Friday, November 26, 2010

Done again!

This time we've finished the design/build of a screened-in porch addition for a fantastic client in Wisconsin. We couldn't have asked for better clients or a better place to work. Glad to be finally done though (as I'm sure they are too)!
So if you need some design / drawings / work done on anything single-family residential, give us a call, cuz we're available!
Here are a few pictures, and if you want more, visit us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/pages/Chicago-IL/Grounded-Design-Studio)

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Z Spring!

So the spring has finally arrived, and we're excited to get back outside and do some building! Not to mention actually just get outside. It's the season of a crazy amount of Chicago activities, and we're excited to emerge from our social cocoons as well. Maybe you'll see us around town. But not quite yet. We're actually in the middle of a big website overhaul at the moment, and then maybe after that we'll have some breathing room... and some time to play frisbee... Meanwhile, just continue perusing our (still in process but should be done really soon!) updated website.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

The Deck is done!

After many a long day (and night) of manual labor, Dan and I have finally finished the deck! Grounded Design Studio's first design/build job for some great clients in Columbus, OH. A big thanks to them for their patience and for picking us for the job. We also wanna say thanks to everybody who helped by lending some time, or some tools, to the job.
We're quite happy with how it turned out, and we hope it gets some good use before the cold weather sets in. We'll have to post more pics later showing the firepit in use .
Let us know if you like it (or you want us to build one for you!).
For more pics (of the final product, and the building process) please visit this link: http://groundeddesign.jalbum.net/

Friday, August 21, 2009

Dan recognized as emerging Sustainability Leaders

Design Professionals Honored as Emerging Sustainability Leaders

NORCROSS, GA – The Design Futures Council has selected a half-dozen professionals for its 2009 class of Emerging Leaders. These individuals will receive registration scholarships to attend the eighth annual Leadership Summit on Sustainable Design in Chicago September 30 – October 2.

The Design Futures Council is an interdisciplinary network of design, product, and construction leaders exploring global trends, challenges, and opportunities to advance innovation and shape the future of the industry and environment. Members include leading architecture and design firms, building product manufacturers, and service providers that take an active interest in their future.

One of the Design Futures Council's missions is to identify and recognize emerging leaders who are having—and will increasingly have—a profound impact on design practices, design professions, and the community. The Emerging Leaders scholarship program, now in its third year, addresses this goal by selecting individuals who represent the future of design practice in terms of its broadening scope, service to society, sustainable design, and technological innovation.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Localvore Potluck

Two weekends ago Grounded Design hosted a Localvore Potluck at their studio. What's a localvore you might ask?

Wikipedia says, "The locavore movement is increasingly important in the United States and elsewhere as interest in sustainability and eco-consiousness become more prevalent.[1] Those who are interested in eating food that is locally produced, not moved long distances to market, are called "locavores," and the word "locavore" is the word of the year for 2007 for the Oxford American Dictionary.[2] This word was the creation of Jessica Prentice of the San Francisco Bay Area at the time of World Environment Day, 2005.[3] It is rendered "localvore" by some, depending on regional differences, usually.[4][5] The food may be grown in home gardens or grown by local commercial groups interested in keeping the environment as clean as possible and selling food close to where it is grown. Some people consider food grown within a 100-mile radius of their location local, while others have other definitions. In general the local food is thought by those in the movement to taste better than food that is shipped long distances.[1]

Farmers' markets play a role in efforts to eat what is local.[6] Preserving food for those seasons when it is not available fresh from a local source is one approach some locavores include in their strategies. Living in a mild climate can make eating locally grown products very different from living where the winter is severe or where no rain falls during certain parts of the year.[7] Those in the movement generally seek to keep use of fossil fuels to a minimum, thereby releasing less carbon dioxide into the air and preventing greater global warming. Keeping energy use down and using food grown in heated greenhouses locally would be in conflict with each other, so there are decisions to be made by those seeking to follow this lifestyle. Many approaches can be developed, and they vary by locale.[8] Such foods as spices, chocolate, or coffee pose a challenge for some, so there are a variety of ways of adhering to the locavore ethic.[9]"

So ya, we at Grounded Design Studio decided to become localvores and invited our friends to join us. Guests were asked to bring anything farmed, fermented, produced, foraged, brewed locally. We got a great array of local beer, local wine, peaches, blueberries, peach compote, potato curry salad, blueberry ice cream, blueberry red wine sorbet, pizza with local ingredients, corn/bean/pepper salsa, potato and zucchini chips (who knew there are pink and purple potatoes), tomato/mozzarella/basil salad, mint tea, fudge, and cookies. Yum Yum to my tum tum! It was a great time, and we hope to continue the localvore potlucks in the near future. If you are interested in joining us or would like to host it at your house, let us know! Here are a few pictures of the food from the potluck. We unfortunately got so excited about the food that we forgot to take pictures of the actual people who came. Thanks so much to everyone who came!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Green Thoughts

We’re so Green right now it hurts. Here's the sarcastic version. Green means just keep doing things the way you’re doin’ ‘em. Be less bad. Put a recycling bin next to your trash can. The system works, we’ve just gotta tweak it a little. Don’t really question where it came from or where it’s going. Use less gas. Pollute less. Act nicer and put happy stickers on your bumper about changing the world one plastic bag at a time.

Green isn’t a solution, it’s a step. Right now, it’s a small step.
I’m not saying it’s not worth doing, but lets call it what it is, a small step towards a radically different mindset. Green is not sustainable. Let me say that again. Green is not sustainable. Sustainable is just that, sustainable. It can sustain itself. Indefinitely. It doesn’t need 1,000,000 gallons of foreign oil, water from someone else’s state, or food from someone else’s country. Or maybe it does, but if that’s the case our borders will have to be a lot looser and our politicians a lot friendlier.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Everybody's got kites -
Just a few more pics from Kid's Kite Day in Chicago.






Dragon Kite -
This one's for Japan Dan. Inspired? by his drawing here. Scroll down his page to see Dan's Dragon Kite. It's a little more impressive.
 

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