Feature writing
A More Direct Approach
With new generation capacity becoming both more difficult to get approved and expensive to finance, electric utilities are looking at more creative strategies for squeezing inefficiency out of customer-side distribution systems. One idea gaining attention—direct current (DC) distribution—actually represents a step backward to practices common during the days of Thomas Edison. However, new standards and [...]
Onsite Power
The next big idea in renewable energy: Small-scale installations producing power that can be used onsite. Building-integrated systems are evolving from promising to practical, and standards developers are creating the necessary specs required for distributing onsite-generated electricity to specific building systems. This article ran in the March 2010 issue of Architectural Products magazine. The link [...]
Thinking Outside 40 Acres and a Box
They may seem like one-off luxuries in these economic times, but specialty K-12 schools are becoming a more important component in school planners’ portfolios. Read about the educational opportunities – and design challenges – in this feature that ran in the Jan/Feb issue of Architectural Products magazine. (The link leads to the in the magazine’s [...]
Growing Pains – And Gains
It’s the stuff of nightmares for every child of an elderly parent – the phone call in the middle of the night or the middle of your work day: “Your father fell. Your mother’s just not quite right. We think there’s something wrong.”
And suddenly, there you are, with a parent who needs a new home [...]
Kathy Ireland: Making Time for Christmas
Kathy Ireland spent years as a red-carpet regular during her career as a fashion model and film actress. But during the holiday season, this highly successful businesswoman turns her own spotlight on her family, and she urges other moms – and dads – to do the same.
This profile of how Kathy Ireland has developed her [...]
Design/Building Green
Sustainable design and the design/build approach seem to be a match made in an environmentally friendly heaven. Sustainable design is built on the premise that a building is a holistic system, not merely a collection of products and technologies, while design/build emphasizes the importance of working together in teams that incorporate all the knowledge that [...]
Smarty Plants
Approximately $4 billion of this year’s stimulus package will be dedicated to smart-grid technology deployments and demonstration projects. Of course, $4 billion is only a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of billions needed for a total system overhaul. But this plan could help utilities better understand roadblocks they might face when following [...]
Fire Sale
It doesn’t take a roomful of economists to make the point that the retail and mixed-use construction markets have, in a word, tanked in the last 12 months. The resulting decline in design demand has left architectural firms scrambling.
This article originally ran in the July 2009 issue of Architectural Products magazine.
Fire Sale
From Chaos to Coccoon
Combat bedroom clutter with 7 tried-and-true secrets from the professionals.
This article ran originally in HomeStyle, a home-and-garden feature section syndicated to 100-150 newspapers across the U.S.
From Chaos to Coccoon
Financing the Future
Renewable-energy technology is advancing at a rapid clip. What’s not widely known is that financing options for those who wish to own/operate solar, wind and other energy-generating equipment are evolving just as quickly. Making sense of your financial choices takes some homework, though, and likely more than a few phone calls, including at least one [...]
