Uncategorized – Page 5

21 03, 2012

A paint color by any other name

By Steve McKee|2019-04-25T17:06:35+00:00March 21st, 2012|Elements of Design, Uncategorized|Comments Off on A paint color by any other name

It seemed like it should be pretty simple to select colors for inside my house. Compared to the other decisions we had made so far in our remodel – like agonizing over the nuances of our kitchen cabinets – it would be easy to select some hues from a Kelly Moore fan deck. Then reality happened. I was using our kitchen remodel as a reason for doing a long overdue color makeover of our major rooms. Some extra accent lighting would be added, but it was mostly about new colors everywhere. The bedrooms and baths would be spared [...]

17 02, 2012

What I learned while designing for First Street

By Steve McKee|2019-04-25T17:06:36+00:00February 17th, 2012|Benicia, Thinking like an architect, Uncategorized|Comments Off on What I learned while designing for First Street

I recently got to design a major building for First Street. Then economic realities intervened, and the client decided to put it on indefinite hold for now. It was a bit of a bummer, though not all that surprising. For a glorious month and a half this project was real. This would probably be the project of my lifetime. A way to directly make that little corner of downtown live better for Benicians for decades to come, maybe centuries. It was critical to get it as good as could be. That included achieving major cost savings for my client and [...]

10 01, 2012

Favorite Architects

By Steve McKee|2019-04-25T17:06:36+00:00January 10th, 2012|Random observations, Thinking like an architect, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Favorite Architects

My friend Meg asked me if I have a favorite architect. It made me realize that I don’t, and that made me happy somehow, like that indicated that I was open-minded and an independent thinker or something like that. But then I remembered that a few years ago I fell hard for the work of Addison Mizner, who was instrumental in developing the ultra-refined Mediterranean Revival style associated with Palm Beach in the 1920’s. So elegant yet adaptable to so many situations! I suppose there was also my first crush, Dutch architect Herman Hertzberger who gave a guest lecture at [...]

22 10, 2011

My two smoke detector stories

By Steve McKee|2019-04-25T17:06:36+00:00October 22nd, 2011|Random observations, Uncategorized|Comments Off on My two smoke detector stories

A couple days ago my son was walking down the hall past my office when a loud beeping began sounding somewhere in our house. He and I have a tendency to fall into goofing off pretty easily, usually instigated by me on days when I’ve been working alone all day. So the sound of another false alarm inspired lame jokes by me about running for our lives and comments like “Oh no! She’s about to blow!” (Sadly, this is what passes for wit during the long afternoon hours at McKee Associates.) We followed the sound down the hall to his [...]

7 08, 2011

The Great Kitchen Remodel of 2011

By Steve McKee|2019-04-25T17:06:36+00:00August 7th, 2011|Elements of Design, Uncategorized|Comments Off on The Great Kitchen Remodel of 2011

Long before my current kitchen remodel, there was the Great Family Room Addition of ’98 in which my wife and I and our two small children passed the rainy season with the back corner of our house missing its walls and roof. Instead of risking our hardwood floor, we chose to stop work on our do-it-yourself addition for the winter and hunker down against the cold rains by covering the back of the house with a massive sheet of clear plastic sloped toward the backyard. We chose clear plastic because this was our Family Room and it would [...]

21 07, 2011

Building them like they used to

By Steve McKee|2019-04-25T17:06:36+00:00July 21st, 2011|Random observations, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Building them like they used to

I’m in the midst of my own small kitchen addition. I’m pushing out the side wall of my kitchen twenty inches. Why only twenty inches, you ask? (Everybody else does.) It’s because that’s all we need to cure our ills, and going further would block a view out a family room window. It may be a small addition, but it’ll be a much-needed makeover of the whole kitchen. Builders are available these days for the lowest rates I’ve ever seen. That’s part of the reason I’m doing my project now. I’m doing enough work myself just to make sure I [...]