Burton R&D and love for a legend

We are thrilled to be continuing our work with Burton Snowboards, helping them develop facilties that tell the Burton story. Our latest project with Burton opened earlier this year: a 10,000 sq.ft. prototype shop dedicated to the late snowboard icon Craig Kelley. We attended the opening and dedication of the new facility on January 13th along with 300 Burton employees, pro team riders and friends.

TruexCullins has been working with Burton since 1996, when we first designed the primary workplace and public lobby at their global headquarters in Burlington. Since then we've continued to work with Burton on an ongoing basis, assisting with various projects from departmental expansions to custom workstation designs.

This latest venture not only provides a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility for rapid prototyping of experimental snowboards; it also tells the story of the legendary professional snowboarder Craig Kelley. The entrance is marked by a canopy of avalanche fencing, memorializing Craig’s tragic death on the slopes in 2003. Out front, an old snowboard press speaks to Craig's devotion to snowboard design, and a crow sculpture sits on top, a reminder of the legend that a crow perched on his gravestone at his memorial service.

The R&D prototype facility - simply refered to as "Craig's" - is open to the public for tours, so get down there and check out this impressive display of creative industrial design in person. In the meantime, here's a cool video of Jake talking about the new space and his time with Craig:

More info is available about the Craig Kelley prototype facility in this press release on the Burton website.

And stay tuned here for more good work happening this summer!

Curling for a Cause

This weekend, March 19 and 20, we will be cheering on Rolf Kielman as he competes in the second annual Curling Challenge at Cairns Arena.  TruexCullins is proud to be a sponsor of this event, which benefits the HowardCenter, a human services agency here in Chittenden County.

The story of this weekend's competition is featured on the back page of the March/April issue of Design New England magazine.  Rolf is profiled in his dual role as the chairman of the event and fierce competitor. Pick up a copy or follow the link below to read more about it:

CURLING FOR A CAUSE •  IT STANDS TO REASON THAT IF YOU LIVE IN Vermont, have a heart of gold, and love to play hockey, those elements will come together for a good cause — on ice. On March 19 and 20, that's precisely where architect Rolf Kielman will be. But the principal of TruexCullins, an award-winning architecture and design firm in Burlington, won't be skating; he'll be curling. [read more]

iSketch

posted by Matthew Bushey

We don’t usually blog about tech gadgets on this site, but this is one device that may have broad appeal for architects and designers – if it turns out to be true.

The NoteSlate is a digital drawing tablet that records your notes and sketches on a 13-inch touch-sensitive e-ink display and saves your work to an SD-card for future reference.  Yes, we all love the iPad, but the appeal of the NoteSlate lies in its single-function and low cost.  NoteSlate bills itself as a low-tech device that mimics the simplicity of paper and pencil.

The developers of this one-bit black-and-white pixellated electronic sketchpad promise that they will be available as early as this June, at a price of just $99.

Over the past 2 weeks, word of this hypothetical device has lit up across the web, with a growing base of interested followers.  The NoteSlate facebook page currently has over 10,000 fans.  But many others claim the whole thing is a hoax.  Descriptions and photos appeared a few weeks ago on the NoteSlate website, but there was a notable absence of a working prototype, product video, or even a company address.  And it doesn’t help that the website is so full of spelling mistakes and grammatically incorrect copy that it is painful to read.  (An example: “Imagine world of freedom and creativity in everyday usual communication."  "Obvious loved or hated pencil and paper is on NoteSlate in completely new context.”)

The creator of the NoteSlate is a 28 year old Czech product and furniture designer by the name of Martin Hasek.  The seemingly premature rollout of his product concept seems designed to stoke public interest, build enthusiasm and attract capital to allow the NoteSlate to go to production.  If he succeeds, you may see the NoteSlate on store shelves soon.  I would like to place my order now.