Built on granite-clad, terraced foundations on the northern edge of Lake Muskoka in Ontario, Canada, this modern cottage is a dynamic, volumetric response to its site as it quietly settles into its natural landscape. From the water’s edge, it gives a linear impression as its deep rooflines provide horizontality to the series of forms as they cascade down the steeply…
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Design Your World
For the International Interior Design Association, or IIDA, design is a universal language in which the voices of its individual and collective members have the power to express and to deliver a more equitable and compassionate world through the deft and intentional curation of space. It is a language that speaks to the fundamentals of place and of the human…
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Energy strategies
At its 7th Annual Michigan Energy Summit, the Michigan Battle of the Buildings program announced 2020’s award winning sustainable organizations and businesses. The awards and recognition program highlights energy-use reduction and efficient practices across Michigan’s commercial, industrial, and multi-family buildings each year. Since the start of pandemic, especially, commercial building owners and managers have needed to adapt with significant changes…
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Lake effect
In late March 2021, Grand Traverse Resort and Spa in Acme, Michigan announced the completion of its renovated 10,000-square-foot lobby ballroom, which was the final project in a nearly $3 million, three-year endeavor to transform its meeting spaces. Located at one of Michigan’s well-traveled and renowned resort destinations, the Michigan Ballroom now features inspired design components evoking characteristics of its…
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A Designed Life
Creative, persuasive, stimulating, and versatile; design and its many sub-fields have long been applied to large-scale world issues in politics, economics, and culture. The 20th century is rich in examples of design’s influence in the shaping and the response of relevant world events, from the economical office building boom that helped spur the International Style, to the ideological and aesthetic…
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Movement evolution
Following the landmark merger of the YMCA of Metropolitan Minneapolis and the YMCA of Greater St. Paul in 2012, and creation of the YMCA of the Greater Twin Cities, the Minnesota-based, nonprofit organization looked to move its headquarters to a new location. The site, positioned in the heart of downtown Minneapolis, would not only serve to accommodate its larger staff,…
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Public space, reimagined
In recent years, there has been a growing initiative in urban landscapes to look beyond the imminent tomorrow and reimagine the next generation of public spaces. It is a movement encouraging cities, architects, designers, and urban planners to reclaim underutilized infrastructure and transform it into hybrid spaces of both city and greenspace: parks that also serve as public squares, gardens,…
