YWCA: THE MODERN FACE OF GREENSBORO

We are extremely grateful for the opportunity that Adam has had over the last year to work on an exciting design/build project for Greensboro's new YWCA headquarters, which has been guided by modernist Architect, and friend, Robert Michael Charest of Atelier Charest + Associates, and Elon University.  Robert's design talent ceases to amaze us with his provocative design abilities. As noted in the image above, the overall structure carries a striking exterior street-side with prominent textural interplay among materials, forms and finishes.  This 'interplay of materiality' is a consistent theme throughout the interior of the facility as well.  

Adam's role throughout this project's process has varied.  Appointed as Lead Designer by Robert, Adam has been responsible for the initial 3D digital rendering presentation, visual signage, contributing to parts of the physical model, along with a multitude of custom mill work and built-in designs.  With that noted, it is worth mentioning that ever since our i.Arc days at UNCG, (specifically when Adam joined Robert's first Urban Studio [US] design/build),  Adam has always appreciated collaborating with Robert as a fellow designer.  He says, "Robert is one of the very few that I can verbally draw design details to out loud and he sees and thinks the same way." It is that harmonious rapport which yields such a fantastic end product. 

A bit of background on the new YWCA headquarters: 

At the time of acquiring a very cool, yet very dilapidated building at 1807 East Wendover Ave., which dates back to the mid-century era, the Y contacted Robert after being familiarized with his Urban Studio at UNCG ,named My Sister's House.  This project was designed and built by Robert and his Department of Interior Architecture students for the good of the community, and as a powerful life lesson in design/build.  My Sister's House resulted in an unconventional, yet thoughtfully designed facility serving as shelter and support for victims of domestic violence.

The fresh and modern appeal of My Sister's House aligned perfectly with what the YWCA was striving to achieve!  Hence, their hiring of Robert + his hiring of Adam = a spectacular result!!!  See for yourself!

And here are some of the nitty-gritty process photos of custom works.

It has truly been exciting to work on such an unconventional building in the triad area with our friend, Robert who is such an imaginative designer!  Kudos to the both of them for doing such an outstanding job!!!

Until next time,
A + B 


****All professional photography provided by Read Creations ****

SLAB IN THE FACE!

I'll admit that Adam and I are no different than anyone else who dramatically swoons over those beautiful as well as pricey, organic modern examples of furniture art.  We too, think to ourselves and for the most part accept the fact that, "We'll never be able to afford something like that!"  When coffee tables are around 4Gs, who could?  Well, recently we have made one of those "unobtainable beauties" and have listed it on Etsy for under $500!

Wait a minute, back up!  We are starving ingenuitive designers, surely we can muster up enough resources and skills to take a reclaimed wood slab from the wood pile to our family room.  of course we can!

Actually, it all started when Adam received a call from a guy that said that he had a huge tree which had fallen down a while back and was in need for it to be cleared.  Once Adam arrived at this guys home to take a look and decide if in fact he wanted to physically saw and remove the slab himself, it didn't take very long to make up his mind.  The slab was from a old maple tree and had to have weighed 100lbs.  I wasn't with the hubs when he went to pick up the wood, so when he brought it back I kind of felt bad for his bad back because he ended up moving it by himself!

Here's what the slab looked like after he got it home (ignore the other wood in the background that we are hoarding for other future projects).

Originally, the slab was a lot thicker.  Since this was an experiment, Adam sliced the slab in half with the chainsaw.  We figured that there was plenty to go around!  As you can see, this is about as raw as you can get!  You may be asking yourself, "Do they really see furniture when they look at something like this?"

Well, we do understand that when hand crafting, nothing is ever fast or easy, but eventually you do start to see the light of day!  Here's a photo showing results from chiseling the bark off and after the first round of sanding.

Then, there was more sanding to do...

And more sanding to do...

After countless hours of sanding over the course of a week, Adam finally reached the finishing stage, where he applied two coats of medium walnut Danish oil, and a top sealer coat of polyurethane.  After the slab was all nice and finished, Adam made three hairpin legs out of solid steel rod and we coated them in a brass metallic paint.

And here is our final result!  We could not be any happier with our organic modern outcome!

Until next time,

A + B

BREAKFAST NOOK DREAMIN'

Oh, how nice I think it would be to sit down in our cozy built-in banquette to have our Sunday morning breakfast as a family.  

I guess the dream of having a close-quarters, eat-in style breakfast nook could possibly be a bit claustrophobic for some, however I'll take the risk and hopefully see for myself one day (soon).  To think of it, I may very well wish for my "personal space bubble" as the kids are spilling drinks and splattering food all around me (which is almost a certainty), but I guess that is something to anticipate and keep in mind with our design of a "modern banquette".

As of today, we haven't physically begun the project (unless you count my wheels spinning as a start).  But today something abrupt did manifest; I moved our current table out of the kitchen and onto our screen porch for no other reason than, I'M DONE WITH THE SHARP CORNERS AT OUR TODDLERS'S HEAD-HEIGHTS AND THE GLASS TOP, THAT COULD CRACK AT ANY TIME.

SIMPLY DONE with that lethal table!!!!  Today I made my mind up that it's time to move on to greener pastures!

This is where the table was [Photo taken before painting and adding new chairs].

Here's what the table looked like right when I made the decision this morning to say, 

"Bu-bye!"

So now, this is our current situation.  Lethal table is gone, but now we have an empty nook.  Well, I'm just going to savor the possibilities (hopefully that won't take too long!)

And this is where the table is hanging out for now (on our screen porch with some other undesirables)!  We'll probably put this stuff on Craigslist.

As I am thinking about the banquette possibilities, I found some of these cleverly-designed and eye-catching banquettes that are giving us a bit of inspiration as we mull through this transformation process.

If you have any images or ideas to share, please do so!  Would like to hear what you think so far!

Until next time,

A + B