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

the power of rooms

February 21st 2012 Comments: 5

Stumbling on the same evidence again and again I’ve discovered a few secrets of my instincts and they have led me to my parents I’ve come to know how I have walked and prospered in the presence of a love that has little circumstance that all I have done these last twenty years has been in front of … [read more]

McAlpine Journal: Interior Home Design

cabana, boy

February 10th 2012 Comments: 5

To begin with, let me say that we love designing cabanas. In the midst of the everyday task of juggling complex programs, all the while trying to make things look simple and elegant, the lone pool cabana asks for little.  Sure, they must house the occasional fireplace or bathroom or … [read more]

McAlpine Journal: Mcclellan Home
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