Capturing Nature’s Dance
/in Conscious Homes, Design, Well Homes, WellnessNovember Pond celebrates texture, movement and color
Progressive nature photographer Morgan McKenna attunes her eye into nature’s intimate moments. From the color shifts in an aspen grove, to the delicate folds of a flower, to movement patterns dancing on water, Morgan’s work brings the viewer into the moment that these gestures reveal themselves. She photographs nature’s display of light, pattern, and texture that brings one into a visceral feel of beauty. Her intricate views of botanicals, flowers, water, and landscapes help create peaceful, positive spaces. Using a variety of techniques to bring the gestures alive, these photographs give us time to BE with the beauty.
Geometry
Much like a Mary Oliver poem, the viewer is asked to slow down and experience a shift in the usual scurry to notice the sublime. Gifting ourselves these moments adds space in which to navigate the chaos that our world is going thru. Finding the safety and trust that sits in nature, which allows nature to keep expressing beauty and goodness, helps us do the same.
Bringing the wonder of a child to her work, Morgan shares “I’m a native of Colorado and have been taking photos since I was little. I’ve always loved focusing close in on pieces of a landscape, whether the tiny details of a plant or flower, reflections in a pond, or a window of light in a forest. I shoot early in the morning or late afternoon to catch colors at their deepest. Most often I go for the sharpest images I can, but occasionally, I move the camera slightly while taking the photo just to achieve an impressionistic effect. These “in capture” pieces are created in real time without digital enhancement. Blue Forest is an example of this movement technique.”
Blue Forest
Special Discount
Morgan is offering a 15% discount for her work with mentioning you read this blog. And she is able to match colors specifically to decor. McKenna images are archival (protected from fading) and are available from small to large (48”x72”) on metal, glass, acrylic, water color paper, canvas, or fine art photo paper. Each piece is custom framed to match any look, from traditional to ultra modern. For sizes and prices, contact Morgan at morgan@mckennaimage.com. And be sure to visit her website www.mckennaimage.com to see many more exquisite expressions.
Transluscent
Mindful
a poem by Mary Oliver
Every day
I see or I hear
something
that more or less
kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle
in the haystack
of light.
It is what I was born for –
to look, to listen,
to lose myself
inside this soft world –
to instruct myself
over and over
in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,
the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant –
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,
the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help
but grow wise
with such teachings
as these –
the untrimmable light
of the world,
the ocean’s shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?
Liquid Autumn
Love,
Mary
Green Roofs Coming to Denver
/in Conscious Homes, Well HomesGreen initiatives to reduce carbon footprint are going to be increasing city by city, town by town, house by house. For a wonderful read on this subject, Paul Hawken compiled the book Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming. For all of us pursuing conscious living, this is an inspiring read.
Denver has become one of the latest cities to require rooftop gardens or solar panels on large buildings, which will keep the outdoor air cooler, make storm water easier to manage and reduce the amount of energy burned by air conditioners.
As reported in Boulder’s Daily Camera, here are highlights:
Denver joins San Francisco, New York, Paris, London and other global cities that require or encourage builders to put “green roofs” on large new buildings. Rooftop gardens and solar panels absorb some of the sun’s heat or put it to work generating electricity. Greenery absorbs rainwater and releases it more slowly, so storm sewer systems aren’t overwhelmed, advocates say.
Denver’s measure goes further than most, requiring many existing buildings to be retrofitted with green roofs whenever the old roof wears out and is replaced. Older buildings that can’t support the heavier weight of a green roof could get an exemption.
Advocates concede green roofs cost more, but they argue that they pay for themselves in about six years by keeping buildings cooler, resulting in lower utility bills, and they protect underlying roof materials from wear, so they last longer.Proponents also say green roofs can help cool off urban “heat islands,” which occur when dark, exposed city surfaces bake in the sun all day and release the heat into the air at night. Peck and others claim a host of other benefits: Rooftop gardens are amenities for building residents and office workers, they raise the value of the property and they make buildings more attractive to tenants. The mandate will also create a more certain market for green roof builders. These builders can allocate funds and bring that industry to the city, which will drive costs down.
As California has experienced with Title 24 now ten years into effect, putting cool roofs into building codes has reduced solar heat gain in hot climates along with reduced carbon dioxide emissions. Green roofs work best in colder climates and as the city hall roof in Chicago has demonstrated, produce benefits like lower roof top temperature, decreased energy demands, and noise absorption. The City has published a Guide For Rooftop Gardens in the interest of promoting more building owners to implement them.
Chicago’s City Hall implemented a city block size green roof in 2001 for a cost of $2.5 million funded from a settlement from ComED.
