Hotel Vermont Attracting International Attention

We were pleased to see a wonderful review of the recently opened Hotel Vermont in this past weekend's Montreal Gazette. The hotel is gaining national and international attention as more people experience this unique, independent, Very Vermont hotel.

The Montreal Gazette calls it a "woodsy and trendy" hip venue. "An artisan project from furniture to food." The author was a guest of the hotel and goes on to write: "Burlington’s first contemporary boutique property, the Hotel Vermont opened this year with a singular dedication to regional products, individual craftsmanship and eco-consciousness."

You can read the whole Montreal Gazette article online.

Hotel Vermont was also earlier previewed in Lodging Magazine, the official magazine of the American Hotel + Lodging Association.

The May 2013 issue featured a rendering of the Deluxe King guestroom, released before the hotel opened. "A Vermont Vignette" provided a sneak peak of the guestroom with its custom bed and casework furnishings, overlooking Lake Champlain.

A longer article was published on the Lodging Magazine website: Hotel Vermont Opens as Burlington's First Independent Hotel.

Tips for Collaborative Workplace Design published in Free Press Business pages

by Matthew Bushey

The following article appeared in the 'Innovate' Business section of the Burlington Free Press on Thursday March 21, 2013.  It is also available for viewing online.


Creative Corner: Not Behind Closed Doors
Designing for teamwork in the workplace
 
In today’s workplace, one of the biggest challenges we face is how to foster creative teamwork while allowing for privacy and concentration. Most office workers spend their time split between group meetings and individual tasks, so it is difficult to apply a one-size-fits-all solution and expect good results.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer recently announced plans to eliminate her company’s work-at-home policy, ordering everyone back to the office. In explaining the change, the company cited the need for greater communication and collaboration.

This rationale follows the general industry trend toward a more open and collaborative workplace. There is an increased recognition that the most creative problem-solving does not occur by an individual behind closed doors, but rather by a group effort of people putting their heads together.

Over the past few years the walls have been coming down, and more people are moving out of the private office into an open office setting. The problem here - and the reason many Yahoo employees had chosen to work from home – is that the visual distractions and noisy interruptions of the office prevent them from focusing on their work.

This is one of the biggest challenges we face with the design of the workplace: How to provide a comfortable balance between teamwork and individual privacy.

The first place we start is with the design and planning of the open office workstation. Repetitive rows of Dilbert-style cubicles do a poor job of providing privacy, and they are not conducive to group work. One solution is to break out of the box and think about alternative planning modules, or scatter workstations in a layout that gives each person a unique boundary and line of sight. The in-between spaces then become additional opportunities for impromptu collaboration, while promoting individuality.

Another method to support conflicting work styles is to provide a variety of spaces that people can use throughout the day as their needs change. Working in an open office is more accepted if other spaces are available for a private phone call or a quiet one-on-one meeting with a colleague. These are not scheduled rooms. They are free for anyone to use on a moment’s notice.

Finally, we look at the design of group spaces that maximize the benefits of working together. Often the most creative problem solving comes not from scheduled meetings but from spontaneous interactions among coworkers. Conference rooms are still necessary, but informal, social spaces are becoming more important. A cafeteria or lunchroom can double as a social meeting space, with furnishings and technology that can turn a casual encounter into a productive work session.

The move by Yahoo is a sign that companies are starting to rethink the role of the workplace. In this age of remote access and virtual meetings, the message is clear that face-to-face interaction is still valued for successful teamwork. Ultimately to be effective, our spaces need to be flexible and responsive to meet the needs of groups and individuals alike.


Matthew Bushey, AIA, LEED AP is a registered architect and the lead project manager for the Workplace Interiors Studio at TruexCullins Architecture and Interior Design. www.truexcullins.com

Designer Snapshot on New England Home

Today TruexCullins was featured on the New England Home Design Blog, the official blog of New England Home magazine.

Under the title “Designer Snapshot: No Boundaries”, the editors at New England Home chose three of our residential projects as examples of interior spaces that celebrate their natural surroundings and blur the boundaries between inside and out.

Read more about these three projects on today’s NE Home blog, then see the full article on the Shelburne home that was published in the magazine last year.

Three Perfect Tables for the Home

Are you looking for the perfect table? In the Perspectives column of the latest issue of New England Home magazine, Kim Deetjen was asked to share her recommendations for tables in three different rooms of the house: the entry, dining room and living room.

For the entry table and coffee table, Kim picked two pieces by Maxine Snider that have classic detailing with a slight modern or whimsical touch.

For the dining room, Kim picked a round table by the Martin Group with pie-shaped veneers and ebonized inlays. This table expands concentrically, with leaves that attach to the perimeter, so the table is just as beautiful when you need to expand your surface to accommodate the extra guests at your holiday meal.

Read more in the March/April 2012 issue of New England Home, or visit them on their website. The Perspectives column can be found under "Designer Picks" in the Art & Style section.

Stowe Home featured in Vermont Magazine

One of our recent residential projects has just been published in the latest issue of Vermont Magazine. 

