Brooks & Falotico

The Rich Architectural History of New Canaan Connecticut

2012-05-11T16:06:45Z

New Canaan, Connecticut and the surrounding area is rich in architectural history. Efforts to preserve this wonderful heritage abound, thanks to New Canaan area architectural preservation organizations such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the New Canaan Historical Society, the Philip Johnson Glass House, and the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation.

As an important center of modern American residential design development during the mid-1900’s, New Canaan was the center of construction of approximately 80 notable modern homes. New Canaan became known as, “… the locus of the modern movement’s experimentation in materials, construction methods, space, and form”, according to The Harvard Five in New Canaan: Mid-Century Modern Houses, by William D. Earls.

A centerpiece of New Canaan architectural treasures is the 1949 Philip Johnson Glass House. It has exterior walls made of glass and an open interior which was a radical design departure from prior residential architectural convention. The 47 acre Philip Johnson Glass House site is a National Trust Historic Site.

If you are interested in touring New Canaan architectural gems, you may contact the New Canaan Historical Society by telephone at (203) 966-1776.

The Brooks & Falotico Architects of New Canaan, Connecticut, design and build elegant custom homes in Fairfield County, Connecticut, and Westchester County, New York. We may be reached by calling 203-966-8440 or you may e-mail us at info@brooksandfalotico.com. Please be sure to join us on Facebook and Twitter as well.

Image via Wikimedia

Gorgeous Garden Path Design by Fairfield County, CT Architect

2012-05-11T15:00:45Z

As we move into the warmer months here in New England and consider our home landscape design or outdoor living scenario, one of the many fun outdoor design challenges to solve is garden path or walkway design.

There are three aspects of garden path design that will help you develop a path concept and details you’ll love. They are connections, style, and material. For extra images and ideas, we would refer you to this great garden path article by Sunset.com.

Connections.
Where is your path starting, and where will it go? What areas in your landscape is it connecting? What are the nature of the beginnings and endings – are they hard fine lines, or gradual transitional stones reducing down to a few just scattered in the grass?

Garden Style.
As you may know, there are a handful of garden design styles from which most gardens emanate. A few of the basic styles are Formal, Cottage, Perennial Gardens, Japanese, Mixed Border, Water Gardens, and low maintenance Natural Gardens – and many variations on these themes. Each of these themes defines the nature of your path, for example, the Formal garden is a, “…beautiful, orderly arrangement of gardened areas utilizing line and structure to form the backbone of the design.” Your Formal garden path will be straight, with hard edges. Refer to the Sunset.com article for ideas.

Garden Materials.
Just as garden path style is defined by the overall garden style, the same is true for garden path materials. Formal gardens utilize a variety of stones for paths and walkways, in addition to gravel, and stone-edged gravel.

Cottage or natural style gardens are characterized by, “…curving walkways, ornamental grasses, perennials, the sound of flowing water, and indigenous plants which thrive with less upkeep in their native habitat. Mulch and gravel walkways lined with short grasses and perennials blend well in the tranquil backyard landscape.”

Check out these gorgeous outdoor landscaping images at Fairfield County, CT Architect Brooks & Falotico New England homes:

The architects of Brooks & Falotico would love to hear from you about architectural projects in New England or Fairfield County, Connecticut, that you are planning this year. We may be reached at Brooks & Falotico by calling 203-966-8440 or by e-mail at info@brooksandfalotico.com. Please join us on Facebook and Twitter as well. Plus you can always stop by: 199 Elm Street, New Canaan, CT 06840

Images from the Brooks & Falotico Portfolio

More Fairfield & Westchester County Architects Building Green Homes

2012-05-08T18:31:02Z

Are you a Fairfield County, Connecticut or Westchester County, New York resident interested in building a custom luxury ‘green’ home? If you are, you will find the following McGraw-Hill Construction report to be of interest:

An early May 2012 SmartMarket Report by McGraw-Hill Construction reported on the increase of new and remodeled green homes in the residential market. The report states that we will be seeing a big increase in green home remodeling and new construction in the next few years. The report noted two primary reasons for this — consumers perceive that green homes have an inherently greater value, and that green homes save money.

The report notes the following McGraw-Hill Construction facts about the green home’s share of the construction market, with projections based on the five-year forecast for overall residential construction:

Green Home Market Share 2011: 17% of the market or $17 billion
Projected Green Home Market Share 2016: 29%-38% of the market or $87–114 billion

Quoting Harvey Bernstein, Vice President of Industry Insights and Alliances at McGraw-Hill Construction, “In the current residential market, there is an enormous need to differentiate your homes for consumers. When builders are able to offer homes that not only are green, but also offer the combination of higher quality and better value, they have a major competitive edge over those building traditional homes.”

An interesting contributing factor to the anticipated growth of green homes noted in the report is that significantly fewer builders are now reporting higher first costs for building green, than were reported in 2008. Refer to the rest of the SmartMarket Report for additional information about factors driving the green home building trends, and resulting changes in the residential marketplace.

For Fairfield County, Connecticut and Westchester County, New York residents interested in building a custom luxury ‘green’ home, please consider the residential design and construction work of Brooks & Falotico Architects of New Canaan, Connecticut.

Image from the Brooks & Falotico Portfolio