Green roof at the Asha Centre in Gloucester, England, a retreat center designed around biodynamic farming and green design. Quite a magical place to connect to nature’s regenerative energy.
To our regenerative future!
Mary
Natural Selection: Live-edge Wood in Home Design
/in Conscious Homes, Design(photo: 3d Flooring)
Re-posted from Boulder Daily Camera, “Natural Selection”, June 30th, 2017, page D16
Live-edge wood in home design
(BPT) – Live-edge hardwood, in which the sides of the slab are left unmilled to retain the natural profile of the tree trunk, is an increasingly popular decorative trend in today’s residential interiors. The technique is not only used for pieces of standalone furniture such as tables and benches but also for built-in elements like shelving, mantles, counter tops, bars and kitchen islands.
“Most mills cut off the rough tree edges, turning the raw timber into neat boards,” says Linda Jovanovich, of the American Hardwood Information Center at HardwoodInfo.com. “But the current demand for live-edge slabs has led to a small but vigorous subset of producers who specialize in the category.” These are often boutique businesses that source, dry and mill limited batches of timber for use in furniture of their own design and manufacture.
“Some larger sawmills sell live-edge slabs to the public,” Jovanovich continues. “You visit their showroom and pick your own one-of-a-kind piece of ash, cherry, red oak, walnut or whatever other hardwood species they have in stock. A cabinetmaker can then custom-make a piece of furniture or a built-in feature to your exact specifications.”
Sustainability-minded entrepreneurs are responsible for another niche in the live-edge hardwood market: small urban suppliers that source culled or fallen trees from the backyards of private homes, public parks, graveyards and other leafy locations in their city and its immediate environs. One such enterprise, RE-CO BKLYN in Brooklyn, New York, recently harvested four 12,000-pound logs from a 150-year-old storm-felled elm in nearby Prospect Park. The logs were taken to an upstate mill to be sawn into live-edge slabs and dried before being shipped back to Brooklyn, where they were either sold or used by RE-CO for tables, desks, bar counters, shelves, headboards and other beautiful custom-made pieces it produces.
“It was George Nakashima, the legendary Japanese-American mid-century furniture maker, who pioneered the use of live-edge slabs in refined residential settings,” says New York-based designer Glenn Gissler. “Previously, untrimmed wood planks, sometimes with the bark still intact, were used for rustic, log-cabin or ranch-house effects – elements that referenced the traditions, myths and aesthetics of the American Old West. With his gorgeous large-scale pieces, comprising multiple slabs of characterful woods like walnut and cherry connected with butterfly joints, Nakashima showed us how unfinished natural edges and richly figured knotted surfaces fit perfectly into even the most sophisticated urban interiors.”
Today, original Nakashima pieces are highly collectible and command high prices at auction. But his free-edge aesthetic is more influential than ever as homeowners discover the ability of live-edge furniture to work with almost any decorative style. Paired with blackened-steel legs, for example, a live-edge slab of burled walnut creates a dining table with loft-worthy industrial chic. Fixed to the bedroom wall, a free-form expanse of warm-toned cherry provides a romantic headboard. Or a hefty live-edge slab of oak, supported on an equally hefty oakslab base, makes for a monumental console with the presence of a piece of archaic sculpture. New Yorkbased designer Laura Bohn has even used the chainsawed crosssection of an elm trunk – complete with its bark – as a counter top on which to mount a stainless steel powder-room sink. “It introduces a decidedly rustic note into a thoroughly modern space,” she says. “And yet it looks perfectly natural, as i f it had just grown there of its own accord.”
VisitHardwoodInfo.com for more about residential design trends and other applications and products using American hardwoods.
A single ash tree, sourced from a suburban yard by RE-CO BKLYN, supplied the live-edge counter and island tops in this kitchen. (Photo: Brandpoint)
10 Factors Affecting National Real Estate Markets
/in Conscious HomesGlobal uncertainty and political polarization are the top issues facing the housing industry in 2017 and 2018, according to The Counselors of Real Estate’s annual list of the Top 10 Issues Affecting Real Estate. The list was compiled using feedback from 1,100 real estate advisers from around the world who met at a recent CRE conference.
Many of the issues are interconnected and reflect disruption in the economy and multiple real estate sectors, says 2017 CRE Chairman Scott Muldavin. “Despite this unsettling environment, opportunity remains embedded in every issue on the list,” the CRE report notes. Here are the top 10 issues cited in the report.
