August 2007 Table of Contents

Americans are a big-hearted group with a short attention span. Two years after Hurricane Katrina plowed down everything in her path along the Gulf of Mexico coastline, we've moved on to other subjects of sympathy. Read more

If guests didn't know about this 650-square-foot mezzanine, they'd never look for the discreet floor-to-ceiling pivot door that accesses the master suite and nursery. Step inside the private realm, and a travertine-clad bathroom reveals itself beyond. The Read more

Sleek commercial interiors are bread-and-butter work for Steve Dumez, FAIA, who heads up design for Eskew+Dumez+Ripple in New Orleans. But he was a relative stranger to the subtleties of residential practice when he took on this project—the conversion of Read more

I was not planning on evacuating. I never had before. My entire extended family evacuates every time there is a hurricane heading our way and I never do. I actually believed I would attend a construction meeting the next morning—Monday, Aug. 29, 2005—if t Read more

Ross Chapin, AIA, who helped draft design guidelines for his town of Langley, Wash., recalls a developer who proposed a 54-unit-per-acre downtown housing complex for the elderly. The building was 150 feet long and three stories high and had no façade chan Read more

In this report, we've endeavored to illuminate the good and the bad, the true signs of hope and the harsh realities of its absence. Over and over, Gulf Coast architects emphasize that people around the country need to know what's really going on in this still-devastated but still-compelling area. Read more

When 170-some New Urbanists convened the Mississippi Renewal Forum in Biloxi, Miss., to brainstorm the Gulf Coast reconstruction, they knew it would be a long row to hoe. Two years and dozens of charrettes later, work is still under way to rewrite planning codes that support thoughtful, mixed-use development, and funding is just starting to trickle in. But while large-scale planned communities remain stuck in the pipeline, there is real progress on a smaller scale. With or without funding, a handful of New Urbanist firms are moving from sketches to sticks and bricks. They're going block by block, getting affordable, high-quality architecture built on infill parcels, and in the process, they're showing cities what good design can accomplish. Read more

Design professionals agree that rebuilding in the Gulf Coast region is frustrating. Despite soaring construction costs and insurance premiums, elusive government funding, and inscrutable building codes—or perhaps because of them—the nonprofit Architecture for Humanity (AFH) launched the Biloxi Model Home Program. AFH invited a dozen architects to create affordable, sustainable, and weather-resistant single-family house prototypes and showcased the results at a House Fair in East Biloxi, Miss., last August. Read more

After working in private practice for nine years, architect Michael A. Berk shifted gears in 1990 to become a professor and researcher. His new pursuit ultimately led him to explore affordable and ecologically based factory-built housing in the rural Southeast and Delta regions, where the dynamics of poverty differ from those seen in urban centers. Read more

When people talk about good things happening in downtown New Orleans, the name Marcel Wisznia, AIA, tends to come up. That's because this local architect/developer has completed one of the few projects built there since Hurricane Katrina—The Union Lofts, a mixed-use renovation in the Central Business District. Leasing the ground floor to a bank tenant, Wisznia and his staff converted the second through fourth floors of the former Western Union telegraph operating station into 33 furnished rental apartments with flat-screen TVs, 10-foot to 14-foot ceilings, and a rooftop deck. Read more

In the weeks after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans architect Wayne Troyer, AIA, bounced between friends' houses in Alabama and Louisiana. All the while, he frantically awaited the latest news of his home city. “I e-mailed like crazy ... we were all trying to regain our sanity,” he recalls. When he finally made his way back to New Orleans and located his staff, they worked out of his house in the Lower Garden District for six months while their Warehouse District office underwent repairs. Read more

Byron Mouton, AIA, never intended to stay in his hometown of New Orleans. He left for graduate school at Harvard in Cambridge, Mass., then worked in Europe for a couple of years. On his way to San Francisco for a job interview in 1997, he stopped to see his family in the Crescent City and stayed for good. He started teaching at the architecture school at Tulane, his undergraduate alma mater, and eventually opened his own small studio, called bildDESIGN. Read more

Gypsum wallboard is one of the unsung heroes of the architectural world. It's lightweight, easy to install, and adapts to almost any design. Best of all, it's economical. No wonder, then, that wallboard is used in almost all new construction single- and m Read more

In lieu of drywall, PLUSone turns to flexible architectural panels from Interior Products of Brunswick, Ga., for architectural detailing. “In a ceiling, you can use it as the finish without any other treatment,” Baird explains. Read more

Plusone Design + Construction: Aluminum store-front framing from Kawneer North America. Read more

Plusone Design + Donstruction: Metal mesh from W.S. Tyler. Read more

The MW Classic Impact Series of wind-resistant vinyl windows and patio doors combines high-performance laminated glass with a reinforced inner layer to stand up to airborne objects, including large-missile impact tests. Read more

Be sustainable and secure with solar laminates from United Solar Ovonic. Read more

A layer of polyvinyl butyral bonded between panes of heat-strengthened glass gives Weather Shield's LifeGuard windows and doors added durability. Read more

Custom-Bilt Metals is a manufacturer for all seasons. The 26-gauge steel of the company's Vail TITAN Select Shingles protects against high winds, heavy rains, and hail. Read more

Endura's FrameSaver technology seamlessly joins wood with composite material for moistureproof, rot-free exterior wood door frames. Read more

Tru-Defense entry and patio doors have passed structural-pressure and water-penetration tests that equate to 150-mile-per-hour winds and eight inches of driving rain per hour, respectively. Read more

Wayne Troyer, AIA, and his seven staffers were working with the developer of a city block of buildings in New Orleans' Warehouse District when they eyed this choice parcel for themselves. Read more