LGA STUDIOS BLOG
Happy New Year!
Well, 2020 certainly has been one for the books. Although we’re looking forward to saying farewell to some of the stresses and inconveniences we’ve all dealt with this year, we also look back in gratitude for the people in our lives and all the ways we’ve grown.
Innovative Building Materials to Use in a Custom Home to Improve Durability
Building a custom home is a significant investment. Whether you plan on aging with your custom home or selling it during a market upswing, the only way the investment will pay dividends is if you build it with materials that will stand the test of time.
Guest blogger Matt Lee writes more about several innovative building materials on the market that can help your custom home maintain its integrity in the face of harsh weather and the debilitating effects of time.
Hillside Home: Building Site Progress
Stunning progress shots from a custom home we loved working on! What a view! Still, after all these years in business, it's a thrilling feeling to see our clients' visions come to life.
5 Modern Custom Home Trends
Guest blogger Matt Lee from Innovative Building Materials is back with a post about modern custom home trends. Learn more about how homeowners are making their homes more luxurious, personalized, and sustainable than ever, incorporating accents such as bold trim, black fixtures, and plenty of glass.
Finding Home Design Inspiration During Your Quarantine
We all need to be taking excellent care of our mental health right now, and one of the best ways we’ve found to unwind while stuck at home is to give our creativity some time to play throughout each day. Try letting yourself have a little white space on your daily schedule to explore new and fresh ideas that you may not have had time for otherwise and to get to know yourself a little better. In this post are two of our favorite methods that we use regularly to brainstorm custom home designs and that we invite you to try during this time of self-quarantining and social distancing!
Social Distancing? We're happy to meet with you by video conference!
LGA Studios is taking every precaution in terms of supporting our team and our clients during this unprecedented time. We’re prioritizing the health and safety of our community as the coronavirus situation unfolds, encouraging team members to work from home and following recommendations to practice social distancing.
What To Expect When Working With A Building Designer - Phase 5: Construction Documents
Our five-part blog series concludes today with this post about the construction document phase. This includes the blueprints and drawings that are created by your building designer for actual construction and permits, and can include more detailed computer generated models of your future home as well.
What To Expect When Working With A Building Designer - Phase 4: Design Development
Ready for a virtual walkthrough of your home? Or do you just want to see a clearer breakdown what all this is going to cost you to build? All of the nitty gritty details will start to come together in this phase.
Once you’ve reviewed your initial home concept, you’ll meet with your designer to discuss any changes you’d like to see. You may go through several rounds of adjustments, and as the design and the project evolve, these initial concepts/schematic designs are what will turn into your design development drawings.
What to Expect When Working With a Building Designer - Phase 3: Conceptual Drawings
Here’s where things get exciting! From the information you provided in the initial consultation, you’ll now start to see the first visual representation of what will be your home. After meeting with you to understand what you’re looking for, many designers will start by creating a bubble or block diagram of the potential home. Your designer will get to flex their training and creativity here, establishing spatial relationships, living zones, and considering site topography to take advantage of any views, slopes, or driveway preferences. This will also allow the designer to roughly formulate the square footage.
What to Expect When Working With A Building Designer - Phase 2: Initial Consultation
You’ve gathered your ideas, maybe you’ve purchased a site. Now it’s time to start turning that dream home of yours into a reality. Phase 2 is all about finding a building designer you can communicate with, one who understands your vision.
What to Expect When Working With A Building Designer - Phase 1: Gathering Ideas
The new year is a great time to set big goals and resolutions—like finding the right building designer to help you create your custom dream home. But this process can too often seem overwhelming when you don’t know what to expect. This week, we’re breaking down the five phases of taking a home from the spark of an idea in your head to a fully developed set of construction documents.
How to Tell if a House Has Good Bones
Although we’re best known for designing custom homes, LGA Studios has been thrilled to be involved with many incredible home renovations and remodels over the years. We’re featuring several memorable remodels on the blog this month, all of which took a lot of imagination, innovation, and collaboration to create just what our clients were looking for! But for any home renovation to be successful, it’s important to start with a structurally sound building that is capable of being improved or modified—what many would call “good bones.” Guest blogger Matt Lee from Innovative Construction and Building Materials has more on this topic.
Architectural Travelogue - Miami Art Deco
As a building designer, one of my favorite things to tour while on vacation is the local architecture. I'd never visited the Miami Art Deco District or seen the grand beach hotels that make this city so iconic, so when the American Institute of Building Design (AIBD) hosted their conference in Florida, I made it a point to spend some time in Miami for a little architectural field trip.
Habitat for Humanity Ground Blessing
Larry Gilland and Shannon Baumgartner from LGA Studios were honored to attend the “Ground Blessing” ceremony on November 28th of a new duplex project on East Dale Street that we’ve been working on with Pikes Peak Habitat for Humanity.
A Special LGA Studios Project - Through an Intern's Eyes
Over the past several months, LGA Studios has had the privilege of working on a project for Habitat for Humanity, a true honor for us. Shannon Baumgartner has been an intern with LGA since July and she has been extremely involved on this project. Just in time for the holidays, Shannon put together her take on the behind the scenes process, to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas!
Touring Denver's Sacred Spaces with the Historic Preservation Alliance
Earlier this summer, Larry and Mary Gilland had the chance to go on the annual field trip with the Historic Preservation Alliance of Colorado Springs! This year took them to Denver to tour the best Sacred Spaces of the city. Architect and Architectural Historian Chuck Benson led this lively and informative tour, highlighting architectural treasures in our own backyard.
2018 AIBD ARDA Awards - Best Conceptual Design
LGA Studios was honored to receive an award for Best Conceptual Design at the American Institute of Building Design's Annual Meeting in Philadelphia last week! The American Residential Design Awards (ARDA) is the AIBD’s premier award program exhibiting design excellence in the residential building industry. It spotlights the most creative and innovative residential designers, builders, remodelers, architects, developers, land planners and interior designers in the nation and recognizes exceptional design.
LGA Studios Interview with Springs Magazine
LGA Studios was proud to be featured in the Spring issue of SPRINGS Magazine in an article by Cameron Moix all about current home style trends and how to make your space more inspired. We were also excited that the magazine chose to photograph a fabulous custom home LGA Studios designed in the Broadmoor Bluffs area to feature in the pages of the article, a stunning contemporary home that was a joy to design.
Building With Wildfire Resilience in Mind
There’s so much to think about when building your home, but structural stability is one of the most critical considerations. Fortunately, this is also an area of continuous advancement in the building industry, the result of lessons sometimes learned the hard way through natural disasters, whether they be fires, flooding, wind, or earthquakes. In our Rocky Mountain region, the most common trial has been wildfires.
LGA Studios-Designed Home in Colorado Springs Earns LEED Platinum Certification
LGA Studios could not be more proud to be part of the project featured in this post: a stunning modern home in Mountain Shadows that was just awarded LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).