“At Home in Vermont” tells the story of how this family’s home began from the small-house plans that Lee and Rolf developed during the depths of the housing crash in 2008.  The design was then tailored to the site and personalized for this client, who wanted an energy-efficient home that could support an active lifestyle.

Designed To Be Tops,

  from the Bottom Up

The concept for this home was one of a small, energy-efficient house that blended in with the land.

Lee Grutchfield likes to think that the path that led to his becoming an architect, and Principal with TruexCullins Architecture in Burlington, might be part of a tradition steeped in New England craftsmanship: apprenticeship, in which a potential architect learns to make a building from the ground up. Through hands-on experience, he believes an architect learns to intuitively understand acoustics, structural principles, mathematics, and the workings of natural light. Lee should know; he spent 14 years working as a carpenter prior to studying architecture at Norwich University, where he earned his master’s degree.

To read the rest of the article, pick up the March/April 2012 issue of Vermont Magazine at a newsstand near you!

Unassisted Living

One of our residential projects has just been published in a book on homes that support the active lifestyles of the aging Baby Boomers generation. Unassisted Living, Ageless Homes for Later Life is a collection of homes that offer an alternative to traditional senior housing.

The Shelburne residence by TruexCullins is included as one of the examples in the book, and is featured on the book’s cover.

This multi-generational residence was the recipient of the 2009 Award for Excellence in Architecture by the Vermont chapter of the AIA.  It is a home for three generations, with a common entry that provides separate access to private living spaces for the grandparents and children.

From the publisher:

Unassisted Living documents the shift away from the senior housing that promoted disengagement toward architecture and design that promote active aging. The book is organized in six sections, corresponding to the concerns and special interests of Boomers—those who intend to remain in an urban setting, those concerned with sustainability, those with complex families and non-traditional households, and those who seek a community based on spirituality or shared interests.

Boomers are perhaps the largest generational cohort the United States has ever seen. Numbering some 78 million people born between 1946 and 1964, Boomers are not accepting traditional retirement or “senior housing” and are instead determined to remain active and engaged professionally and socially.

The 240-page hardcover book is written by Jeffrey Rosenfeld and Wid Chapman, and published by Monacelli Press.  You can purchase it online thru amazon.com or at your favorite local bookseller!

Hillside Hideaway

Our work at the Spa at the Casa Madrona Hotel graces the cover of this month's American Spa magazine.

In "Hillside Hideaway", writer Heather Mikesell explains how "a charming Bay area hotel and spa reinvents itself once again to tempt guests with ocean-inspired bliss."

Click the pages below to view the 3-page spread, or go to spatrade.com to read the article online.

Hot off the Presses

The website over at truexcullins.com continues to evolve as we discover better ways to bring you information about our projects and people.

Recently we overhauled the Publications page to include article descriptions and links to each project.  The page includes publications that TruexCullins has been featured in over the years, including magazines, newpapers, books, and websites.

The new format makes it easier for you to find an article on a specific project, or to simply browse the magazine topics before reading the articles.  From each listing, you can open a PDF of the article or link to the website containing the online story.  For articles on specific projects, the project name is listed and you can link to the project page on the TruexCullins site.

We’ll continue to make tweaks to the website to improve navigation and make it easier for you to find the information you’re looking for.  If you have any suggestions, you can always drop us a line with your comments!

Salvage Secrets On Sale Now

Salvage Secrets: Transforming Reclaimed Materials into Design Concepts is the new book by our friend and colleague Joanne Palmisano, with photography by Susan Teare.  The book beautifully showcases vintage, antique, or simply discarded items that are rediscovered and brought back to life in creative and unexpected ways.  It is a wonderful treasure hunt of unique, salvaged materials, and a practical resource for getting you started on your own design project.

We are always happy to work with Joanne, who frequently acts as a designer and marketing consultant for our Interiors department, and Susan Teare, who we often have photograph our own projects.

Here’s a blurb from the new book, published by W.W.Norton & Company, in advance of its release:

Today we all want to build and renovate our homes with sustainability in mind, so it’s no surprise that “salvage”—reusing old building materials and other recycled goods—is an increasingly popular technique, both for its environmentally friendly functionality and its unique design aesthetic...

Salvage Secrets is a resource you won’t want to be without on your search. Here, veteran salvager and designer Joanne Palmisano equips you with a practical guide and conducts you on a stunning visual tour of the interior design possibilities using a range of rescued materials...

With over 150 color photographs and sketches, as well as a comprehensive listing of architects, designers, and other specialty salvage resources for your hunt, you’ll be ready to visit warehouses, recycling centers, antique shops, and some unique locations in search of the perfect salvaged treasure for your home design.

Joanne Palmisano is an award-winning designer and marketing consultant for Peregrine Design/Build and TruexCullins Architecture and Interior Design in Burlington, Vermont. She is a freelance writer and scouts homes and gardens for stylists of national magazines such as Better Homes and Gardens, Country Gardens, Renovation Style, and Country Living.

Susan Teare is an architectural photographer and has contributed to publications such as Ski Magazine, Fine Homebuilding, Better Homes and Gardens, Custom Home Magazine, Vermont Magazine, and Timber Home Living.

