Sink or Swim in Google's New Spa-Themed Office in Budapest | #Pound Ridge Real Estate

All photos by Attila Balázs via Behance

Google's notoriously quirky approach to office design has taken an intensely aquatic turn in Budapest, Hungary. While the newly-completed interiors of the tech giant's Budapest outpost lacks, say, the strange orange groves or Smurf-blue carwash brushesfound in some other global locations, local firm Graphasel Design Studio makes it up with a hard-core spa theme, inspired by some 500 springs found in the Hungarian capital.

The office's conference room, for example, has a vinyl floor with a sparkly pool effect, plus matching blue rolling chairs. And to weave in Hungary's strong water polo culture, the room also features printed wallpaper that appears to be blown-up photographs of a water polo match, along with a bunch of pink water polo ballshanging from the ceiling. Elsewhere, a meeting room is modeled after a hall in Hungary's famous Gellért Baths, a white-tiled sofa comes with its own pool ladder, and of course, a wood-lined sauna is already equipped with a computer.

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http://curbed.com/archives/2015/02/12/google-budapest-office.php

Historic Homes and Modern Insurance | Chappaqua Real Estate

Many people who buy historic homes — from bare-bones colonials to elaborate Victorians — are drawn to them, at least in part, because they want to return to simpler times. Unfortunately, buying home insurance for these houses can be complicated. They may be high-value, hard to repair or rebuild, or difficult to appraise.

Complicated, however, doesn’t mean impossible. Consider the following factors as you seek homeowners insurance quotes for your historic home.

It matters when your home was built

Historic homes often fall into two categories: houses built prior to 1945 and those built before 1900.

If the home was built before 1945, it’s possible that it could be protected with a standard homeowners insurance policy — with a few tweaks. This is especially true if the electrical and plumbing systems have been replaced and a modern HVAC system has been installed.

If the home was constructed before 1900, however, there’s a larger chance it includes unique architecture, unusual features and building materials that were common then but not widely used now. None of this means you won’t be able to insure it, but you may need to search for an insurance provider that specializes in historic homes coverage.

Determining the replacement value

One of the major sticking points in insuring a historic home — regardless of which era it was built in — is determining its replacement cost. With modern homes, providers start by multiplying the square footage of the home by local building costs and then add the cost of upgrades such as granite countertops and hardwood floors.

With historic homes, providers usually assign appraisers and restoration experts to evaluate the home before they issue a policy. That’s because of the difficulty in rebuilding it with the same features and materials. Because of this factor, the replacement cost of your historic home could greatly exceed the amount you paid for it — and the replacement cost is the amount for which you’ll need to insure it.

Finally, you should also consult a licensed agent to determine whether you need to add Ordinance and Law Coverage to your policy. This helps you by providing additional costs required to rebuild your historic home to local building codes and other laws. For example, your city’s building code could require you to widen stairs or rewire the electrical system. If you don’t have this coverage, you could have to pay the extra expense on your own.

What’s in the home?

Standard home insurance typically includes contents coverage for your personal possessions inside the home, including furniture, electronics and other items. The amount of coverage for these possessions typically is 5o to 70 percent of the replacement cost of the house. However, payouts for high-value items can be limited.

That’s important because most historic homes also contain antique furnishings and sometimes expensive artwork. These items may not be covered unless you schedule an endorsement — an addition to the policy specifically covering those items.

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http://www.zillow.com/blog/historic-homes-modern-insurance-169604/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ZillowBlog+%28Zillow+Blog%29

Appraisers: Does CU Mean See You Later? | Armonk Real Estate

Will Fannie Mae’s roll out this year of Collateral Underwriter (CU), its proprietary automated appraisal risk assessment tool, reduce appraisers to be nothing more than servants of a computerized tool?  Or is it “just another tool that is reviewing appraisers just as other processes have all along.” as a Fannie spokesperson put it?

Will it meld underwriting and appraisal into one operation, providing both borrower and lender faster and more accurate answers”  Is it the newest Big Data arrow in the GSE’s quiver to reduce lender risk and prevent fraud and help appraisers deliver more accurate valuations?  Or will the appraisal process become subject to the same inflexibility that created the credit box and to bureaucratic decision-making that keeps Fannie two generations behind in the use of the latest FICO models?

Collateral Underwriter leverages an extensive database of property records, market data, and proprietary analytical models to analyze key components of each appraisal, including data integrity, comparable selection, adjustments, and reconciliation. Coverage may vary slightly from market to market, but it is able to score approximately 97% of appraisal submissions nationwide. It has been used internally at the GSE for years.  Now the decision has been made that it is ready for prime time.

Effective earlier this week, on January 26, 2015, Fannie Mae introduced an appraisal risk score, flags, and new messages from Collateral Underwriter into its Uniform Collateral Data Portal (UCDP).  Lenders can voluntarily submit appraisals and receive feedback; submissions are voluntary—at least for now—lenders are sell to Fannie are “strongly encouraged” to use the system.  CU will provide a numerical risk score from 1.0 to 5.0, with 1 indicating the lowest risk and 5 indicating the highest risk. Twenty-one Risk flags will identify appraisals with heightened risk of quality issues, overvaluation, and property eligibility or policy compliance violations and messages identify risk factors and specific aspects of the appraisal that may require further attention.

