Confectionery Conservatory
I forgot to show off this picture of the amazing “confectionery conservatory” that topped the cake at our 15 year anniversary party last week. Suzie, our friend who is a very creative pastry chef, came up with the idea and took it upon herself to figure out how to do it (just like the way in which everyone else on the Tanglewood team does things). She used only icing and sugar- nothing else to even hold it up. The “glass” in the windows is (?) same stuff as a lollipop is made from! She even put a small battery operated light inside before completing the construction.
In the News- One of our glass and copper roof lanterns is featured this month in the New Products” section of the Architecture Week website.
Another good friend of ours, architect Bob Wilkoff has just updated his website: www.archaeon.com
Bob and Tanglewood have been working together since our very beginnings and have recently completed a major project in North Carolina together. Though Bob’s firm Archaeon Architects, is located in Bethesda Maryland, the client chose to hire Bob as he realized the project required a very close association between the conservatory designer and the project architect.
The job was a challenging one. The house had an existing separate garage with guest quarters above that was not connected and the client wanted to be able to walk between the two with out having to go outside.
In addition to this “linking”, the client wanted to add a large conservatory off an existing family room at the opposite end of the home, completely redo a kitchen and add a breakfast room in the center portion of the home and have all three pieces, as well as the original parts of the home, “work” together architecturally.
I’ll have some pictures of Bob’s and our collaborative solution soon.
Another interesting facet of our association with Bob is that while he is a modernist from the 70’s at heart, he has worked well with Tanglewood on such patently traditional structures as our conservatories.
By the way, the façade of our building in Denton was also designed by Bob. Though the pattern of the block work he designed was originally intended to be much bolder, I flinched- and have always regretted it!
Alan
Collaboration with Architect
Having just finished a very interesting project in North Carolina, I received this note from Bob Wilkoff, the architect with whom we had worked. Bob is an exceptionally talented artist who generally restricts his work to the greater Washington DC area. We’ve completed numerous conservatory projects with him over the years – including one on his own house. He also designed the façade of the Tanglewood building in Denton which you can see a small portion of in the group photo on the Tanglewood Story page of our website.
Dear Family & Friends,
Just a heads up that I’ve been chosen to participate in this month’s, (March), Washingtonian Magazine article on Washington’s top architects. Take a look at the article beginning on page 125.
Best wishes,
Bob
The customer for the conservatory project in North Carolina originally contacted Tanglewood about their project and asked us for a reference for an architect. They were planning a substantial renovation to the entire house that included as one element a large conservatory.
Though as architects ourselves, we sometimes take on additional design responsibilities as smaller adjuncts to a larger custom conservatory. But in this case the scope of the overall project required an additional professional.
Bob seemed to be the natural choice. The opportunity to use a conservatory manufacturer and architect who are already familiar with each others work, process and limitations is always a REALLY big plus on a job.
This case was no exception. Together with the clients, we worked seamlessly, providing input for the entire project. As a result, the overall quality of the design – and construction as well, became far and away better than anything that could have been done by either on our own.
I’ll soon be able to post some pictures of this job so that you can see the integration of the conservatory portion of the project with Bob’s scheme of the overall renovation.
We are very happy to be associated with such high level professionals! Nice work Bob. You can see some of his work at his website www.archaeon.com.