Project Notebook

Expert Guides

When we were in Italy this past summer, we worked with Context Travel for our day at the Vatican Museums. Being vaguely familiar with the crowds made me a little nervous about negotiating the vast museum complex with the kids, and I wanted to make sure they saw the things they needed to see, as well as some of the more obscure things that might pique their interest. Our guide, Valeria, met us at the entrance, and once past security and ticketing, air-kissed and waved us on to little used elevators and through roped off passageways at a quick clip, offering glorious tidbits of information along the way. Theoretically, if we had done our research, we might have managed the crowd aspect of the visit, but Valeria offered something we couldn’t have come up with on our own: an alternate route discerned through experience and ingenuity. We started with the Papal Carriages, a less visited and air-conditioned exhibit that served as a framework for understanding what we were about to see, a quiet place away from the crowds where we could ask questions and listen to the answers, and a starting point that was not overwhelming for the kids. In short order, it was clear we were in the hands of an expert guide, and I was so grateful for her experience and wisdom.

Category: Working with an Architect

“Do you know any contractors?”

Absolutely. I know great contractors who do amazing work. The more important question, however, is who are the contractors that would be a good fit for your project, your investment, and your family. Residential construction is personal, and there is no getting around it: your contractor becomes a part of your family for a little while. They know you and your kids, they work with your schedules, and they even feed your pets. The relationship is close, and it requires a great deal of trust.

Category: Inspiration and Ideas

Tiny Kitchens

This Sunday, we will celebrate my youngest child’s birthday, and he has requested that we recreate the meal we learned to cook in Venice with Anna, a very talented chef. (http://bit.ly/2wb1nBF) The experience, of course, will be impossible to replicate entirely. Certainly the ingredients will come from a supermarket rather than the fruttivendolo and markets of the Rialto, but the other primary difference will be the kitchen we will prepare the meal in. To be clear, we cooked a multi-course meal and dessert with Anna: octopus, pasta, braised artichokes, and tiramisu. We made pesto by hand, without a Cuisinart or even a mortar and pestle. Eggs and sugar were whisked without a mixer, and we used a sturdy dining room table to prep potatoes and peaches. The kitchen in this apartment was not large, although there was room for a gas range with a clever fold out hood, a water heater, sink, dishwasher, washing machine, and refrigerator. No space was underutilized, and the efficiency was a little magical. I watched as four people stood and cleaned the octopus, chopped parsley and washed beans in that kitchen and wondered at the prevailing assumption that more kitchen equals better food.

Category: Inspiration and Ideas

Perfectly Imperfect

While walking in Rome one evening, I asked my kids about what they noticed was different about life in Italy and their life here. Aside from “I can’t get stracciatella gelato every night,” they actually picked up on some of the principles that had been part of my architectural history and urban design classes, although in a less jargon filled way. We talked about the street life in Rome and how the squares are kind of like theaters, dining rooms, and playgrounds all rolled into one. They noticed that people come outside to walk at night, to get ice cream for sure, but also just to stroll and be a part of whatever was happening in the square or the street below. We talked about where you live affects how you live – how big family rooms feel right in a suburban house, but tiny apartments are geared more towards being part of the square and street outside.

Category: Publications and News

Kitchen Collaboration

So excited to see this great collaboration in Birmingham Home and Garden July/August edition. Working together with a talented friend made this project such a pleasure!

View Article in Birmingham Home and Garden‘s July/August 2017 Issue

Category: Inspiration and Ideas

Changing the Lens

We recently returned from a long planned family vacation to Italy, specifically Rome and Venice. I spent a semester in Venice in graduate school and traveled fairly extensively in Italy during that time, and my husband and I had also spent our honeymoon there 18 years ago. Those long ago trips were recorded not only in photographs but also in leisurely sketches, quick diagrams and journal entries capturing the youthful musings of a twenty-something architecture student.

Category: On the Boards

This Is How It Starts . . .

One of the downsides of my early morning boot camp is that the music will be on repeat in my head the rest of the day. Sometimes that is good. Sometimes, it is not. The other day, the Colbie Caillat song, “This Is How it Starts” got stuck.

Category: Publications and News

Tiny Dog Trot House

The Birmingham Chapter of the American Institute of Architects recently presented an exhibit at the Center for Architecture in Birmingham entitled “Living Small,” which explored the multiple ways that “tiny living” has been realized all over the world, including here in Birmingham. As an addition to the exhibit, Birmingham Home and Garden magazine collaborated with local architects to design a series of tiny houses for their Second Homes issue.

Category: Inspiration and Ideas

Telling Someone Else’s Story

My first years in a firm consisted of working on master plans for large scale institutions, commercial buildings, historic preservation and boutique retail. I loved working on these types of projects: I found them challenging and fulfilling. I started doing residential design after my first child was born, and, at that point, considered the shift something of a professional demotion. Houses could not possibly be as difficult as a nineteen-story building. This was going to be easy.

Category: Working with an Architect

A Brief Primer on Architectural Terminology

A little bit of history first. I did not attend an undergraduate architecture program. I made my decision to go to architecture school during my junior year, after I had already committed to an art history major (although I ended up concentrating in architectural history in that department.) I spent a good deal of my education writing papers, culminating in a 125 page thesis on Harvey Wiley Corbett, a little known architect working in New York in the early part of the twentieth century. My writing was about conveying information and ideas in a clear, concise manner.