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
Tight-Spot Townhomes
Urban redevelopment provides numerous opportunities to builders, particularly smaller ones, for whom a small lot can present a world of opportunity. Villa Carabelli Townhomes in Cleveland, for example, turned an underutilized 1.4-acre parking lot into 20 upscale, four-story townhouses. This was a unique lot and a unique development, because Alta House, a pillar of Cleveland's Little Italy neigh...
Surrounded by Nature
In Bothell, Wash., located near Seattle, builder CamWest Development created a Craftsman-style neighborhood set within nature — the North Creek Project. This eight-acre site consists of a collection of small homes on small lots at a density of 14.5 units per developed acre, for 33 units in all.
The Architectural Ensemble
The buildings in an architectural ensemble are like the instruments in a musical ensemble, sounding together to create a compelling whole. The harmonious outcome is more important than any individual part. The conscientious arrangement of buildings in concert with cars and landscape elements creates more than a place: it creates a world unto itself.
Building Science: Understanding Heat Flow
Never has a homeowner walked a model home and asked the salesperson about building science. New home shoppers expect that their new home automatically includes a living environment as comfortable as it is beautiful. Delivering on this expectation is building science. So what is building science? In this series we will answer that question in detail, but first let's begin with a definition: buil...
The Evolution of Master-Planned Communities
The end of World War II marked a watershed, not only in global geopolitical relationships, but in the development of the American community as well. For over a decade and a half this nation had struggled with an unprecedented economic melt-down followed by a battle for survival of the free world as we knew it.
The Future of Master Planned Communities
Each of the case studies in this article tells us something we can build upon in creating future master-planned communities, particularly in what we have learned in the last 10 years since Celebration. The four cornerstones of planning must be: Let's look at each point. Too few developers consider the long-range effect development has on the local area, whereas the local public officials and po...
Mood Change with Colors
As seasons change, the national mood changes from time to time too. With the mood shifts come changes within the home and a shift in the color palette buyers respond to. In order to keep up with the times, paint maker Kelly-Moore constantly changes existing color palettes by staying in close contact with the design community.
Custom Murals
Tile has long been the selected material of designers, architects and home owners to provide a rich, luxurious look. How about adding personalized images or photos to create custom tiles? Imagine adding a family portrait to the tiles located in the foyer. What about adding the beautiful sunset captured on film while on vacation to a tiled bathroom wall? Coastal Murals, LLC specializes in transf...
Used Textures
Appearing to be recycled from a building long exposed to the elements, Stone Mountain Brick Co. introduces four new veneer styles for its brick and stone. "Used textures" have a slightly worn face with a few random indentations in each brick surface. In sharp contrast, the fresh-looking wirecut style has blunt, uneven grooves that stretch vertically across the surface of each piece.
Color Your World
Brick remains a favorite building material for many home builders and home buyers. Surveys from the National Association of Home Builders show that 60 percent of American home buyers prefer brick homes. When asked, buyers also say they prefer variety in their neighborhoods. Yet the larger the development, the harder a builder must work to differentiate one home from another — not to menti...
