redefining dining

May 1st 2012 Comments: 5

The dining room. It’s the space we were traditionally made to sit up straight and behave for a few excrutiating hours during holiday dinners.  It’s also the room we couldn’t wait to leave.  I think it’s because we seldom go in there; it’s simply not on our daily radar. Sometimes … [read more]

McAlpine Journal: Gwinn Home

(Our) Houses of Veranda

April 24th 2012 Comments: 3

It’s a spectacular folio spotlighting homes from Veranda’s 25 year history in the publishing world. We are honored and humbled to have three of our homes included in this book. Two are located in Nashville, Tennessee and the third one is a second home in Rosemary Beach, Florida. We’d like … [read more]

McAlpine Journal: Design Details

marrakech expressions

April 18th 2012 Comments: 3

No these aren’t scenes from HBO’s hit series “Game of Thrones”. These are scenes I witnessed within the first thirty minutes of entering the souk (market) in the medina (city) in Marrakech last week. This ancient Moroccan city is claustrophobically compressed with indescribable textures, colors, odors and exoticisms. Being lost … [read more]

McAlpine Journal: Travel

inspired life

April 10th 2012 Comments: 0

As a designer, that’s a question you get asked a lot. Truthfully, inspiration can be found everywhere: travel, poetry, songs, films… you name it. We tend to collect bits of life like magpies and store them away until the right recipient is sitting in front of us. The thing that … [read more]

McAlpine Journal: Home Architect

rock of ages

April 3rd 2012 Comments: 2

Maybe it recalls a time when a hole carved in the living rock was our ancestor’s first shelter. Whatever the call, being blanketed in the permanence of stone is like being embraced by the earth itself. Creating the look of an aged stone house in modern-day construction is always a … [read more]

model behavior

March 27th 2012 Comments: 5

Programs such as Sketch-Up allow the CAD operating architect to fly through, over and under their designs in scenes worthy of a contemporary digitally animated film. These always leave me a bit cold. As amazingly realistic as they are, they always seem to lack the warmth of a human touch. … [read more]

McAlpine Journal: Architecture Process

love and the cottage

March 20th 2012 Comments: 0

Do you remember when you fell in love? How your heart leaned generously toward all that you came upon? The state of grace that love permits? The cottage stands as lucid testimony to that time when all you had was all you needed. It is physical evidence of a state … [read more]

McAlpine Journal: Home Architect

rosemary beach: resort to style

March 13th 2012 Comments: 2

Situated along the beautiful beaches of Walton County on Scenic Highway 30A, this bucolic hamlet is one of  the “New Urbanist” developments from renowned town planners Duany Plater Zyberk. I visited last week and was stretching to remember when the now-dense town consisted of one lone carriage house (designed by … [read more]

McAlpine Journal: Architect in 30A map

do come in

March 6th 2012 Comments: 3

It welcomes the visitor and prepares for the story about to unfold. In short, it holds itself out as representative of what’s within. Similar to houses, entry doors come in all styles, shapes and sizes. Tall, wide ones that have grown to oversized proportions can make you feel like a child readying … [read more]

McAlpine Journal: Home Architecture

VERANDA at 25

February 28th 2012 Comments: 2

Twenty-five years ago this April, a smart and determined lady with an abundance of style and a desk full of images published her first issue. That lady was Lisa Newsom and a quarter of a century later, her brain child (now helmed by Dara Caponigro under the care of the … [read more]

McAlpine Journal: Furniture
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