Photo by: Kerry W. Taylor

Alamo Heights 78209 Garage Builder

Rhino Design Build, LLC

This detached garage project was completed in Alamo Heights 78209 by a local design build general contractor. The scope included site planning, permitting, foundation work, framing, roofing, electrical, and exterior finishes to match the existing home. The garage was designed for long term durability, clean curb appeal, and functional storage. Proper setbacks and zoning requirements for Alamo Heights were addressed during design. The finished structure provides secure vehicle storage and flexible space for storage or future use. This project reflects a streamlined design build process focused on quality construction, clear communication, and code compliant execution from start to finish. Alamo Heights detached garage builder, detached garage builder 78209, custom detached garage Alamo Heights TX, detached garage construction 78209, residential garage builder Alamo Heights, garage building contractor Alamo Heights, design build garage contractor 78209, custom garage construction Alamo Heights, permitted detached garage 78209, San Antonio detached garage builder

Eccentric Influences

TaylorPro Design and Remodeling, Inc.

Common Area Designs

Vanguard Development