For Larry M.

Our friend Larry M. has asked me several times to post an image with the floor plan/layout to this blog. He has seen the drawings on paper and asked why they're not posted to this blog. Well, here they are. The first image shows the main level/first floor. That includes two bedrooms located on opposite ends of the house. The master bedroom is on the East side (the right side of the image) and the guest room/office is on the West side (obviously on the left side of the image). The heart of the house contains the kitchen, dining and living rooms all open in one big great room (okay, not so big, but it will feel much more open than if we walled off each room). The entrance to the house will be on the North side (at the top of the picture) just across from the stairs into the basement. In the spirit of Frank Lloyd Wright's designs, when one walks in, the ceiling will be lower and as one turns to the great room, with the roof slanting/rising up, the eyes will be drawn to the expanse of windows on the Southern side.

The lower level (aka the basement) will have a third bedroom and rough-in plumbing for a third bathroom. The washer/dryer will go into the basement as well. Eventually we will divide the basement a bit more to add a media room with my wine collection, and there will be a workshop (future airplane building area).

Canadian Center for Architecture

I'm in Montreal, Canada for work this week for meetings at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The U.S. Delegation met for dinner this evening and since we all share an interest in architecture, visited the Canadian Center for Architecture. The CCA had an exhibit called, "Some Ideas on Living in London and Tokyo by Stephen Taylor and Ryue Nishizawa". It was quite an enjoyable exhibit; the contemporary design of the Tokyo architecture was quite appealing to me and both architects were effective in their use of very small lots. Here's how the CCA describes this exhibit:

"The exhibition marks the first North American presentation of residential projects by Taylor and Nishizawa and reveals their ideas addressing the challenges of building homes in existing city environments. Due to their scale, extensive built environment, and existing efforts to grow the city from within, London and Tokyo face similar urban development issues but occupy cultural contexts in which themes of proximity, privacy, community, and public space take on different meanings and require distinct solutions."