St. Anton Partners scored a nice win in Napa Valley when the City Council unanimously approved their new Multi Family Apartment Project.  The real winner’s here were a select few already on a list of nearly 300 people that qualify for affordable housing in Napa Valley.  This 134 unit project will allocate 27 units for residents who make 50% or less then the area’s median income.

Our client, St. Anton Partners asked for our assistance with creating a series of renderings to assist with communicating the look and feel of the project and to allow all concerned stakeholders to better understand the sensitive steps that have been taken during the design process to ensure this project integrates well into the community.

Sometimes a project that has competing interests from the standpoint of a divided community, can at a minimum benefit from seeing photorealistic renderings that depict an accurate portrayal of what the developer is planning to build.  In this case a number of exterior renderings were created by focus 360 to bring the design to a more human perspective and help bring a clear picture to what is being debated so the right decision is reached for all involved.

Although, not all approved projects garner 100% support from the community, in this case hopefully the small part Focus 360 played in creating these renderings allowed more people to get a clear idea about what this project would look like once it is built.

For a link to the article click here:
 http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/alexander-crossing-apartments-approved-by-city-council/article_4c7ee618-bda5-11e0-8344-001cc4c002e0.html

We were recently engaged by the Montage Resort in Laguna Beach, CA to help them with the marketing of a multi-million dollar custom home in the prestigious neighborhood of the Montage Residences. The home had been under construction for nearly 4 years and still unfinished when the owner decided to sell the property about four months ago. The Montage asked if we could use a sunset photograph of the house (by Robert Hansen) as the starting point and from it, create an image that would illustrate the home as completed and looking as if it had been that way for a few years with mature landscaping.

As you can see from the “before” photo there were a number of challenges we had to contend with in order to clean up the home site around the house, complete the house and make it presentable. First we had to create the illusion that the home’s construction was complete including roofing, garage doors, painting and landscaping. We also had to remove the on-site construction equipment, brace boards, dust screen, trucks etc. The end result “after” is a magnificent completed home complete with the multi-million dollar ocean view. BTW – The last time I checked the home is still available. Know any rock stars or mega millionaires who might be interested??

Current Condition

After Focus 360 Edit

Do you ever wonder what life will be like in the future? I remember as a kid watching TV shows like The Jetsons and Star Trek and thinking how cool it will be in the future with flying cars, robotic housekeepers and teleporting devices. Even the simple every day stuff like home automation tools just seemed so cool! Much of the personal automation technology has been developed in my life time and I use it every day from touch screen appliances, automobile navigation tools and personal communication devices such as my touch screen mobile phone.

So when I saw this commercial from Corning (the glass company) I couldn’t help but have those feelings again that I had as a child; in awe of what is coming. And apparently it’s not that far off!

Having a tough time deciding if 3D TV’s are for you?  Well, I’m not! 

I’m bullish on 3D TV’s but not necessarily for the reasons you might expect.  Integrated into our interactive point of sale applications, 3D TV’s will significantly enhance how home buyers tour the Virtual Model Homes!

You see, as realistic as our Virtual Model Home’s are, they still lack the depth or distance you experience when walking through a physical model home.  3D TV’s solve much of that with a truly “immersive” feel.

And the fine folks at City Ventures agree.  We are putting the final touches on the very first Immersive 3D Virtual Model Home presentation system right now!  It will be unveiled at their Signal Hill community on Saturday, February 26.  And many more communities shortly thereafter!

Check out the “behind the scenes” video below.  I’ll add more commentary after the grand opening so stay tuned!

An interesting thing happened on a recent project where we were creating a number of photorealistic renderings for a new hi rise in Honolulu, Hawaii.

We were on our way to creating some really nice and very hi quality still renderings and our client was really liking what they were seeing.  The fact our client had put a lot of time into designing very cool spaces and using really modern materials and furniture was certainly helping our goal of creating highly realistic imagery for these spaces.

One particular space that was emphasized was the Lobby area of the condo building, which is a space where people could hang out and read their mail, relax on the comfortable couch’s and chairs and just talk or read.

Once we delivered the first review image of the Lobby space I remember our production team talking about the fact the client wanted to make some significant changes to the space as it relates to wall materials, furniture pieces, lighting fixtures and a whole host of other small design changes.

The detailed and realistic looking rendering we created per the design and specification package really looked great, yet it was just not sending the right vibe for the space as the client had hoped for and something needed to be changed.

We then determined that what we would do is add some additional dollars to the rendering budget and create a “design slush fund” so to speak and start playing around with different colors, furniture schemes, lighting, mail room design functionality, art work, etc.

What happened was a standard process for creating a rendering was now taking on a new life of helping our client and their design team get closer to meeting the vision they had in their head.  By leveraging our team and further enhancing the space through an iterative 3D rendering process, the lobby was reborn and was now coming into its own.

After much iteration, the final rendering was complete and the overall space was essentially done, at least in our computer it was and now just needed to be finalized in the design drawing package and then would be ready for construction.

My thought for sharing this was that although the original plan was to create a nice rendering of the lobby per the client design package, our flexibility in process allowed our client’s team the choice to shift to more of a design review process.  Our client found great value is using our capabilities to design as we go and in the end had a product in their hands that was ultimately what they wanted and all prior to starting construction.

Folks often consider us a “technology” company.  I’m cool with that, though I tend to consider us a communication company (hence our Architectural Communications trademark) that happens to use 3D technology as our method of choice.  But because of the technology moniker, we occasionally meet up with home builders that are lets say, technically challenged or even phobic. And I don’t mean that in an “I don’t know how to turn on my computer” sort of way, but more in a “technology is for the younger generation” sort of way.

Comments we hear include “Social networking is for kids” and “We have always done it this way”.  Perhaps the most interesting comment I hear is that “we are a ‘traditional’ home builder” with the emphasis on “traditional”. Now, they don’t mean they build “traditional homes”, just that they go about their business the way they always have. For some, this could be 25+ years.  And this tends to be the crutch they use to avoid leveraging technology.

One example of using technology is the use of virtual model homes.  Mike Moore, President of Making Customers suggests “To do this effectively builders need to change the sales environment from the traditional sales office or model home and truly use technology as the sales engagement and presentation environment. When they do it will be at less cost than model homes and more effective. Until they do they will be stuck in a sales process transition that isn’t serving the consumer or their business to it’s fullest.”

Are you stuck in a sales process rut?  I don’t have a PhD in consumer behavior, but it seems to me that in today’s “new economy”, those of us in the building industry need to learn to adapt to how our home buyers are getting their information, experiencing our new communities and making decisions.  What do you think?