New Community Building Design

We are in the early design stages of a new community building for the Stonemill Farms neighborhood in Woodbury, Minnesota. We worked with our client to develop a building program that will serve the community with a central gathering space, a fitness center, meeting rooms and a teen center.  Site development will include roof covered picnic areas, a playground and splash park.  Here is a sneak peek at two of our preliminary building design schemes.

Southern Comfort

A few weeks ago I received a call from a wonderful couple in Alabama.  Two years ago a tornado ripped through their property and destroyed their lake home. Since then they have been working to create a new home design.  They were pretty happy with the floor plans, but they just could not get comfortable with the building exterior.  They contacted me, and asked if I could help them with the exterior views.  I responded, "Absolutely!"

The original lake front elevation.  A good beginning but too tall for a  two story house (main level and lower level).  The elevation also needed a logical scheme for patterns, materials, etc...

The new lake front elevation.  I brought the roof line down and lowered the dormers to a more reasonable height.  Other changes included:  created a dramatic window pattern at the central gable, reconfigured the porches, developed new column and beam details and added a material / color palette appropriate for a lake cabin.

WOW!  was the response when I sent the sketches to them.  That's the greatest reaction I could possibly hope to receive.

The moral of this story is... don't hesitate to hire a professional.  With their assistance you can create a home design that you will be proud of for years to come.