MICHAEL ON DESIGN

Starting From: $595,000 Unit 2A Floorplan >>

This is a very special unit and one of my favorites. It’s on the second floor, is 1750 sf and designed in a European loft style: wide-open spaces, clean modern finishes and beautiful Italian flooring, appliances, kitchens and closet. Similar to the other units in the building, it has 2 bedrooms and 2 full baths. The traditional Old San Juan brick and beam ceiling is over 15’ high. The newly refinished stucco walls contain new electrical wiring, internet communications and many other modern conveniences. The 3 double doors on the front of the unit open onto 3 narrow balconies and afford beautiful streetscape views down to the harbor and cruise ships. The sunlight through the doors is just gorgeous and it comes with deeded access to a 400 sf rooftop patio.

It’s priced at $595,000 and can be easily customized. Contact us by email or phone 787 723 3449 for more information.

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Starting From: $425,000 Unit 2B Floorplan >>

Unit 2B is an 1111 sf unit on the second floor. It has 2 bedrooms, 2 baths and overlooks the courtyard below. The second bedroom is left open so it can be used either as a home office, small entertainment area or guest room. The 15’ ceilings are constructed of traditional brick and beams and the thick curved, stucco arches are typical of Old San Juan design. The unit comes with deeded access to certain areas on the roof deck. We’ve selected modern Italian kitchens, closets and equipment for the unit to heighten the drama between the old and the new.

This unit is priced at $425,000 and can be customized. Contact us by email or phone 787 723 3449 for more information.

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Starting From: $695,000 Unit 3A Floorplan >>

Unit 3A is a 1760 sf, loft style unit on the third floor. This is the only unit with a private rooftop deck. The patio is 1000 sf and is accessed either by the stairs or the keyed elevator to the roof.The patio can be equipped with a splash pool, fountain, outdoor cooking facilities, storage for deck chairs, changing rooms – you name it! The unit has 3 wide doors opening to 3 balconies. The views overlooking the rooftops of Old San Juan and the harbor are as unique and Old San Juan itself. The unit has a 14’ ceiling, 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. It’s priced at $695,000 and can be customized to your specifications.  Contact us by email or phone 787 723 3449 for more information.

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Starting From: $450,000 Unit 3B Floorplan >>

Unit 3B is an 1111 sf unit on the third floor. Because it’s the top unit, it receives an abundance of light through several arched doors. Similar to the unit below, 2B, it has 2 baths and 2 bedrooms. The second bedroom has been left open for you to choose how you want to use it. All the appliances, kitchen cabinets and closets are imported from Italy. Italian marble floors add a unique look and feel to the contemporary interior. Roof top access and patio space is shared with the other units. The unit has 14’ ceilings and is priced at $450,000. You can customize your unit by emailing me. Contact me by email or phone 787 723 3449 for more information.

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Starting From: $475,000 Penthouse Floorplan >>

The penthouse is the most recent addition to the project. It will be a totally new building with a traditional brick and beam ceiling, and thick stucco walls. The penthouse is located on the roof of the building and is accessed either by the stairs or keyed elevator. Although the unit is 787 sf, there is 832 sf of private patio space overlooking the rooftops of Old San Juan and an additional 797 sf of roof top decking above the unit. That’s nearly 1,600 sf of private decks for outdoor entertainment, cooking, bathing or just plain relaxing.

This unit is designed with 2 bedrooms and one bath but can easily be modified to meet your needs. For more information contact by email or phone: 787 723 3449. The penthouse is priced at $475,000.

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 10 years ago I moved into a  small house on Redd’s Pond in Marblehead, MA. I noticed several buoys arranged around the pond. Later that day several  gentlemen showed up with model boats they had built and began racing around the buoys. This was interesting I thought.

As a life long racing yachtsman, it was impossible to just stand there watching all this jostling, bumping and yelling going on around me every weekend. So I decided to get a model boat and began ‘thumb boat racing’. 

