{Re}habitat

I’ve good-naturedly taken to calling the Deep Energy Retrofit (DER) of my 1940s Cape Cod style kit home a “self-inflicted wound.” You know those big renovation projects, right? Those are the ones that start with good intentions and then stretch out over months and years. That said, the good news at the Wilson house is that the benefits of the DER are easy to see and feel, and we’re actually glimpsing the light at the end of our renovation tunnel.

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is slated to become the home of the world’s tallest building.

Jeddah, a city of three million in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, will soon be known for having the world’s tallest building. The Kingdom Tower, as it will be called, is a design conceived by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG), a Chicago-based firm. Smith, while at SOM, partnered on the design of the current tallest building in the world – the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

This month’s featured Green Home is an Energy Star-rated, LEED Gold-certified single-family home in Orleans, Massachusetts, with a minimal footprint, exceptional energy-saving features, and thoughtfully designed outdoor living spaces.

The cozy and beloved summer cottage near Cape Cod had been in the English family for two generations. Built in 1958, the little cottage served as a centralized gathering spot for family and friends, even those coming from abroad. Although other homes came and went throughout the years, the little cottage in Orleans was the place that most family members considered home. The location was perfect for relaxing, bird watching, and enjoying the beauty of the outdoors… and it was absolutely perfect for Teresa and Dan English’s full-time residence upon retirement.

Contractor to Contractor: Follow professional Interior Contractor Robert Thimmes as he demonstrates how to stand up and brace off walls. This second in a series of articles, Framing Walls With Light Gauge Metal Studs, starts with your walls located, lines chalked and bottom track already shot down (for details on this process, see Metal Stud Track Layout and Shoot-Down).

In the previous installment of “Contractor to Contractor,” we reviewed the details of how to perform the track layout and shoot-down for metal stud walls. Now we move on to the second part of our discussion: standing up and bracing.

The first skyscraper in the United States to achieve LEED Platinum also utilized the principles of biophilia in its design, helping to bring the feeling of nature into the heart of New York City.

When One Bryant Park – also known as the Bank of America Tower – was completed in 2009, it became the second tallest structure in New York City (after the Empire State Building). It was also the first skyscraper in the United States to achieve LEED Platinum certification. The list of its energy-efficient and environmentally friendly features is impressive and has been much discussed.

Having ice in your gutters is not simply an inevitable part of winter. Icy buildup along gutters is symptomatic of uneven heating and snowmelt. Ice dams can result in damage to your home, but you can take steps to safely remove them. You should also consider performing the following simple maintenance tasks once warmer weather arrives in order to prevent ice dams from forming in the future.

The Bacardi Building provides a striking example of Miami Modern (MiMo) hybridized with the International Style in Miami, Florida.

Some combinations are just irresistible: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Lennon and McCartney, Simon and Garfunkel, Bacardi and Coke. That such a relationship exists between two buildings may seem to be a little of a metaphorical stretch – that is, until you encounter the two superbly crafted buildings that make up the Bacardi building complex here in Miami. One building stands tall and proud, the other spans wide and colorful. If the Bacardi buildings were a song, they might be that famous Lennon and McCartney recording, "A Day in the Life" from the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Lennon's more caustic lyrics rise in tone, defining the plaza of their music, and McCartney's optimistic retort playfully provides a backdrop. Bacardi's tower, designed by Enrique Guitierrez in 1964, rises cool and architecturally fecund from its concrete roots, and Bacardi's cube, designed by Ignacio Carrera-Justiz in 1973, dances atop a hopeful plinth behind the scenes. It’s a very graceful juxtaposition. To extend the metaphor, it is like the juxtaposition afforded by Lennon and McCartney in "A Day in the Life," in which the contrast is emphasized by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra playing backward. In the Bacardi complex, the work of Guitierrez and Carrera-Justiz is divided by Bacardi's corporate logo, the Bat. Stroll through the plaza and find yourself transported into a world of modernist sophistication, spatial clarity, and a cool urban rhythm that Vitruvius would have delighted in.