And our own Kim Deetjen makes a cameo appearance on the back cover to offer her endorsement:

“Drawing on her personal experience as well as advice from a posse of experts, Joanne Palmisano shows us that being sensitive to the environment does not mean sacrificing style or good design. Recycled, reclaimed, and salvaged materials and furnishings can be chic, beautiful, and sustainable. Salvage Secrets is a must—an innovative design resource filled with unique and affordable ideas.” —Kim Deetjen, ASID, principal, TruexCullins Interiors

The book will be released on September 12th, but you can reserve your copy now at Amazon.com and other online retailers.  You can also keep up with Joanne and all her salvaging adventures on her Salvage Secrets blog.

The Suite Life

 

We are so happy to see one of our current projects in the current issue of Hospitality Design, the premier trade magazine of the hospitality industry. The project at hand is the guestroom renovation of the 22 hillside cottages of the Casa Madrona Hotel and Spa in Sausalito, California

The short article, titled the "suite life", describes how Kim Deetjen, the head of our Interior Studio, has created a niche for herself: suites.  At the Casa Madrona, the design of the guestrooms incorporates the property's history and location, and reflects the area's nautical and artisan influence.

The renovations are currently underway, so to accompany the article, we included a photorealistic rendering of what one of the completed suites will look like. Thanks to Lincoln Brown for his marvelous 3d skills.

You can find the article on page 37 of the May/June issue of Hospitality Design, or by viewing it online at this link.

A Love Affair on Lake Champlain

The Crowe Residence in Shelburne was a labor of love for all who were involved.

This light-filled multi-generational home settles comfortably into the landscape, embracing the view  across Lake Champlain.  The project was the winner of the 2009 AIA Vermont Award for Excellence in Architecture.  And now, its story is being shared with readers beyond the borders of Vermont.

We are pleased to note that the Crowe Residence is the feature project in the May/June issue of New England Home magazine, with a beautiful photo gracing the cover and a 10-page spread inside.  You can read the full article online at nehomemag.com/article/instant-karma.  Or, better yet, go out and pick up a copy of the print version of New England Home, available at all major bookstores, convenience stores, grocery stores, drug stores, and corner newsstands near you.

Congratulations go out to the entire project team:  Architecture by Rolf Kielman and Lee Grutchfield; Interior Design by Kim Deetjen and Rebekah Bose; Landscape Design by Keith Wagner Landscape Architect; Contruction by Dan Morris and Ric Santa Maria from Roundtree Constuction;  and photography by Jim Westphalen.

King Arthur Flour in the news

In case you missed it, there was a front page article in today's Burlington Free Press about one of our ongoing Workplace projects, the King Arthur Flour building expansion. You can find the story on the Burlington Free Press website. Here's the full article:

King Arthur Flour to begin expansion in June

Year-long project will bring more space to every aspect of the Norwich-based business

Written by Dan D'Ambrosio, Free Press Staff Writer

 

Vermont's King Arthur Flour Co. plans to break ground in June on an expansion of its facility in Norwich, adding more space to every aspect of its headquarters, including the bakery, retail store, baking school and cafe.

The project, estimated to cost $8 million to $10 million, will be completed in stages and is scheduled to be finished by June 2012.

"We decided a couple of years ago we were at the point of needing more space," Carey Clifford, assistant to president Steve Voigt, said Monday. "During holidays it's very crowded in the store. It's not the shopping experience we wanted for our customers."

Clifford said King Arthur, an employee-owned company with 250 workers, mostly in Vermont, will be adding 12 to 15 employees as a result of the expansion and a consolidation of its headquarters, adding about 4,000 square feet in all.

"Our education classes are selling out; we're starting to turn people away from those," Clifford said. "The bakery has the opportunity for additional wholesale accounts. We have limited seating in the cafe. People are looking for more seating. It's a good problem to have."

Clifford said the project will combine the existing two buildings on the property into one, tearing down the building that currently houses the bakery and baking-education center and combining it with the building that houses the retail store and cafe. By bringing everything together, Clifford said, people who are eating in the expanded cafe will be able to watch the King Arthur bakers through a window, and students in the education classes will be able to walk directly into the store and cafe.

"It has been a dream of ours, long in the making, to create a facility where our visitors can fully experience our passion for baking -- whether through taking a class at our Baking Education Center, watching our artisan bakers in action, enjoying lunch at our cafe, or shopping at our Baker's Store," Karen Colberg, a vice president and general manager at King Arthur Flour, said in a prepared statement. "The next year creating this facility will be a great adventure, and we look forward to sharing the journey with our customers, as we remain open throughout construction."

In addition to doubling the capacity of the cafe, which currently accommodates about 25 people, the project will include an additional classroom in the education center and add another shift in the bakery, Clifford said.

"There will be fresh baguettes in the middle of the day as well as morning," Clifford said.

King Arthur Flour is the oldest flour company in America, founded in 1790, and is the No. 3 flour brand in the country behind Gold Medal and Pillsbury. Clifford said the company had $84 million in sales in 2010.

She said former owners Frank and Brinna Sands brought the company to Norwich from Boston in 1984, and decided in 1996 to sell the company to its employees.