Lido Beach: Under Construction

Oceanfront Boardwalk Elevation

 3D Model

 3D Model Street Elevation

 Overhead Rendering Kitchen

 Great Room with Ocean Views

 Kitchen Rendering

Master Bathroom Rendering

The Lido Beach project is fully underway with the framing almost completed.  Bouler Pfluger Architects is working on the interiors utilizing these cool 3D models. For energy efficiency and long term performance, the radiant flooring and the countertops will be poured concrete.  This solar powered house should be fully complete in 2013. Please follow the project on Facebook by 'liking' our page.

Bay Shore Site Visit

The Bay Shore waterfront home is framed up and looking more like the computer-generated images Bouler Architecture's Nicholas Pfluger animated for the client. The home will use a geothermal system with an array of solar panels to offset its carbon footprint.

DC Trip: Save Bird Habitat Through Renewable Energy

The Declaration of Independence doesn't say we have the freedom to protest if we don't like governmental policy. Instead, it says we have the responsibility to do so. With this in mind, our family leaves tomorrow morning for Washington DC to express our concerns about preserving bird habitat and supporting clean energy initiatives, two ideas which we see as intrinsically linked. As it stands, we have meetings with two congressmen on the Energy Committee, Congressman Waxman and Congressman Engel, our representative, Congressman Israel, and Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar.
Those of you who have been reading this blog regularly know that Bouler Architecture has long advocated for alternative energy, finding that through a proper integration of systems, zero energy buildings can produce more energy than they consume. To illustrate this concept, Nicholas Pfluger, James' right-hand man in the practice, put together this brief film about zero energy structures. It's fantastic.

Drum Roll, Please

Now I know some readers were losing sleep over the Preway-- but thanks to James, Joe from Jovial Stoves, Scott Yoder, and Nicholas Pfluger, she stands ready for cool autumn nights. The installation was a bit of a trick-- the 8" pipe is a bit pricey so we reduced it to 6" of stainless, but wanted enough length so the fireplace would draw well. Joe, who sold us our pellet stoves for the house in Islip, set us up with a reducer and the proper pipes, all before 9 am. Then James hauled the baby up, and while he and Nick wired the entire upstairs, (and I pulled a few wires myself) Scott set out to fit the fireplace into the corner of the deck. I wasn't sure if I wanted it centered on the back wall, but when I saw how much circulation space it would take up once it was properly situated between the rafters, I thought the corner worked better. It seemed somewhat insane to install a fireplace in 90+ degree weather, but by day's end, we had both a fireplace and working lights upstairs.

Verace: Truth in Eating

Bouler Design Group has been commissioned to design a new Italian restaurant by the owners of Teller's Chophouse and Prime, two of Long Island's top eateries. The space, a brick building which has had many different functions throughout its hundred year history,will incorporate the classical element of a Romanesque arch in a post-modern, expressive way. These computer generated images (thank you, Nicholas Pfluger!) provide a sense of some of the interior elevations. By working with interior designer Jim Wood, James was able to reuse much of the existing building. According to Time Magazine, one of the greenest ways to further the construction industry is to reuse existing structures as much as possible. What's great about this one is its bones-- the aged brick, the beams-- and its context to the streetscape. Located on Main Street in Islip next door to Tellers, the cozy space between the buildings reminds me of an old European cobblestone alleyway. As for the interior finish, everything is being considered: color, efficiency, flow, texture, and ambience. Once open, I suspect Verace will become a regular stop to dine in for many of us on the island.

Pre-Fab at the Museum of Modern Art

The "Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling" architecture exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art not only gives a comphrehensive history of prefabricated residences, it actually assembled several on site so museum-goers can experience them. Perhaps most exciting was the Cellophane House, by Kieran Timberlake and Associates, a clear, modern box which used readily available materials and photovoltaic technology. There it is, a building off the grid, sitting in the heart of midtown Manhattan. True, the four-story residence is dwarfed by the buildings around it, but one can easily imagine it in different, and more bucolic landscapes. Perhaps prophetically, the newspapers today were abuzz with Mayor Bloomberg's plan to add wind turbines to city buildings as an alternative way to fuel Lady Liberty's torch. Imagine that! Already Roosevelt Island is powered by a water turbine situated in the East River. If Manhattan can be on the forefront of alternative energy, it could really propel architecture and the nation into a new era.
As for the rest of the show, it was a visually exciting place to be. From Sears and Robuck to Buckminster Fuller's pre-fab dymaxion dwelling machines, to more contemporary options (ie.,interlocking waterjugs for support walls, prefabricated modular cells)the show is able to offer possibilities of manufactured housing that's well beyond the double-wide mobile home. In an age where construction costs are prohibitive, providing people with aesthetically attractive, ecologically sound, and affordable alternatives seems like a goal we can all support.
In fact, it seems strikingly similar to Bouler Design Group's goals in the Hudson Valley. James Bouler and Nicholas Pfluger are developing a design division within Bouler Design Group called "The Living Machine." Inspired by Le Courbusier's modern design concepts, The Living Machine is an evolution from the shingle-style vernacular that is more prevelent on Long Island. Several of The Living Machine's prototypes are already animated and posted on YouTube-- see the links on the blog-- so you can get real feel for what it might be like to experience the interior and exterior spaces. Two models are already listed on available properties in the Hudson Valley with realtor Mary King at Village Green Realty in Windham, New York. The houses won't be prefabricated; however the design of the building takes into account efficient use of materials, passive and active energy systems, and labor saving structural designs to keep the cost manageable.
It's been exciting to watch the fast developments in architecture since our firm was founded ten years ago, and it's even more exciting to be involved in creating them.

The Preliminary Design is Ready

Thank you James Bouler and Nicholas Pfluger! I am happy to say that after a few collaborative meetings, we've hashed out a design that makes both design and fiscal sense. If you look at the first floor plan, (thanks to Tom Judson) you can see the footprint is pretty tight. Our initial response was to expand the foundation and go out to the back off the bathroom hallway. Unfortunately that disrupts a lot of the roofline and requires costly excavation. But the interior of the house couldn't accommodate a staircase for a second story, so we've decided to compromise. By expanding the footprint a tiny bit, we can add the staircase off the bathroom for an additional two bedrooms and a bath on a second story, thus leaving the downstairs footprint alone. We will be able to then rip the drop ceiling in the living room and kitchen and use the exposed rafters and flooring above as a ceiling. True, the bedrooms upstairs will be small; however we can soundproof the master bedroom over the existing bedroom and leave that ceiling sheetrocked and insulated.
The house as it exists right now is very low, so it was crucial to add the second story without losing the integrity of the existing cottage. And we certainly didn't want it to look like the traditional gabled, dormered, everyday addition we see far too often. Instead, we all agreed that boxy and a bit brutal was a good way to go,n offsetting those hard lines with a warm wood siding.
Now that we've got that agreed upon, it's time for construction drawings.