First conceptual sketches for a weekend house in Wimberly. MJ went to the site last week and apparently he liked it so much that couldn’t help himself. Now, we are lucky that the client will probably fall in love with it and sign the contract:-) Ay… technicalities never have meant much to Mr Neal, I should be used to it by now…
But I don’t blame him, up his alley completely, minimalist program, tiny little weekend home with minuscule budget, did any one say challenge???
We were proud of our entry for the Dun Laoghaire Library Competition. Reese and MJ got to travel to Dublin and see the site in person. The location is on the Irish Sea and they stayed in a hotel right on the shoreline, a block and a half from the site. Field trips are something else… especially if there’s Guiness involved. We hope to go back to Ireland soon. We miss it! We’ve spent a couple of month-long summer vacations there. We especially liked the Connemara and Northen Ireland, all of Ireland is just perfect, really.
Anyway, here’s our competition entry.
Speaking of the pilates studio, I don’t think I posted my favorite construction picture of alll times. John Bowyer took the picture; that’s some of Living Art’s fantastic crew. The guy in the red shirt with the blackcap is Michael Kalish, John’s partner at Living Art (and a proud daddy for the second time, congrats again Mike!!!)
Living Art is the construction company that built the pilates studio and our office, and they are building the Wolfe Den, and many more to come… In my book, they have a lot to be proud of. Stay tuned for updates, especially if you are in the market to buy a house designed by MJ. It looks like there will be a few good homes to be had in the horizon. These guys are not only working for us and our clients, but we are working for them too:-)
Next to Michael, at the very end, is MJ, with a beard, looking happy, eh??? (you can tell it’s him because his tennis are clean!)
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| Pilates studio by MJ Neal, AIA |
Check the Pilates studio out! It’s open for business. Ann Arnoult is an excellent Pilates instructor and a former dancer at Ballet Austin. This project was built by Living Art, Austin. John and Mike’s building outfit.
Update April 22, 2008
Foda Studio created the three illustrations for the project, I think they are our good luck charm:
We are proud to announce that this project has won the 2008 AIA Austin top Design Honor Award! This makes us the winners of the top local design award for two consecutive years! Stand by for celebration party:-)
This is pretty cool. We’ve been talking to alternatives to Portland cement for years now, who hasn’t… Here’s a 4,000 yr old idea.
We got the top AIA Austin award on Saturday:-) Kool! Go Farley go!!!
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We’ve been shooting pics for the Farley Studio and putting them together for a presentation. Pretty intense week and weekend but I’m VERY happy with the pics. I was running around the building like mad at sunset, I think I CAN be in two places at once!
The awesome site plans and exploded axo’s are from fab Jett of fodastudio who is so talented I just want to slap him…
It looks pretty good huh??? I hadn’t been in the finished space and it won my heart. As usual, it felt playful but calming, daring but appropiate, unexpected as always. The good thing about MJ is that he doesn’t stop surprising me, when I think I have him figured out, he goes off in a completely new direction, EVERY SINGLE TIME…
If you don’t believe me, wait until we post the almost finished Pilates Studio and especially the Wolfe Den, which is well underway… I’m green with envy with that project… I want it to be mine!!!
I’m also really getting into the photography part of the studio. I was quite shy at the beginning, but after the success with these, the pilates studio pictures, and a project for another architect using a Hasselblad, I’m starting to get requests to shoot other people’s work too. Bring it on!
mj neal architects - blublog 