Churches into Homes: Beauty & Benefits

Some attended, looking up at the stain-glass and glorious vaulted ceilings as something that could never be attained.  That’s not true and today’s contemporary desire for sprawling, open living space poses a question that combines the love of gothic-looking structure, and the simplicity of one giant room.  What is the real cost of converting a church into a home?

First of all, do a church not a cathedral.  Cathedrals are very large, you can’t imagine keeping the cobwebs out, let alone repairing it.  And beyond all else, don’t consider it if you’re not willing to combine some modern materials, and compromise the historic slightly.  Some will consider this to be outrageous destruction of classic building technique, and that it should be left to historical societies.  Well, with so many parishes losing membership over depleting religious views, there’s a surplus of historic churches for sale–and no one to buy them.  Artists may see it as an opportunity to blend the old world with the new, allow the structure to survive significantly longer without repair, and become by far, the most bad-ass space they’ve ever lived in.

Just realize that a small church feels huge, and repairs are needed on brickwork every 10-15 years and roof repairs around the same.  But could that diminish, by being modern and smart?  Think about the materials we use today, that might barely touch the detail of such a structure.

-Cement wall repair from the interior

The stone-look blends aesthetically, sealing from the inside and retaining temperature.

Traditionally, if you don’t restore the (most-likely) brownstone every 10-15 years, water seeps in and permanently damages the overall integrity. Could this be side stepped with a cheap attempt at interior cement re-enforcement?

-Sustainable roofing: Metal?

­Metal roofing claims to have an average cooling cost of 25-40% with a 50-year lifespan.

Will this provoke the Eiffel Tower effect? An ‘over-flashed’ contradiction to traditional architecture? Or, could this add a subtle patina luster embodied by the color and light exaggeration of a Caravaggio?

Finally, remember that making this livable means heat, appliances, and facilities.  Holy god that sounds expensive. Well, break it down starting from the most important and often missed: the floor.

-Floor Radiant Heating

This will cost anywhere from $6-15 per square foot. On the high end that’s $45,000 for a 3000 square foot floor.

-New Kitchen

The average cost of a new kitchen is a little less than $20,000–be safe, and move it to an inverted nook below the front of a church with an elevated choir area; make it $30,000.

-New Bathroom

Make it $25,000.  You could have a large public bathroom, with a lot of room to dabble in all-tile and open-area shower fixtures.  Almost like a fancy locker room–and you can always tone that back to save money.

With some churches going for as little as $200,000 (on the low end).  You could have one of the most interesting $300,000-350,000 homes that many have ever seen. So how can you make it more affordable?

-The Elevated Choir Area

Some are as large as a small studio, and have a separate entrance–in some cases a separate small bathroom.  If you’re willing to spend another $25,000-30,000 walling it off, making sure it has natural light coming in, and giving it a kitchenette and bathroom shower.  It’s a rental.

-The Entire Basement, or even half

Again, separate entrances, basement windows all along, and make sure it has facilities. The sprawling square footage is great for studios or community gatherings, and is generally pretty sound proofed from the main area that you live in.  And you can know that some of the area can still be walled off for your own basement storage, while still being huge.

The main thing to take away from this is that it is possible, and initial work with alternative materials–can remove even ‘everyday upkeep’ from such a breathtaking environment. 

Modern- Ouch! Ouch! You’re Bruising my Wallet…. Or Not???

HGTV: PREFAB BUILD AND DESIGNER INTERVIEW

 “Dear God,” I say when I gaze at the fabulous, unique, geometric piles of perfection that are modern homes. 

            Every time I witness one of these masterpieces I insta-imagine my life there, and can’t help but glance through the personality-infused article that accompanies it for the price tag.  They’re so expensive, that It’s hard to believe they were ever meant for Gen. Y!  How? When? In what world could the work-world babes of the recession afford such a thing they desire so much?  Frankly the whole idea is not marketed well enough, period.  Most of us have no clue the homes range from 200-250/ sq. ft., and with 1,000 sq. ft. being a lot of space in a completely efficient and open dwelling, there’s no reason to think that we can’t afford it.  Especially since that's the price of the average home in the average market.

            It’s called prefab, and no it doesn’t mean plastic toy houses that will blow away at the first gust of a whistle.  They’re simply pre-built rooms and home-parts that can be placed together in any crazy unique, thought up way.  Stacked, side-by-side, ridiculously long- you think it up and let them know what you want.  The best part is that prefab homes can literally be built anywhere.  An-y-where!  You see a gritty, urban commercial garage in deep Brooklyn that's built like a rock? Stack up a 2-unit prefab with a rock-climbing wall.  Yeah! Why not?  You see a huge, old tree that makes you want coffee with the squirrels, build a home in a circle around it.  Tree house, desert, mountain the list goes on.  But imagination, price and pure style make these homes perfect for the young, old, handicapped, style-enthused or the straight-up efficient.  Oh, and did I mention that this is one of the greenest ways to live?  Yeah you're saving a butt-ton of energy during the building process in addition to your life there.