1. Political polarization and global uncertainty. “Uncertainty about changes to trade, travel, and immigration policy threaten cross-border investing, hospitality properties, retail, and manufacturing supply chains, among other effects,” the report notes. “Rising interest rates and retail inflation will make middle-class homeownership that much more difficult. Longer-term implications could be much more severe, as polarization prevents long-term fixes to issues such as infrastructure, affordable housing, local and state pension liabilities, and education.”
2. The technology boom. An unprecedented wave of commercial real estate technology innovations are expected to change the way real estate is bought, sold, and managed. Investments in commercial real estate tech startups hit $2.7 billion in 2016. About 1,600 of these startups now exist worldwide. Robots, big data, autonomous vehicles, and online retail are also expected to have a major impact.
3. Generational disruption. “Boomers’ and millennials’ divergent views of where they live, work, and play increasingly impact the property markets,” the report notes. “The generations are crossing paths everywhere: in the workplace, in housing, and at the local bar and grill, intersecting and sharing spaces despite their often disparate priorities when it comes to the built environment.”
4. Retail disruption. “The trend toward transforming retail into ‘experiences’ continues to develop and is offsetting shrinkage in the physical bricks-and-mortar consumer-goods platform,” the report says. “‘Experiential’ retail drives customer traffic to a more diverse and highly participatory environment targeted to a variety of age groups and interests. This sector has transitioned into a kind of ‘Omni Channel’—encompassing e-commerce, reduced or repurposed physical elements, and a host of previously unforeseen spaces, both physical and virtual—with a current emphasis evolved from bricks-and-mortar shopping to the timely, efficient transfer of goods from source to inventory to consumer.”
5. Infrastructure investment. The private sector is directing significant funds to infrastructure projects, recognizing the need and long-term rewards of investing in roads, bridges, tunnels, ports, and airports. Investors now oversee $376 billion in U.S. infrastructure dollars. “It is clear that the need for infrastructure investment is critical,” the report says. “The movement of goods, which involves everything from ports to airports to warehouses to roads, highways and railroads, is further straining an aging and highly vulnerable interior framework. Add to this the need for pipelines, electricity transmission, and water distribution, and the immediacy of infrastructure needs becomes even more pronounced.”
6. Housing disparity. “Safe, decent, affordable housing has been shown to have a stabilizing effect on urban economies, crime, and public health,” according to the report. “A current lack of inventory has generated a spike in home prices and, as a result, declining affordability for many home buyers, particularly those in lower-income sectors. A critical disparity exists between housing needs and housing supply.” The report cites a growing affordability gap and limited availability of housing in locations with significant job growth, such as major cities and coastal regions.
7. Threats to the middle class. In 2007, the average middle-class income was $57,403. Now it hovers below inflation-adjusted levels from nearly two decades ago at $57,909. These income levels have yet to return to their pre-recession highs, and stagnant income growth will continue to press on the middle class.
8. Emerging role of healthcare in real estate. The nation spends more than $3 trillion each year on healthcare costs—about $10,000 per person—which is double the average for developed countries worldwide. “The real estate industry has emerged as a major player to cost-effectively improve people’s health,” the report notes. “Building occupants are increasingly demanding that the space they inhabit be designed, constructed, and operated in ways that advance positive health outcomes.” A growing focus on healthy buildings is emerging, as people spend about 90 percent of their time indoors. Research from the Mayo Clinic shows that healthcare contributes 20 percent to maintaining people’s health, while environmental and behavioral factors account for 40 percent.
9. Immigration. As the Trump administration seeks to enact more restrictive immigration laws, some housing leaders are growing concerned about labor shortages in homebuilding. Demographers note that immigrant groups are a source of household formation. “New immigrants tend to rent, boosting demand for multifamily housing, especially in gateway cities,” according to the report. “Recent surveys suggest that immigrant populations aspire to own homes and to move relatively freely from cities to suburbs and back in the search for employment. Labor mobility and homeownership rates will be constrained by limiting immigration.”
10. Climate change. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a report this year that shows sea level rises are expected to more than double from 2013 forecasts—to between 6.6 and 8.6 feet by 2100. “While a potential rise of sea level may seem far in the future, NOAA also estimates that annual frequencies of disruptive and damaging flooding would increase 25-fold with only a 14-inch increase in local sea level rise,” according to the report. “Major cities such as Miami, New York, New Orleans, Tampa, and Boston are projected to have the most costly problems, with South Florida and most coastal areas all exposed to differing levels of sea rise risk and cost. The implications of potential sea level rise and related flooding on real estate values is positioned to explode due to dramatic increases in the volume and accessibility of information on the consequences of sea rise.”
Source: “Political Polarization, Global Uncertainty Top CRE 2017-2018 Top 10 Issues Affecting Real Estate List,” The Counselors of Real Estate (June 14, 2017)