Haiti: Our Thoughts and Prayers are With You.

Here is a good link if your looking to Donate.  CNN.com/impact

Haiti Presidential Palace, Port-au-Prince before and after the earthquake

Photo HuffingtonPost.com

Will match your donation to Unicef

Recycled Glass Tile: Luxurious & Sustainable for a Modern Estate

In all the Bathrooms in this Modern Estate in Montecito we tried to use glass tile that was at least 50% content of recycled or post industrial glass tile.  The result was modernist elegance in every room.

The entire room is tiled in glass. Floors and Walls. The pattern is an offset running bond pattern installed vertically. The glass tiles are a mixture of sizes and vary from matte, to glossy. The floor is a 1" grid of matte glass mosaic and we used a 1/4" x 6" "pencil glass rectangular tile to finish the edges between the wall and the floor, like a tiny lining border. This room has a serene modernist and timeless quality to it.

This mosaic tile in the Pool House Bath is a mixture of stone and glass tiles. The colors were chosen to reflect the surrounding colors of the landscape and ocean beyond.

Modern Powder Room. We used very thin Glass Mosaic tile in conjunction with a counter to ceiling mirror simply applied to the drywall and tiled right up to the mirror. The Dornbract Faucets were plumbed to come through the mirror. Farrow and Ball Wallpaper is on the adjacent walls.

Copper and Wine colored Glass mosaic tiles on softly arched ceiling and illuminated from the sides above the wine racks was the perfect accent for the wine cellar.  Oceanside Tile is a great resource that we specify all the time for recycled content glass products. Here's a link to Oceanside's Sustainability page.

Dornier Seastar : Amphibious Flying "Boat"

The Flying Boat returns! Dornier's Seastar CD2 is a fully certified all composite twin engine amphibious Seaplane. It is the first new design for an amphibious plane in 50 years and developed by a company that has been the leader in the aero-marine industry since the early 20th century.

 The Seastar is an FAA- and EASA-certified amphibian capable of landing on runways or water. A true seaplane that easily handles fresh or salt-water swells up to two and a half feet, the Seastar and its all-composite construction is virtually impervious to corrosion. Its powered by two reliable Pratt & Whitney PT6 turboprop engines that give it a high cruising speed of 180 ktas. The in-line design of the twin-engines provides an additional measure of safety during operation. Dornier's Image Gallery.  Image above from Airliners.net.

5 Minute Gourmet Breakfast

Here is a healthy Saturday morning favorite in our house, a blend of color and textures, simply prepared, nutritious, and FAST.  This meal looks so good, it could go down in front of great chefs or entertaining in-laws, and they could not help but enjoy it.  The design of this plate is simply beautiful, and this is a great ‘fitness’ brunch meal.

A Perfectly Poached Egg should be just slightly running...31/2 minutes...

Ingredients:

4 Fresh eggs, Perfectly Poached

2 Sourdough English Muffins

2 cups of Mache or Frisee Blend Salad Greens

1 Satsuma tangerines

Herbed Salad Dressing

Fresh Cracked pepper and salt

Tools:

Egg Poacher

Toaster

Preparation: For Two

Simply put, tpoach the eggs in a poacher for 3 to 4 minutes, or more traditionally fill a sauce pan with about 3 cups of water, break each egg into a teacup, drop into the sauce pan after the water has boiled, and let them poach. 3-4 minutes

Meanwhile, toast the muffins to your liking, and dress the plates with the Frisee or Mache greens.  Arrange the muffins on the plate, lightly dress the salad and arrange the tangerines atop the salad or next to it. 

Drain the eggs now, place gingerly on the muffins and sprinkle generously with pepper and a dash of salt. 

All in under five minutes, couldn’t have designed a  faster or tastier meal…

Master of Color Abstraction Kenneth Noland Dies at 85

Kenneth Noland to many of us was best known as an wonderful abstract artist who's paintings hung in many outstanding interiors and museums around the world and punctuated the space they occupied with vibrancy and color.  Mr Noland was also known in the design world as being married to Paige Rense the editor in chief of Architectural Digest Magazine.  Naturally, it was not all unusual to see Nolands gracing the pages of the magazine...they lept off the page.

Kenneth Noland's 1958 work "Spread" at the Grey Art Gallery NYU... image courtesy The York Times.

Read The New York Times Arts Section

Kenneth Noland Abstract Painter of Brilliantly Colored Shapes, Dies at 85

also check out

Kenneth Noland Website

Construction Progress - Eco Luxury Home in Montecito ...Is Slated for LEED for Homes Platinum

The Steel is going up on our LEED for Homes Eco Luxry Project in Montecito, CA. 
This is a very exciting time to be "out of the dirt", especially before the really rainy season here in California.

Tallest Building In The World Opens Today: The Burj Dubai

The New Tallest Building in the world opens today The Burj Dubai. Here's a link to today's Wall Street Journal Article about the tower. 

I think it is interesting to compare these two charts the one above uses the former World Trade Center in Manhattan in lieu of the Sears Tower in Chicago. Also, the bottom illustration uses Canary Wharf in London.