Thursday, April 12, 2012

Brooklyn Museum Shop Opens for Business

The Brooklyn Museum Shop, designed by Visbeen Associates, is now open for business! It opened it's doors to the public on April 4 and will be having an open house this evening from 7:00pm-9:00pm - if you are in the NYC area, feel free to stop by! (Click here for details regarding this event)

The media is talking about this great new space. As written by New York Magazine, "what began as a humble gift stand in the thirties has morphed into a spacious shop off the museum’s lobby with eclectic gift items from the Americas, Asia, and Africa." The New York Times featured this article about the expansion:

The Brooklyn Museum Shop Expands

Evan Sung for The New York Times

By TIM McKEOUGH

Published: April 4, 2012

REPRINTS

Follow Home on Twitter

Connect with us at@NYTimesHomefor articles and slide shows on interior design and life at home.

Enlarge This Image

Evan Sung for The New York Times

Enlarge This Image

As part of the transformation of its first floor, the Brooklyn Museum has opened an expanded 4,150-square-foot shop with plenty of display space and a special focus on items designed and made in the borough.

“One of the key new things in the store — even though we’ve always had Brooklyn-made products and things that conveyed Brooklyn imagery — is a very large space that honors established and emerging Brooklyn artisans and designers,” said Sallie Stutz, vice director for merchandising.

Among the pieces on display will be wooden toy gorillas by David Weeks ($80 to $105), whose chandeliers also help light the store; Brooklyn-shaped bamboo cutting boards by Amy Stringer-Mowat ($48); and colorful Balancing Blocks by Fort Standard ($85), pictured.

Information: (718) 501-6258 or brooklynmuseum.org.

Stay tuned to our blog for the final photos of the shop - coming soon!

Monday, April 9, 2012

The Treehouse Community Garden

We recently were given the opportunity to work with The Treehouse Community on their plans for a community garden in the Baxter neighborhood. The Treehouse Community is a group of individuals living in a home together that is focused on praying, sharing, growing and ministering to each other and their neighbors by attending to physical needs as well as emotional and spiritual ones. Their vision is to create a shared green space in the Baxter neighborhood, where currently there are no sources for nutritious, affordable food within walking distance, making it an official "food desert." Wayne was able to sit down with them and sketch design ideas for bringing their vision to life. Here is what he came up with, as well as some photos of the drawing session....

Site Plan

Aerial Perspective

Shed Concept A - Perspective

Shed Concept A - Elevation

Shed Concept B - Perspective

The plans for the garden include twelve raised vegetable beds intended to be used by families in the area. The Treehouse Community is also planning to partner with The Baxter Community Center to teach gardening, nutrition, cooking, and canning classes to all ages.

We were happy to partner with them and hopefully achieve their goal, as stated on their blog, to "see God's kingdom advance here on earth, starting with a few seeds, a bit of soil, some water, and the sun."

For more information on this project, please visit The Treehouse Community's blog - treehousegarden.wordpress.com.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Cabin Life: Dreams on Paper

Two of our designs, Horizon View and Bear Tooth Lodge, were featured in Cabin Life Magazine, a national publication that captures the essence of the vacation home lifestyle, in their Dreams on Paper section. And did you notice that banner on the top of the cover talking about award-winning designs? They are talking about us!

To see more photos of the Horizon View or Bear Tooth Lodge, please visit the gallery of our website: www.visbeen.biz > gallery > residential > cottages

For ease of reading, click here to view the full article.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Faith in Deeds Ministry Campus in India

We recently had the opportunity to work on a project with a ministry in India called Faith in Deeds. Faith in Deeds Inc. is a faith-based, not-for-profit organization committed to the support of disenfranchised children of India by providing the children with a family atmosphere in which they can be discipled in the way of the Lord Jesus, by educating them in a manner that they can make properly informed life-decisions based on a Biblical world view, and by inspiring them to love each other and to share the love of Jesus throughout their community.

Faith in Deeds was able to purchase a 5 acre parcel of land in Andhra Pradesh, India, and Visbeen Associates worked with them to design a new campus that includes a boy's dorm, girl's dorm, playground, community center & clinic, Christian school and green space for gardening and raising animals. The first phase of the project will be the boy's and girl's dorm.

Their current rented ministry location

How the children currently sleep in their dorm rooms. Very typical in the local culture.

The crowded city

Children from the FID home with the founder of the ministry, Thomas Mollhagen (originally from South India, adopted into a family from Grand Rapids, MI) and his wife Dana.

Their newly acquired land for the new campus with a corn field on the border of the property

The pump and irrigation pool on the property with kids from the FID home

Taking a tour of the land with the kids on the day they dedicated it to the work of the Lord

Our design concept for the new campus

We will keep you updated on the progress of this project here on our blog and on our facebook page, so check back!

For more information on the ministry, visit Faith in Deeds' website - www.faithindeeds.org - or facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Faith-In-Deeds-USA/339566304349?ref=ts.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Highfield Taking Shape for the Spring Parade of Homes!

The Highfield is taking shape! This masterpiece will be featured in the Kalamazoo Parade of Homes June 8-16, so mark your calendars and don't miss the opportunity to take your own private tour of this lakeside retreat! Until then, we can all swoon over these progress photos that give a glimpse of what the final product will be like...