            So now what? Where do we go to get this fabulous house to build to our desire? The builders are all over the place, and none of them are amazing at reaching out to make our lives easier.  Why not work with the place that dangles these homes in our faces to begin with, Dwell.com.  Dwell magazine is by far one of the best references to modern living from the designer perspective.  Their website is extremely capable of hosting a place to put shapes together as a pre-design and have it sent to the closest builders.  It’s the perfect application for readers, site users and it would give Dwell a great way to strengthen their relationship with these pre-fab builders that they already work with.  Not to mention this would make Dwell the go-to place for mod-home buying.  That’s it, I’m doing it,  I want a place to crazy-house dream.

Arboretum | a Sweet Study

The trip to the arboretum proved to be interesting. Although I wasn't convinced of it's push for the real world in terms of sustainability, I was moved b it's beauty. I was also pleased to find some interesting pieces of nature that i didn't know existed.

Tip Toe-ing to a more Efficient Life

(Above: Frank Lloyd Wright house/ Shoreview, MN)

Minneapolis is a city based on modern ideas, surrounded by Midwestern structure and raised by tradition of ‘medium-sized’ change. Many people that live here, especially in the Calhoun lakes area take on styles that promote efficient and beautifully designed futures. Yet many homes are still very old-fashioned, inefficient and to build a home of true, unique modern thought can be considered unfit for the aesthetic of a neighborhood or just too damn expensive. But why should this keep people from dreaming up interesting designs for their living. Is it cost, yes perhaps, but if $ signs aren’t an on-going symbol in your mind, let’s allow somebody else to kill the dream and have a good look at some sweet living.

Publications like Dwell give a look at upscale living with efficiency built in every nook and cranny. The good stuff comes from the hard to come by roof gardens, all-home filtration systems, other energy features, and the bold beautiful look of it all. Most people on a normal budget can’t imagine how to begin designing, purchasing or generally installing these systems without the aide of an architect or engineer. So let’s look at it a different way. How can we take integrate the aesthetic of clean, modern glass, stone and plant life without spending a fortune? Start simple with open spaces. The key element to many of these designs is not just the materials used, but the openness of the floor plan combined with storage and surface space that is built to compliment this. Check out some airy designs with modest square footage.

Minneapolis dwellers and builders do understand the cost effectiveness of tearing down old and building new. That is in a large part what differs the newer city from it’s twin counterpart St. Paul. But as a building and more importantly designing community we can capitalize our design sense by integrating simple principles about space and function. Open is more, light can double your sense of stretch room and most importantly, storage and surface can always be integrated tightly into the bones of the home. Most modern houses use the main structure walls, stairs and surfaces to double as shelving and structure support. So look harder and think about that when building any structure. How can this be smarter and look hot!

The Next 60 Years | Advertising | Entertaining our Actual Space

What will advertising be in the future…

It will be pure entertainment. That is where it’s been heading for the last decade, and now we’re finally practicing that seriously. People don’t want to interrupt what they’ve decided they like, unless it’s equally or more entertaining than what they’re doing.

Youthful college grads with a new, nice budget don’t watch T.V, or rarely. Maybe they want a promotional Wii that is uploaded with movie-mercials that are entertaining movie versions of commercials that would be generated for THEIR favorite cars or products. Perhaps people don’t want Mcdonald’s in their face unless McDonald’s is using the city landscape as a message.
“Alright McDonald’s, I’ll look and buy if you promise to turn my train ride home into a giant straw zooming through a cup-bridge.”

Now that’s entertainment, and a message. But perhaps the future will hold these aspects in principle with causes that matter to the next generation. Sure you can put a billboard up, but it better be made of only materials that grow the environment around me, and are not wasteful.
“Yeah, in fact I only want outdoor advertising made of real grass that grows to make the message and then feeds the natural surroundings when the message is finished.”

Why not? If you want to send a message to people that have a main concern with making the place they live in better, you better think about that in every idea or execution you make. The point is that Advertising will become completely creative to the ideas that people are thinking, not interrupting them, but adding to them in a very imaginative way.

THE BOTTOM LINE |
-Entertain them
-Make their environment a better place (Any environment digital, real, or otherwise)
-Be purposeful to the point of taking a smart idea, and encouraging people to think too.

Final Commitment

Final Commitment

I’m committing to finding a place in this sustainable system. My career choices are just so damn contradicting. I love to write about everything that needs a personality. To come up with the ideas that power it, give it a new image, and give it a future. This can be anything powerful, it just has to move people and move myself to mean anything to me. On the other hand I love simple, natural things as well, and can’t understand why they aren’t represented in a way that makes more people feel personally connected with them. I suppose all this rambling really gets down to why things that sustain and redevelop the environment can’t be seen as a personality rather than a forced cause. I spent so much time not seeking out knowledge of sustainability because I have such an interest in objects that are seen as destructive to the environment. Why can’t they be combined?

I’m committing to combining these 2, because now it feels just weird to see them as separate. Both areas are so important to creating powerful ideas that move people that aren’t convinced of our current situation.

After discussing Denmark and its more than different lifestyle, it was apparent that the group of people we need to be talking to are those in the American culture that bend their lives around the assembled nostalgia of our excessive lifestyle. Why wouldn’t they, when there is nothing in their faces that convinces them of the dire situation, and there is no common practice that makes it a reality? There needs to be an element of everyday life for everyone that constantly reminds what life has really become. I’m committing to living this way myself, no matter where it is.