The jury is out on how CU will impact residential real estate, but one thing is clear.  It will be much more than a backstop for lenders to check up on whether an appraisal could cause them future problems when the time comes to sell a loan to Fannie.   Fannie has already announced plans to will make it available to lenders to “support proactive management of appraisal quality and help lenders more effectively and efficiently identify issues with appraisals.

There’s no doubt CU will become, as its name says, and underwriting tool for property for lenders just as DU is a tool for underwriting the loan.   “CU will be integrated with DU® (Desktop Underwriter) in the first half of 2015 to give lenders a holistic view of risk. This will provide a foundation for future waiver of representations and warranties on value, and we are working with our regulator, FHFA, on timing and details,” Fannie says in its FAQ.

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http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2015/01/does-cu-mean-see-you-later/

Designs for Small-Space Living | Cross River Real Estate

In compact living space, each piece of furniture should earn its keep. These 12 ideas — including adjustable tables, sliding bookcases and nesting and expanding furniture — make the most of small-space living.

Kimball Starr Interior Design

1. Adjustable-height table. A sleek glass-top table with an adjustable base allows you to quickly change a lounge area with a coffee table to a dining area. With a cushy corner banquette, the zone will be just as comfortable whether you’re grabbing a bite or settling in to watch a movie.

Raad Studio

Raad Studio

2. Sliding bookcase. Take advantage of potential floor-to-ceiling storage space over the stairs by mounting a bookcase on a track system. When positioned over the staircase, the shelving is out of the way, freeing up extra room in the living area. Simply slide it back into the room when you want to access the shelves.

See more smart storage features in this home

Black and Milk Residential

3. Murphy bed with a twist. Rather than folding down over empty space, this Murphy bed was designed to fit perfectly over a sofa, so no furniture shifting is needed at bedtime. Just flip down the back cushions of the sofa, lower the bed and voilà! — room transformed.

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http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/34663907?utm_source=Houzz&utm_campaign=u956&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery0

Richard Meier Glass Box Wants $10.5M in Resale | Mount Kisco Real Estate

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Apartment listings in Richard Meier's 165 Charles Street are often notable if only for the degree to which they embody the idea of the modern glass-box penthouse. This unit, on the building's 14th floor, is not touting itself as a penthouse, but it might as well be because just look at it. 11 floor-to-ceiling windows make up the two-bedroom's Hudson River-facing side, which always seems like it would get a little annoying what with the sun and everything. But apparently someone figured it was worth $7.35 million in 2011, and is hoping that someone else will think it's worth $10.5 million in 2015. The building's actual penthouse, with double-height ceilings, also remains on the market, asking $40 million.

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http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2015/01/14/14thfloor_richard_meier_glass_box_wants_105m_in_resale.php

Fresh Ideas in a Former Tomato Packing Shed | North Salem Real Estate

 "We wanted to create a very flexible, adaptable space,” says architect Jamie Falla of the M House on Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands off the northwest coast of France. The former tomato packing shed is now a three-bedroom home designed to celebrate the building’s soaring roof, original wood and sunny location. “When we first saw the shed in 2010, it was just a big open-plan space with metal cladding on the exterior,” Falla says. “The plan was to keep the existing structure — the envelope — and preserve as much of that open space” as possible.

Inside the structure Falla and his team designed a box that sits within the open-plan space and contains the kitchen, storage, shower room and utility area. Across from the box, a glass-fronted platform hovers above the living room. Falla also added a single-story wing containing the bedrooms, two bathrooms and a study. He was designing the property to sell it, and not for a client, so he wanted to give it wide appeal. “It had to be flexible, but not having a client also gave us some freedom,” he says. “This is, essentially, an experimental building.”

JAMIE FALLA ARCHITECTURE

Houzz at a Glance
Location: Central Guernsey, the Channel Islands
Year built: 2012
Size: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1 shower room

The former metal shed is now a beautiful wood building. “It’s a very lightweight timber structure,” says Falla, of Jamie Falla Architecture. He chose English sweet chestnut for the siding, which covers new insulation and the original corrugated metal, and left the wood untreated. “Exposure to the U.K. climate and UV light damages any finish or paintwork,” Falla says. “So we left the timber as it is. It’s going to go black in places, gray in others, and become more weathered.”

JAMIE FALLA ARCHITECTURE

Inside, the kitchen is contained in a box that sits within the open-plan living space. Behind it is a utility room, a shower room and integrated storage space; above is a study-playroom. You can walk around the kitchen and access the living space from either side. “The box is clad with the wide Douglas fir boards we used on the floor,” Falla says. “The upper floor is fronted with toughened glass.”