[Read more →]

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Send us your 411 question or your 911 story. Click the comment link below to enter.

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We had just finished putting up the basement wall forms and were ready to pour concrete that morning. The client called first thing to tell me she smelled a skunk….

I told her we’d be there first thing. Sure enough, in the 8’ basement wall form was a very confused and scared skunk. And boy was he stinky! We knew the mixer was going to be there at any moment and already 5 guys were leaning on shovels wondering if skunk removal was in their job description.

We needed to get this thing out of there. But how? Volunteers to jump into the hole and cajole the critter out were not forthcoming. Lowering sticks, nets, ropes with loops and whatever skunks eat into the forms were not working either. The mixer was on its way and burying the poor thing Mafia style in concrete just didn’t seem the right thing to do…

So here’s the mixer grinding away yards of ‘must pour now’ concrete, 7 guys leaning on shovels, both clients, their kids, and by now, half the neighborhood taking pictures, all looking into the hole at a very nervous walking stink bomb. We’re up to roughly $1,100 and hour now and nothing was getting done.

Finally somebody called the animal rescue league and determined that nailing wood scraps on a 2×10 leaning into the form would eventually provide a way for the little guy. We lowered it in and sure enough 2 hours later Pepe le Pew was gone. The concrete was poured and no one’s ever seen hide nor hair of Pepe again!

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I create motion and drama everyday. In fact if I’m not building this into my spaces, I’m not creating architecture. Come to think of it, I’m not sure if there can be architecture without motion.

Take the pyramids of Giza, for example. On the surface one would think, there they are immovable, indestructible static examples of one of man’s greatest engineering achievements. While we’re at it let’s throw in Picassos’ Guernica, Grand Central Station in New York and your bed room.

I can’t speak for other designers but when I talk about motion I’m referring to your perception of the space or object as you move around it. Although Michelangelo’s Pieta is a ‘frontal’ sculpture, it’s recently been shown ‘in the round’. There is so much more to see as one walks around it. It becomes more ‘alive.’ One’s understanding of it is so much more deep when many sides are seen in one viewing.

The pyramids of Giza look very different at sunrise than sunset, up close and from a distance, in the dark or in the blazing midday sun. Suddenly what appears to be a static, fixed object becomes dynamic and full of drama as one walks around it, or views it from different vantage points.

Although Picassos’ Guernica is a large flat stretch of canvas, one tends to ‘read’ it from left to right. As if a story is being told. The horrors of war, the futility of destruction are dramatically designed on the canvas. Go bask and see it again and more information becomes available. Read about the history and process of it’s creation and it becomes even more live.

Finally your bedroom. Although it has the same pieces of furniture in it everyday, it looks and feels different when the morning light streams in through the blinds, or at night, reading with a small book light.

Motion is everywhere. As you walk through your house, take a minute and become aware of the things in it and how they look different, how the motion of your eyes over the objects change your perception of them. Everything you see is constantly in motion therefore everything is dramatic.

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New England Home Magazine recently asked me “What would your perfect dining room look like for the holidays?” It got me thinking…

My perfect dining room isn’t a room at all. It’s an area on the first floor with a big old overdone mahogany table with probably one or two mismatched chairs for the big occasion. It’s near the food storage and prepare (we don’t call them “kitchens’ in our designs). It’s also near the gathering areas where there are comfortable chairs, sofas, books, family pictures and an entertainment and information center. (We used to call them family rooms, but they’re really places to hang out on the back of the house.)

The dining area has lots of windows overlooking the backyard, vanilla painted wainscoting and a high beamed ceiling. The walls are painted a very pale color, one that no one can really put their finger on. The old dining table is very long for the occasion, the family has brought out the special ‘scenes of ancient Rome’ china, and the Waterford crystal goblets to reinforce suitable behavior from the young ones.

It smells like home cooking, is warmly lit by concealed lights reflecting off the artwork and dark furniture. You know it’s perfect when the glasses are raised and everybody’s smiling.

What would your perfect dining room look like?

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