Uncategorized – Page 13

23 10, 2007

A Benician in New York

By Steve McKee|2007-10-23T04:05:43+00:00October 23rd, 2007|My favorite columns, Travel Tales, Uncategorized|Comments Off on A Benician in New York

The family and I took a four day trip to New York City recently. I've made several visits there in my life and have always really dug the energy level. I was overdue, and it also felt like it was time to introduce my kids to this uniquely American city. As cities go, New York is indeed the alpha - a city thoroughly energized in so many of the ways a city can be a city, so big and strong, a sort of masculine counterpart to the curves and delicacies of San Francisco. Melody shopped online for a basic yet [...]

19 09, 2007

Figuring out how much your building project will cost

By Steve McKee|2007-09-19T04:06:43+00:00September 19th, 2007|Before you begin, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Figuring out how much your building project will cost

If the title of today’s article got your interest, get in line. Estimating the cost for a building project is one of the most critical steps in the early decision making, yet remains one of the most vexing. It’s a classic “catch 22” situation: We need a full set of drawings to figure out the cost but don’t want to commit to drawings until we know we can afford the project. Later, when a design is finalized and a full set of drawings and structural calculations are meticulously completed, a bid process exists in which builders scrutinize these drawings and [...]

21 08, 2007

Why we travel: The city of Prague is a marvel – who knew?

By Steve McKee|2007-08-21T04:25:11+00:00August 21st, 2007|Travel Tales, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Why we travel: The city of Prague is a marvel – who knew?

“I suppose you’ll be doing an architectural tour?” asked a new acquaintance upon hearing I was headed to Europe. I’d never quite thought of it that way. “Yes,” I said. “Yes, I will.” That question stayed with me in the days that followed and got me wandering if I freakishly require my wife to follow me on some to-do list of visiting important buildings. The more I thought about it, the more certain I became that we do pretty much the same that everybody else does when they tour Europe: we simply check out the cool stuff. Since most of [...]

22 07, 2007

The “it” moment with my new house

By Steve McKee|2007-07-22T04:26:16+00:00July 22nd, 2007|My favorite columns, Thinking like an architect, Uncategorized|Comments Off on The “it” moment with my new house

I had an unexpected “it” moment the day before I was to surrender my big brand-new house over to the barely known renter. It happened after my family and I had spent a Sunday morning doing one last round of chores and cleanup. We loaded up the car to go, but I had to go back inside to check something and, for half a minute, had the house to myself and it was as perfect as it would ever be. The place would never be so free of flaws or look this good ever again. The next day it would [...]

20 06, 2007

Dream-house for rent (no kidding)

By Steve McKee|2007-06-20T04:28:23+00:00June 20th, 2007|Random observations, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Dream-house for rent (no kidding)

You’d think that someone who wrote about building and design topics for the local paper (kind of like me) and was also having a house built for himself (like me) would have something to say about the design and building of said house. It’s a pretty big deal, giving birth to a house. Stuff happens. Anecdotes accumulate. All of it fodder for the ol’ column. But blathering on about myself has never appealed to me, though I seem to be doing it just fine at this very moment. Yet insights, a few of them anyway, did result from this house-building [...]

20 05, 2007

Artist Open Studios reveal creative undercurrent alive in Benicia

By Steve McKee|2007-05-20T04:29:37+00:00May 20th, 2007|Benicia, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Artist Open Studios reveal creative undercurrent alive in Benicia

It was the orange-red door with all the visible brush strokes that got me. It completely transformed a mundane door into something arresting and vivid. This type of door (a standard issue four-panel "colonist" to those of you in the know) is so common in today's built environment that it's usually completely inert, a non-entity really, yet here it had been transformed into something remarkable simply with paint. No big bucks needed, just enough talent to make the paint seem vibrant. This colorful gesture was just part of the zeitgeist of the Arsenal, the abandoned industrial section of our town [...]