By nearly any measure, this year’s International Builders
Show in Las Vegas was a huge success, with attendance up by eight percent over
last year’s total to over 55,200.
But
IBS was just part of a larger show dubbed Design and Construction Week, in
which over 125,000 people also attended the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show, the
International Window Coverings Expo, The International Surface Event and the
Las Vegas Market.
The combination of the
crowds and the positive energy among the 3,750 exhibitors across the various
venues made it by far the biggest show since the Great Recession.
As a usual part of the show, the 35th annual
National Sales and Marketing Awards – known as The Nationals – paid tribute to
notable achievements by homebuilders, architects, designers and other
associates as well as sales and marketing councils.
Since the winners of The Nationals tend to point towards the
latest trends in new home architecture and design, I wanted to focus on a few
of these local stand-out projects as well as to offer my congratulations to the
very talented folks who made it all possible.
Here in the City of Los Angeles, the built-out nature of the
region means that infill builders have to be creative, providing the cues that
today’s buyers want while also fitting in with the local community.
In the case of Trumark Homes’ SL70 in the
Silverlake community north of the downtown area – winner of both Detached
Community of the Year as well as Best Architectural Design of a Single Family
Home Under 2,000 Sq. Ft. -- a lack of buildable land meant building up without
losing the private spaces inherent in a detached unit.
To solve this conundrum, architect JZMK Partners came up
with a unique plan in which the homes, which are built next to each other much
like townhomes, still enjoy fee-simple ownership and structural independence
for each unit, which also eliminates the need for an HOA while allowing up to
70 separate units on limited acreage.
Priced from the low $600,000s for up to nearly 1,800 square feet of
living space, each home provides two-car garages, three levels of living space,
plus outdoor terraces as well as some usable rooftop decks. Targeted towards the hipsters with money who
long ago put Silverlake on the map, the idea is to provide indoor-outdoor living
without yards in a mature community that offers a very reasonable commute to
jobs in the downtown core.
Meanwhile, less than ten miles to the west, builder
Essex/Monarch hired Newman Garrison + Partners for its The Dylan mixed-use
apartment project on the eastern edge of West Hollywood.
Winning Best Architectural Design for an
Attached Community in an urban environment, this project overlooking Santa
Monica Blvd. caters to the luxury apartment tenant for whom location and
amenities are paramount.
On the ground
floor, a ‘jewel box’ lobby opens out to a mix of local retail and food outlets
along with a outdoor seating plaza.
Priced from over $2,000 to nearly $5,000 per month, the idea is to
provide a resort-like environment in an urban setting with amenities such as a
private screening room (with free wifi access for streaming online), a
two-story clubhouse lounge, a fitness center that negates the need for a
separate gym membership, and a rooftop terrace with another lounge, built-in
BBQ grills and a wall suitable for showing outdoor movies.
Finally, in the old money community of Pasadena, builder
City Ventures hired William Hezmalhalch Architects to address numerous
constraints related to its Ambassador Gardens project on the former site of
Ambassador College, which closed in 1997 and, with its existing mansions and
garden areas, remains a popular venue for weddings and other public events.
Winning Best Architectural Design of an
Attached Community, the Gardens took shape on 19 of the site’s 29 acres and
involved repurposing a century-old estate surrounded by “Millionaire’s Row”
mansions with existing high-quality appointments – as well as to please
neighborhood groups and a City Hall demanding a high-quality development on a
site with a rich, storied past.
Priced from the low $1 millions, the collection of flats and
townhomes with hidden, underground parking along with service elevators were
built to blend in with both the neighborhood and the local gardens by
recreating the Craftsman, English Arts & Crafts style which has defined
Pasadena for decades. In addition, the
restored Merritt Mansion, one of Pasadena’s cherished pieces of history, serves
as the sales and design center and will be sold as a single-family home once
sales have been completed.
