Function in a dream kitchen

We’re Featured on Houzz (click for link)! Today Houzz.com features a project by Lawrence and Gomez Architects. Their article about 9 features to consider for your dream kitchen includes Functional task stations. Anything that can help us stay organized and handle tasks efficiently is a real bonus for today’s families. In this niche, the necessities for breakfast are in one spot next to the refrigerator, making it a breeze to get breakfast ready. And it all gets hidden behind the lift-up door. Click here to read the Houzz article.

Wood burning fireplace

Fall and winter get us thinking about evenings curled up with a book or playing a game of Pictionary with the family. Pair these activities with the crackle of a fire. You won’t want to waste fuel up the chimney, so take advantage of new technology that allows for more earth friendly fireplaces.

With so many options available, one of the first decisions to make when you shop for a new unit will be to choose between gas or wood. Many people like the ease of a remote-controlled gas fireplace. Others enjoy chopping and stacking windfall branches. A geologist client of ours chooses to burn wood (a renewable resource) rather than natural gas (a fossil fuel).

But in order to reduce particulate pollution, many municipalities limit the installation of new wood burning fireplaces. Check with the local building department before buying. Some cities such as Boulder and Winter Park, Colorado, allow one new EPA qualified wood burning fireplace per residence. These units reduce the soot output, eliminate back draft down the chimney, and vent more of the clean heat into the room. Some applications are listed for a federal tax credit.

We at Lawrence and Gómez Architects have included the efficient wood burning Fireplace Xtrordinaire Elite in several projects. To see more photos of the room shown at the top click here. For more photos of the room above  click here and for a published article about it click here.

The fireplaces in these two projects come from Boulder Stove and Flooring. Other brands also make EPA qualified models such as Lennox and Industrial Chimney Company. For more information on efficiency and tax credits click this link to Burn Wise.

Sepia in color

Window in newly recreated Fort Lupton

Winters can be long and cold along the banks of the Platte River on the Colorado prairie. In the early 19th century, non-native traders built several solid compounds dotted along the Trapper Trail. Living inside adobe walls with an R-value of 7, on a dirt floor R-4, and below a roof R-5, early settlers had to improvise insulation with the available materials and borrow technology from the local peoples. For comparison, the current standards in the city of Fort Lupton (per 2006 IECC) require walls at R-19, roofs R-38, and floor R-13.

This door demonstrates the ingenious use of animal pelts as weatherstripping around jambs and between door slats.

To witness the reconstruction of this 1830’s trading post, visit Historic Fort Lupton

http://www.spvhs.org/fortluptonreconstruction.html

Just a few miles north you can see the original adobe of Fort Vasquez

http://www.historycolorado.org/museums/fort-vasquez-museum

Black and white in color

Early winter paints eastern Colorado in grays and browns

Grain elevator and water tower of La Salle, Colorado

Tracks and train cars

 

The faint November sun enters this pioneer window.

Golden Leaves Falling

Golden leaves falling on freshly finished concrete patio

Pouring a slab isn’t as easy as pouring a slab. For best results, a concrete slab should be planned, designed, and engineered. “It can be heartbreaking when people spend all that money on the color and surface treatment of a concrete floor or patio and then get bad sags or cracks because it wasn’t reinforced properly,” says Jon Giltner, structural engineer.

Patio A – Sometime after completing the remodel of a house, Lawrence and Gomez Architects designed hardscaping and Patio A (on the left) for this property in Boulder, Colorado. Patio B is the existing square patio on the right.

Proper design always begins with soil investigation. Scott of Reardon Custom Homes, general contractor, and Gary Rosson, soils engineer, discuss the ground’s conditions and get ready to dig exploratory holes. Gary then makes recommendations for soil compaction and anchoring for the new Patio A.

A wood form is placed around the compacted soil. A worker lays a grid of steel bar and welded wire. It is ready to receive the colored concrete.

Following the concrete pour, when the material is setting but still workable, the expert hands of Boulder Flatwork cast the control joints and stamp the stone pattern with molds and a dyed release powder. This process must be done quickly and by experienced craftsmen since the material leaves little room for corrections. In the two weeks to follow, Boulder Flatwork washes and seals the slab to achieve its final appearance.

