Text: R.Collins Since the Midwest has been thrown into another fierce winter, the need to thoroughly plan landscapes for the spring and summer seasons is greater than ever. Great Lakes By Design had a conversation with Paul Burd, owner and founder of the landscape design and build company known as Alfresco Landscapes LLC; and Scott Philp of Landscape Logic, a…
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RADA spotlight
Text: R.J. Weick The 18th annual Residential Architect Design Awards highlights two firms in the Great Lakes region. Residential design is a dynamic field that often stretches across multiple architectural typologies and can push the boundaries of what has been historically, or collectively, considered a home. While each firm’s process is nuanced and plays to the strengths of each creative…
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Refined kinetics
Within the nationally registered historic walls of the Federal Reserve Building in Detroit’s Financial District, a net has been cast; infusing a nearly 4,400-square-foot ground level space with an intentional design aesthetic capturing the more ethereal qualities of a modern sushi restaurant’s brand. Original text by: R.J. Weick Photos courtesy EE Berger Read more in the print edition
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Outside the box
Text: R.J. Weick Box Studios, an architecture and interior design firm based in Chicago and Denver, recently completed a re-design of Fairlife LLC’s unique workplace environment in an effort to update the space to meet their client’s current operational needs. As a young company at the time of initial design, Fairlife LLC was interested in an innovative and well-designed solution…
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Versatile work
Text: R.Collins Manistee, Mich. is a quaint coastal community surrounded by Lake Michigan to the west and Manistee Lake to the east. Its stout north-east peninsula, which reaches gently into Manistee Lake, holds the heart of its downtown and locally-owned Construction Design Inc., or CDI. Located along River Street in Manistee, CDI’s commercial space has recently accommodated a new live-and-work…
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Treasuring Rosewood
By: R. Collins When time takes its toll on natural landscapes and their existing ecosystems, there are innovative techniques available with the ability to slow the process using materials that blend into the background. For the Park District of Highland Park in Chicago, there was a vision to save a landscape in such danger of being lost: Rosewood Beach.…
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Considering the sun
By R. Collins moss Design takes a holistic approach to its diverse projects and its design studio. Some designers pursue the art of design to follow in the footsteps of those who have come before them. Others enter the industry so they can do things their own way, which is the case for Matt Nardella, AIA, LEED-AP, of moss Design…
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Undisguised beauty
A volunteer-led initiative to restore an iconic theatre is a labor of love. By R. Collins Vaudeville-style in Detroit is hard to imagine if not witnessed first-hand. Vaudeville was the birth of a brand new strain of theatre life as well as an era that sparked many notable and often tumultuous careers. Judy Garland took to the stage with the…
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Sustainable preservation
When walking up the path of the historic mansion at the Felt Estate Historic Home & Gardens, one can almost hear the 1920s roaring back to life thanks to a community-driven sustainable preservation and restoration initiative that began more than 15 years ago. The mansion, which was completed in 1928 on more than 750 acres of land near the Saugatuck…
