November 13, 2008
Peter Gibbons from the movie Office Space was on the right track when he sawed off the front of his cubical. As more companies improve workplace design – away from the cubicle jungle – they also improve inspiration, employee retention and job performance, according to researchers. John Hamilton, designer for Steelcase Architects and Designers in Michigan, predicts, “Open sight lines will predominate. Partitions will be lower, making the cubes feel bigger and offering a more panoramic view.” Hamilton says less privacy means more collaboration, with architects emphasizing common areas. (In real estate parlance, such “creative space” has long been used by advertising firms, for example.) Read More
November 12, 2008
Terranea, Los Angeles’ only destination resort on the Pacific Ocean currently under construction, recently caught the eye of Kevin Smith, business editor of the Pasadena Star News. In a story last Sunday, Smith focused on Terranea’s unique purchase/rental strategy: Terranea offers whole ownership (not timeshare) combined with a rental program for those who buy homes at the resort (on the Palos Verdes Peninsula). The story was a bright spot for the real estate industry which faces daily doom and gloom headlines. Read More
November 12, 2008
What is the future of economic development following the financial meltdown and the 2008 election? The first major re-assessment of where growth and development in Southern California is headed in the post-George-W.-Bush economy will come from ULI Los Angeles at its capital users and providers conference – “Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2009.” The conference is Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008, 7:30-a.m.-noon, at Japanese American National Museum, 369 E. First Street, Downtown Los Angeles.
Titled, “State of the Los Angeles Capital Markets,” this Emerging Trends conference includes reports from the most highly regarded economic forecast in U.S. real estate, provided by Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The event also offers survey responses of over 400 real estate professionals. Perhaps most significantly, participating in “State of Los Angeles Capital Markets” will be real estate experts who have been through previous down cycles providing their long-range insight on Read More
November 11, 2008
For new undergraduates, moving into a dorm is supposed to open the door to new friendships and ease the transition between high school and college. It’s typically a scary experience (at least it was for this Hot Sheet author), and the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is about to make dorm living even more awkward for new students… especially “non-eco friendly” ones.
IIT is planning for a pair of dormitories – designed by local firm Dirk Denison Architects – that will monitor energy consumption to show student residents the truth about their individual energy habits. Read More
November 6, 2008
You may have seen the Kohler commercial currently airing on television where a woman sets a faucet on an architect’s desk and says, “Design a house around this.” Compared to a recent request by airplane aficionados, at least the faucet seems reasonable. A group in Santa Paula, California is so enamored with their airplanes that they are developing an entire community of “hangar-condos.” That’s right – these two-story homes named the Sky Lofts at Santa Paula are designed specifically to house each family and their pet plane.
Bob Banman, the mastermind behind the hangar-home community, conceived the idea during the September 11 attacks when many unattended, private airparks were considered prime targets for terrorists. Banman also recognized the significant demand by many pilots, “who love their planes and want to live as close as possible to their aircraft.”
While there are hundreds of fly-in communities around the country, (John Travolta parks his Boeing 707 at his airpark home in Ocala, Florida) which are adjacent to airports and offer a taxiway to the runway, the Sky Lofts at Santa Paula are unique because they reside directly on the airport and each resident will actually own the piece of airport under the house. Read More
November 5, 2008
Who in the world would own a yacht with a rocket launching system? One guess, he’s no longer alive. That’s right, Saddam Hussein.
Iraq said it has decided to sell Saddam Hussein’s luxury yacht after winning a legal dispute over its ownership.
The former dictator’s 269-foot super yacht is fitted with swimming pools, salons, a secret passage and of course, a rocket launching system. Read More
November 4, 2008
Behind each piece of wooden furniture that you own there’s a story, and sharing that story is what inspired four Cleveland natives to create A Piece of Cleveland (APOC) – a company that designs and constructs furnishings and accessories out of materials reclaimed from deconstructed homes in the Cleveland area. Read More
November 4, 2008
Congress is mulling another economic-stimulus plan that could include new public funds to fix America’s dilapidated infrastructure. But should that include sports stadiums? The debate is rising again as New York City is contributing money to new stadiums for the Yankees and the Mets. Actually, not for the stadiums themselves, but for parks, garages and transportation improvements, which have jumped to about $458 million, from $281 million in 2005, according to the New York Times. Read More
