Infection Rates Lead To Demand For Senior Residential Care Communities Near Hospitals By William Henry PhD The Continuum of Care Near Hospitals Part of the recent saga concerning Medicare, Medicaid, and Obama Care is the impact on demand for lower cost outpatient care residential facilities near acute care hospitals. These facilities span the gamut between independent living, assisted living, senior living and finally skilled nursing facilities. This is often dubbed the ‘continuum of care facilities’. Of little note is how infection rates related to acute care procedures will likely spur long term care development around hospitals.
Backfilling Large Empty Retail Boxes With Out Of The Box Uses By William Henry PhD The Internet is Siphoning Retail Sales from Traditional ‘Bricks and Mortar’ Stores and Thereby Contributing to Vacancies The 600 pound gorilla at the recent retail convention in Las Vegas known as ‘RECON’ which is an acronym for the ‘The Global Retail Real Estate Convention’, was the siphoning of some retail activity into the internet. A common complaint by some traditional retailers and building developers is that various sales transactions over the internet are not taxed and therefore those retailers who are better known for their […]
Multi-Family Housing Making A Roaring Comeback By William Henry PhD According to a recent forum held by the University of Florida’s graduate real estate department for its Board of Trustees, the resurgence is due to the following factors: 1) Changing demographics leads to increased demand 2) The deep recession 3) A preference for a more urban lifestyle 4) Disillusionment with the American dream 5) Mounting cash reserves by certain financial institutions Changing Demographics Only one in five households will be married couples with children in 2025. Those who do choose the traditional family lifestyle will postpone this decision for up […]
Cold Causes Mold? By William Henry PhD Recently our firm, RGA Architects, LLC was retained to provide expert testimony to assess the cause of significant amounts of toxic mold growth caused by the winter cold snaps. Unlike mold caused by water penetration, mold caused by cold snaps is due to significant variation in temperatures, like the huge swings from warm to cold we experienced during the winter season in the Bay area. When improper construction techniques meet normal human activity, the results can be disastrous. Activities like excessive showers and baths, or washing clothes with improper ventilation, can cause an […]
Design Lines The Sarasota School Of Architecture By Pamela Hughes In our last column, I wrote about Modern Design, so I thought it might be interesting to further the discussion and specifically focus on Sarasota itself and “The Sarasota School”. It is interesting to recall that this “modernism” is now more than 50 years old! While that is certainly true, it is also true that as one drives around Sarasota and occasionally sees these houses and buildings from that time, they retain a freshness and originality that is still stunning and inspiring. In an earlier time, Sarasota was a beautiful, […]
Seeing Red By John and Rose Brasgalla JRB Group General Contractors When the owners of this West of the Trail home purchased the property, they knew they were getting a great deal. Of course, buying a home for the price of the lot alone is an even better deal if the house is worth keeping. Updating a 60 year-old house is challenging enough, but it is even more work to fix a place that has had decades of experimental projects and repairs. Having done a loft in Boston as a DIY project, the owners knew that this job required professional […]
Design Lines – Modern Design By Pamela Hughes There is lots of talk and awareness of “Modern Design” today, so for this month’s column I thought it might be interesting to explore the history of how this design style evolved. Sarasota is a place known for its Modern Design heritage, and in fact, has numerous wonderful examples of this design dialect, which we will delve into in a future column. So, let’s look at a bit of history first. Design is all around us, whether we are aware of it or not. Any time a human being has applied paint […]
Old World Craftsmanship By Clifford M. Scholz Let’s try and define “Old World Craftsmanship”. Obviously, it is a talent that has a very long history. It is international, and it has to do with quality. It is something that we hold dearly and, unfortunately, is getting harder and harder to find. There is more to Old World Craftsmanship that makes defining it somewhat difficult. It embraces the talent of an artist and the desire to define that art in the built environment. It is prolific in larger metropolitan areas where there were projects that attracted the most talented of […]
How Does Illumination Influence The Atmosphere And Energy Usage Within Your Home? By Clifford M. Scholz Lighting adds drama and dimension in any room of the home- inside and out. The play of light and shadow, both natural and artificial, is a part of the core curriculum in every architectural education. Light instinctively effects a person’s emotional state through differing levels of brightness, color and texture. There are essentially three main categories of artificial illumination-ambient, task and accent lighting. Each illumination type should be carefully analyzed and support architectural design decisions. For example, placement of artwork and collectibles is […]
Interiors By Clifford Scholz The majority of what architects talk about is the exterior package of a structure, when in reality the majority of the time we spend is actually in the interior of the structure. I believe if you were to compare the two amounts of time that the interior part would be considerably longer in duration. Sleeping itself represents about 30% of the time spent inside. Regardless it is very obvious that as much time, or even more time, may well be spent on designing our interior surroundings as compared to the external package. My architectural internship kept […]
What Is The True Value Of Exceptional Design? By Clifford Scholz In our quest to perfect the art and skill of exceptional architecture, we cannot help but contemplate its “true” value. Value as defined both in any quality piece of art and also value as in true capitalistic and financial terms. It is apparent that marginal architecture does little to improve or even reduce the monetary value of a property as compared to exceptional skillful architecture vastly enhancing the monetary value of the same property. The same is true to the enhancement of the artistic quality of a property. This […]
The Art Of Renovation By Clifford M. Scholz At CMSA our projects have always had about 30% of our workload in renovations. I love having the opportunity to bring back a neglected or worn out structure to it’s original pride and glory, or even beyond that. There is also the sustainable aspect of renovation that just seems to be the right thing to do these days. Our office’s LEED training has taught us that this is the reality today. All projects are not candidates, but many are good candidates. My family lives in a 1923 Dutch Colonial that we seem […]
The Architectural “Process” Continues… By Clifford Scholz Our next to last step is the duration of the construction of our design. A lot of work has gone into all the preplanning, detailing and “fussing about” on the building design. Now it is time for the rubber to meet the road and take this 2 dimensional design to reality in 3D. The first item of business is the contract between the client and the contractor. The final bids and timing are in place and the budget looks good to all parties. The selection of the type of contract is on an […]
The Architectural “Process” Continues By Clifford M. Scholz The design work is complete and the contractor has been selected…………..the next step is the production of the construction documents. These are the drawings and the specifications that will enable a contractor to apply for a building permit and/or additional permits, accurately provide a complete bid for time and construction costs as well as provide the guidelines for the actual construction of the project. These drawings typically will include architectural, structural, electrical power and lighting, mechanical systems and plumbing systems design. The first task is to do a complete zoning and building […]
The Architectural “Process” Continues…. By Clifford M. Scholz After understanding the client’s desires, goals and dreams, completing the preliminary design work and selecting a contractor to work with is the next step in “The Process”. This is when the “rubber hits the road”, as the talking is over and the actual 3 dimensional concept is born. At this point I have an unformulated approach to laying out the early sketches for the site, floor plan(s) and front and rear renderings. This creative activity is really just me sketching. It is very important at this time to be thinking in 2 and 3 […]
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Tuesday, August 30, 2011
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