The new Patio A looks so good that Patio B (an existing gray slab nearby) looks, well, gray and old. It has withstood the decades well, so we determine it is worth saving. But to freshen its looks and prolong its longevity, we call Carl Borrego of Lone Bull. He brings us samples of applied stains, dyes, and colors on concrete squares. Carl determines that a dye with matte finish is the best choice for this application, since there will be a hot tub on this patio. He polishes the concrete with a 600 grit diamond blade, a slow, patient process. Once ground, Carl determines the mix of dye colors that will achieve an overall look compatible with Patio A.

New stamped and colored Patio A on the left; Patio B on the right, polished and dyed.

Whether working on a small project such as a patio or tackling a larger foundation challenge, careful attention to the ground conditions and the inner structure of the material yields lasting results.

Photo by Beto Santillan

“Machu Picchu’s technical planning is surely the key to the site’s longevity and functionality,” writes Ken Wright. It has survived looking good for centuries because its builders spent 70% of their efforts on things you can’t see, underground and inside.

Schools As Civic Architecture

This Guest Opinion by Juana Gómez of Lawrence and Gómez Architects  appeared in the Boulder Daily Camera on September 25, 2011

Excerpt: A few days into this school year, the Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee held its regular meeting at the new Columbine Elementary School. Principal Guillermo Medina welcomed our group and shared his enthusiasm for the project, “This is what a school should look like. You can see that just by having a new building, the kids are walking tall and proud through the hallways.”

This fall many Boulder Valley families returned to renewed school buildings. Others are enjoying the maturing landscape of remodels completed a year or two ago. As a direct result of the work, some schools like Casey and Manhattan have included into their curricula the study and observation of their building’s energy consumption.

Photo: Bear Creek Elementary additions and remodel by RTA Architects

These school buildings will stand as symbols to our kids of our commitment to their futures. Good public architecture has intangible benefits that include feelings of pride, accomplishment, and a sense of common purpose. At their first school assembly, Principal Medina seized the opportunity to teach civic duty by exhorting his students to take care of their new facility. “You got this building,” he told them, “because they believe in you and in your capacity to do great things.”

As he left the CBOC meeting, Mr. Medina parted by thanking our committee, “Thank you for supporting this community.” Those words are actually meant for you, the tax payers and families of the Boulder Valley School District. Thank you for supporting education.

Now enjoy the fruits of your efforts.

A Patient Search

In 1960 at age 71, architect Le Corbusier summarized his career in a monograph titled Creation is a patient search. That would also be a fitting sub-title for Steven Johnson’s Where Good Ideas Come From. In this enjoyable book, Johnson dispels the myth prevalent in our society that inspiration comes to people as a lightning bolt with ideas and inventions fully formed. He weaves several stories of the slow, circuitous path of creativity and uses Darwin’s life-long investigations of evolution as a continuum.

Summer Sun and the MidMod Renewal

Colorado’s high-altitude summer sun ripens our gardens’ tomatoes and orchard peaches. The dry air and cool evenings help bring these to plump perfection in August. But unless it is properly controlled, the abundant summer sun can also overheat a house.

In the project show above, new elements will emphasize the classic horizontal lines and low-pitch roof of a mid-century modern in South Boulder.

Architectural pairings – Beach Holiday

Bright blue aluminum chairs can evoke the seaside by their simple juxtaposition against galvanized corrugated metal and weathered wood decking. Our firm designed the addition to this house in Colorado, contrasting the existing construction with a fresh material palette. At the rear deck, the parallel lines of the metal siding provide the visual connection to the original.

Summer reading

One recently finished and one recently started

If you loved Technology in the Ancient World or The Mummies of Urumchi, you will enjoy Women’s Work, The First 20,000 Years. Elizabeth W. Barber tells the story of textiles as a branch of anthropology that she helped launch.

Clothing, like architecture, presents a first line of defense against the elements. And then it acquires meaning and symbol.