2023 BALA Winners: The Best of the Best
You'll find plenty of inspiration in these four award-winning projects from the Best in American Living Awards
What Gen-Z Buyers Really Want in a Home
The fervor of planning for Millennials in the home building industry has now pivoted to Gen Z. So, what does this new generation want?
4 Luxury Production Home Designs to Inspire
Yes, these are designs for production homes, but you won't find any cookie-cutter repetitive elements in this high-end selection
The New American Home 2024: Modern Features, Timeless Comfort
Explore the design elements and unique, luxe details that combine to create a sense of comfort and relaxed indoor/outdoor living in The New American Home 2024
4 Inspiring Adaptive Reuse Projects With Real Impact
From former schools to warehouses, these adaptive reuse projects—winners in the 2023 Best in American Living Awards—succeed in creating new housing and revitalizing their neighborhoods
Kid-Friendly Home Design Four Ways
Do your ‘family’ homes really deliver great design for parents and their children? Here are four clever home design ideas that consider kids and adults alike
Italianate Magic
If you sell houses from a furnished model home, you've probably spent countless hours trying to come up with a memory point that will separate yours from all the other model homes shoppers see before they narrow their choices. (Even a great house plan needs that special something to stir recall.) Here's a memory maker that we think is terrific, in a house that's spectacular.
Tucked Away Winner
Creating a special townhouse that fits within a green building environment was MBK Homes' goal in Ladera Ranch, California's Terramor neighborhood. These Briar Rose tuck-under townhouses are new floor plans, created specifically for Terramor. "The product itself is one of the more efficient we have done, from a land planning standpoint," says MBK president Tim Kane.
Success with Semi-Custom
To paraphrase management consultant Chuck Shinn, "There's no such thing as a semi-custom production builder. There are only production builders, custom builders and builders who aren't making any money." Behind that axiom is the assumption that customizing production plans interferes with productivity and, therefore, profits.
It's All About Storage
With the evolving trends that sweep in and out of the building world, there's one particular trend that seems to be evolving beyond attics and basements — unlimited storage space. For some, organizing comes easily; for others organization is the result of having available space. As the number of material possessions grows, it's only a matter of time before homeowners run out of places to ...
Timely Townhouses
The ability to move fast is often a critical element of success in home building. DeLuca Homes — based in Yardley, Pa., but with half its $237 million in 2004 revenues generated from a division in Central Florida — demonstrates how getting things done at double-time enhances the bottom line.
Private Setting, Open Floor Plan
In Sycamore Heights, Pleasanton, Calif., SummerHill Homes creates upscale homes designed to take advantage of a premium location and hillside views. Located on a 35-acre rolling hillside site, with views of the Sunol Ridge and Mount Diablo, nature infuses the homes of Sycamore Heights by inviting outward views into the home, but also creating private spaces for owners inside of the home.
Marketing Through Color
With the multitude of architectural, environmental and site considerations involved in home building today, the application of color is often reduced to a last minute perusal of variations on white, beige and gray. Yet, a growing number of respected builders are challenging suburban and urban monotony and using color as a powerful tool in their marketing mix.
Building a Sense of Place
In Lancaster County, Pa., an hour's drive west of Philadelphia and bristling with suburban expansion, builders, regulators and the general public are recognizing that growth is inevitable and sensible planning is needed to address it. For decades the county sought to foster a local version of smart growth.
Light of Luxury
Generations ago, the Breyer family built a large estate outside of Philadelphia on the profits from countless gallons of ice cream. Area kids who "screamed for ice cream" years ago now clamor to own a luxury town house on the estate's last remaining acreage. Since the late 1980s, the site had been developed with mid-market town houses and mid-rise apartment projects.
Home on the Range
One of Destination Homes' models in the master-planned community of Daybreak — in South Jordan, Utah — hits buyers' hot buttons in a way that deserves scrutiny. Daybreak spans 4,126 acres within the western part of the Salt Lake Valley and is surrounded by the Oquirrh Mountains. What's unique about this community is that it is not a collection of miniature neighborhoods built by different builders.
