Residential Neighborhoods of Boston

Fresh back from a visit to Boston and touring around the city viewing some architectural history. One thing of note about Boston is the fantastic urban neighborhoods that pocket themselves around the city. History is no stranger to this old east coast city, so tons of charm can be found roaming the streets. Following are a few images of typical housing you may stumble across...

The Brownstones of Commonwealth Avenue, just a block away from the amazing shopping on Newbury Street

The dripping history to be found in the Italian neighborhood known as the North End

Classic units of Beacon Hill, just a block away from the banks of The River Charles

Alley way entrance in Beacon Hill

Tacky Smack Vinyl Wall Art Installation Photos

Some pics of a recent installation for our new company, Tacky Smack, at the Seattle retail store Retrofit Home located in Capitol Hill... In these shots Tricia and I are putting up a bunch of our vinyl wall art designs in preparation for our launch party! Our new company focuses on vinyl surface art, sometimes referred to as wall tattoos or wall decals, which are essentially removable stickers for a new twist on home decor. Tacky Smack style! The team is: Betsy, Joshua, Tricia and Matthew.

Tricia working out the final details on "Mermaid Spice"

I'm prepping "Hanging Gardens"

Removing transfer tape from "Mermaid Spice" with our "Bombass" collection next door (Fairy, Bleeding Heart, Unicorn)

Tacky Smack Launch Party Flier

Our new vinyl surface art company, Tacky Smack, launches next week! If you live in Seattle, then please join us for the party at Retrofit Home on October 8th... we'll have our product in Retrofit Home, and our e-commerce website launches on the same day. Our current offerings total over 60 designs, all available in varying sizes and color palettes and ready for you to purchase via our website on October 8th...

Houston Apartment Community Remodel

A Bollen Design recently completed its first project in Texas with the remodel of a Houston apartment community for Centaurus, a Dallas based company. The Trails at Dominion Park property has 1,000 units, and sits on a large campus of buildings with multiple pools and tenant facilities. We worked on the Leasing Center, Internet and Business Lounge, Fitness Center and Clubhouse. The Clubhouse build is currently on-hold for a second phase. Our package included a full set of construction drawings for each of the four buildings, and a complete Interior Design package. We also installed the project over the course of a week during an on-site visit before opening to the tenants. Following images show some of the interior design and build-out for a couple of the spaces...

This picture is of the new leasing center entry.

This picture is of the new leasing desks of which there are five stations.

This picture is of the business lounge area, TV yet to be installed on wall.

This picture is in the lounge area.

This picture is in the internet lounge with computer stations and seating.

Preservation Green Lab

In yet another lead by example push, Seattle will become the headquarters for the Preservation Green Lab. Among other things, their main goal will be to encourage other cities to consider historic preservation and the existing building stock in order to become more sustainable. The thought being that the greenest building is the one already built, as the construction of a new green building requires a fair amount of resources.

I pulled these three goals from the website:
Good Policy, Green Results: The greenest building is often the one that is already built, which is precisely why the Preservation Green Lab will work in various cities and states to develop and implement policies that support green retrofits and adaptive reuse, as well as reinvestment in existing communities.

Greening by Example: To demonstrate that older and historic buildings can, in fact, be retrofitted to achieve high levels of energy efficiency, the Preservation Green Lab will launch a number of green retrofit projects in pilot cities across the country.

The Go-To for Going Green: The Preservation Green Lab will lead the conversation on best practices and model policies for greening our country's prized older and historic buildings, functioning as the go-to resource for those navigating the intersection of historic preservation and sustainability.

The Green Lab will be under the National Trust for Historic Preservation and their Sustainability Program. The headquarters for this new lab will be right down the street from our Capitol Hill office, located on 12th Avenue in the historic Piston and Ring building, already home to some great business, and of course a fine example of sustainability by using the existing building stock.