Kitchen: Poliform; flooring: 300-millimeter-wide Douglas fir with soap and lye finish, Dinesen

JAMIE FALLA ARCHITECTURE

The platform provides an intimate living space (an “escape space,” as Falla calls it), and the circular window is a playful touch. “[We] would never normally put a circular window in, but it was a nice way to replace two small, high windows that were there originally,” he says.

Chairs: Series 7 by Arne Jacobsen for Fritz Hansen; table: Super-Elliptical by Piet Hein for Fritz Hansen

JAMIE FALLA ARCHITECTURE

The same Douglas fir that was used for the flooring and to wrap the internal box crops up on the staircase’s beautiful, built-in handrail as well. “It’s about touching a soft piece of timber as you rise up and down in the house,” says Falla. “The carpenters who worked on this project were real craftsmen. They were amazing, so we had fun pushing them to create something wonderful and seeing them enjoy the process.” Over time the rail will acquire a patina from all the people who have used it and lived here. “Details like this run through the house,” says Falla. “Little flowing details that bring a sense of harmony.”

JAMIE FALLA ARCHITECTURE

Corridors run along both sides of the kitchen box. This side runs along the garden wall, where huge windows bring in lots of light. “We are interested in place,” Falla says. “So we have tried to capture the south light and also the morning light through these huge, theatrical windows.”

JAMIE FALLA ARCHITECTURE

A single-story addition houses the bedrooms and two bathrooms. A corridor flowing off the front entrance leads down to this section of the property, and a wall of glass helps capture natural light.

JAMIE FALLA ARCHITECTURE

The house is full of well-thought-out details that do not shout for attention, but give the building depth and character. “The way the master bedroom windows turn back toward the house, for instance,” says Falla. “They create a courtyard feel. These kinds of details are quite subtle, and you may not notice them at first, but they all add to the experience of living here.”

Chair: Swan by Arne Jacobsen for Fritz Hansen

JAMIE FALLA ARCHITECTURE

Making the most of natural light was one driver of this project, but Falla also prioritized the electrical lighting. “We always have a lighting designer on every build,” he says. “It’s important that at night the house shines as a whole.”

JAMIE FALLA ARCHITECTURE

The granite by the front door is all that remains of a low wall that ran around the property. “It’s a nice reminder of what was there before,” Falla says. The window on this side has been bumped out to create a window seat inside. “You can sit there with a book to enjoy the morning light,” says Falla. “It’s about being able to enjoy different moments of the day in different parts of the house.”

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http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/34260683?utm_source=Houzz&utm_campaign=u926&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery4

Design Practice | Cross River Real Estate

The resolution season is quickly approaching. It’s that time of year when we reflect on where we’ve been and make promises that will shape the year ahead. If you run a small business or you’re in the 60 percent of American Institute of Architecture member firms with five or fewer people, you may think that a yearly review is a luxury only larger firms can afford. But there’s a reason larger companies take the time to consider the impacts of their efforts at the end of each year — because it’s important. Here’s a look at how smaller firms like yours can benefit too.

McInturff Architects

Where you’ve been. We’re often so focused on keeping up with our daily tasks, the immediate actions that pay the bills, that we don’t stop to appreciate the hard work that’s landed us where we are today. The end of the fiscal year is an excellent opportunity to look back and survey your wake. Can you account for the 20 percent of your efforts that yielded 80 percent of your results? That’s a really useful thing to know, isn’t it?

Project postmortems are helpful for highlighting parts of your designs, delivery and execution that still need refining. Complete postmortems for any projects you’ve closed out over the course of the year while they’re fresh in your mind.

FINNE Architects

Securing client reviews is a part of that process too, and tying it to a project close-out procedure will ensure that your client is still engaged enough to provide helpful feedback. Houzz offers an easy and particularly relevant platform for doing this; and it will make your profile more complete too. These evaluations can reinforce what you did well and flag what needs improving. Keep a list and resolve to do better next year.

You might also ask yourself:

• What did I accomplish?
• Did I meet the goals I set for the business?
• What am I most proud of?
• What did I learn?
• What worked?
• What didn’t work?

Jay Sifford Garden Design

From these simple questions, you should be able to draft the chapter heading for your year. How would the abstract read? Certain themes will likely emerge; the essence of the review process is to take note of those themes and learn from them. Decide whether those are the ones that you want to define your business moving forward. If not, the year-end pause is a good time to figure out a way to pivot and change the narrative.

Francesco Pierazzi Architects

If your business is new, you may not have any prior year goals to measure against; we’ll work on those in the next step. If you have set goals and you’ve met them all, that’s good (and bad). This year you’ll need to level up. If you’re constantly meeting your prior year’s goals, you’re not thinking big enough.

If you haven’t met last year’s goals, find out why. Were they too ambitious? Did you have trouble executing week by week? Was there another reason? Something you had control over?

Marcus DiPietro, Architect

It’s normal to not achieve everything you set out for your business to accomplish — healthy even. There’s a balance between setting the bar too high and not high enough. Challenge yourself to find that tipping point that moves the business forward without sapping motivation.

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http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/34867913?utm_source=Houzz&utm_campaign=u918&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery1