Check out these photos of a couple of new decks we’ve finished lately: a three-story wood and metal deck in Lakeview, and a wooden deck in Rogers Park. Our friends & clients in Rogers Park recently hosted and officiated the wedding of some other friends who actually helped to build the deck that they’re getting married on!
Our clients have been in their vacation home for over 12 years now! We love visiting our projects after they’ve been lived in for a while.
This 900-sf vacation home in Empire, Michigan abuts a national park and was designed primarily for outdoor living, with an expansive deck connecting two living pods. This energy-efficient house is tightly constructed, well-insulated, and uses a wood-burning stove as the main heat source.
Did you know we can make digital 3D models to help you visualize your new space? Here’s a few we’ve made recently!
DMA has a new roof, a new skylight, and even more solar panels!
Read MoreOur design is finalized and construction will begin soon on a new vacation house in rural Michigan!
The clients asked for a house big enough for their whole family to retreat to, with a large kitchen and living space; a design that refers to a rural vernacular and stands where an old barn recently collapsed; and energy efficiency, including no fossil fuel use. Our design features three integrated geometric volumes with a striking profile, passive solar heating, and solar panels for renewable electric generation.
Get a sneak peek at what this will look like in the scenes below from our blueprints and schematic model!
Construction is just about finished on this residential renovation! We converted a small, two-story industrial factory into a single-family home. The building required masonry repairs, interior structural work, new windows, and new electrical and heating systems. We also carved out a new garage at grade level, removed walls on the main floor to open up the space, and added walls on the basement level to create bedrooms, bathrooms, and storage. We included a two-story courtyard with balconies that will eventually be open to the sky above. The walls of windows surrounding the new courtyard were constructed from reclaimed industrial windows welded to a new steel framework. A salvaged set of old industrial doors have been creatively re-used as a focus at the entry and to hide coat hangers behind, and all the pendant light fixtures are vintage.
In 2018 we replaced nearly 700 linear feet of railings along three floors of balconies on this 24-unit condominium building, and repaired the concrete balcony floors. The new railings and railing support system were custom designed.
Construction is finished and our clients have moved into their new addition! We renovated the kitchen and built a one-story frame addition on the rear of this early-20th-century single-family home. The kitchen was updated and improved for flow to the new family room. The family room steps down from the kitchen to be closer to the garden, and glass bi-fold doors open to help dissolve the separation between indoor and outdoor. The addition is expressed on the exterior in two volumes: a dark-colored transitional space, which includes a new entryway, and a light-colored pavilion enclosing the family room.
Construction was finished earlier this month on this two-story commercial renovation in Logan Square.
We followed the principles of accessible design to bring the 2nd floor up to ADA standards, which included converting the existing freight elevator shaft into a new passenger elevator, renovating existing bathrooms to meet ADA code requirements, and ensuring exiting requirements are met throughout the building.
To prepare the 1st floor storefront for renting we removed the basement stairs from the center of the room, re-framed the floor, added hardwood flooring, and built a new basement staircase in the back of the building.
Before the City of Chicago filled in the ancient vaulted sidewalks in front of the building, we built a new wall inside the basement to separate it from the sidewalk vaults.
We also renovated the lobby to the 2nd floor office space and installed new skylights on the 2nd floor.
Visit us on the Illinois Solar Tour this Saturday, September 22nd! From 10:00am to 3:00pm we’ll be welcoming visitors, showing our solar panel system (installed by WindSoleil this past winter), and talking about our commitment to renewable energy and energy conservation.
The Illinois Solar Tour is organized like an open house, so you can choose which homes and businesses to visit, how many, and when (within the 10 to 3 time span). There are 8 sites in Chicago, and dozens more in the nearby suburbs. The tour is completely free, and if you register ahead of time you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a free solar cell phone charger!
The Illinois Solar Energy Association (ISEA) organizes the Illinois Solar Tour every year as part of the American Solar Energy Society (ASES)’s National Solar Tour — the “world’s largest grassroots solar event.” More than 160,000 participants will visit some 5,500 buildings across the country during the National Solar Tour. We’re proud to be part of this event, and we hope you’ll join us!
We're in Luxe Interiors + Design! The March/April issue featured a gut renovation we worked on a few years ago with M.D. Olson & Company and SuzAnn Kletzien Design. View the article online here.
Last month we had a solar PV system installed on our roof. It will provide approximately 100% of our electrical usage over the course of a year. Over the holidays it generated a surplus of electricity! Plus we’ll be getting about a third of the costs back in tax credits. Simple and fast installation by WindSoleil.
Working on a residential addition in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago. Adding living space closer to the garden!
A new ticket booth for Shoreline Sightseeing was finished earlier this summer. This permanent, all-metal structure replaced a temporary kiosk and was designed to blend in with similar park structures.
A new garage for our next-door neighbor.
New interior stairs in a Chicago high rise. Replaced rickety spiral staircase for better access to rooftop pool.
This "floating office" in Montrose Harbor in Chicago serves the Freedom Boat Club as both office and storage space.
Here's a photo from a site visit today. This is mid-construction of a drop ceiling with cove lighting above a dining room.
These new stairs were completed just in time for the upcoming tour boat season! The project involved lowering the dock to accommodate the boat deck height and building new stairs between the esplanade level and the boat dock. We worked with Zera Construction.
Construction was completed last winter on this new 900-sf vacation house in Empire, Michigan. The site abuts a national park, and the house is designed primarily for outdoor living, with an expansive deck connecting two living pods. This energy-efficient house is tightly constructed, well-insulated, and uses a wood-burning stove as the main heat source.
This project was especially exciting for us as it represents the culmination of a delightful collaboration with the owners, who came to us with strong design ideas that meshed with our own principles of compactness, energy efficiency, honesty of materials, and modern aesthetics.
