Design/Build Team at the MOA: Dan Mulrennan and Tom Smithers (MS&I) on Roof, Andy Lien (MS&I/SKD) and Steven Heili (SKD) Inside, and Steve Kleineman (SKD) on Decking.

Click HERE to view the Playhouse
Photo Gallery!

FROM EAST TO MIDWEST:

This Minnesota playhouse by MS&I Building Company and SKD Architects is constructed using superior methods and materials.  The exterior of the playhouse is both durable and pleasing to the eye with its gold vein powder-coated iron rooftop railing, bluestone ledge cap, custom Mahogany Dutch door and windows, Prairie Style carriage lights, as well as copper accents, rainchains, and planters. The decking, ship’s ladder, and arch are made of Ironwood and the roof is comprised of copper, rubber, and Cedar shake shingles.  Inside, the rough-sawn Oak floor showcases custom Mahogany cabinetry with Lumicor panels and Cambria countertops, a stainless steel sink, a hose-fed faucet, and a miniature refrigerator.  The playhouse is illuminated by recessed and under-cabinet lighting, as well as a ceiling fixture in the clerestory.  A built-in laminate-topped table and seating area is adjacent to the lounge that comes complete with a 20” Sharp AQUOS Liquid Crystal Television with mini-DVD player, and two Jennifer DeLonge Ava toddler chairs with a matching ottoman in chocolate and red microsuede.

MS&I and SKD want to thank our fabulous subcontractors and suppliers who donated time, talent, and materials for this project:

  • Aldo - Copperwork & Rubber Membrane

  • JL Rosewood - Cabinetry

  • Caprice Doorcraft - Cabinetry

  • Youngblood Lumber - Cabinetry

  • Schaitberger Painting

  • Designer Iron - Deck & Ladder Railings

  • Hossnpat Construction - Framing

  • Minneapolis Glass - Window Panels

  • American Hardwood Flooring

  • Allstar Construction - Cedar Shingles

  • Cartier Lighting - Wall Sconces & Ceiling Fixture

  • Freedom Mechanical - Plumbing

  • Patnode Electric

  • Minnesota Structures - Finish Carpentry

  • Art Holdings


Click HERE to Learn More About the Auction or to BID ONLINE!

 
 

 

 

 

We may not be greenhorns, but we sure can be green.  Well...maybe a green hue of
a different color value...more like "Platinum Green."

SKD is proud to announce that our project, "The Sustainable House" for Live Green, Live Smart™, has attained the first LEED Platinum certification for a residential remodel in the nation.

From a statement given by Live Green, Live Smart™:

"The Sustainable House received LEED Platinum certification for the ambitious remodeling of a 1948 rambler, located in Minnetonka, Minnesota.    According to Live Green, Live Smart™ founder and CEO, Peter Lytle 'This is not only the first LEED for Homes™ Platinum Certification for a home remodel – it is also the first LEED Platinum Certified home in any class in Minnesota.'

The house and landscape underwent major alterations focused on energy efficiency, water conservation, habitat protection, resource efficiency and healthy occupancy.  The landscape was restored more nearly pre-development condition, materials from the existing home were recycled into the remodel or another building, and renewable energy systems utilizing solar, geothermal, wind and innovative co-generation make the home close to zero-emission."

Looking at the rest of our site, you may have noticed that SKD has specialized in upper bracket architectural projects, both residential and commercial. Well, as with most service providers, we respond to our clients’ goals--with our own flair and expertise. This has meant that sustainability may not have been at the top of their priority list. But, as a company with 30 years of design and building experience, we include some methods and materials that contribute to sustainable architecture in all projects without drawing much attention to the fact that we were doing it.

Now, as our clients‘ collective awareness of “green” practices, products and technology continues to increase and move into the mainstream of our lives, it becomes easier for us to integrate them into our custom, highly detailed projects. SKD’s sensitivity to conserving our resources, concern for indoor air quality, knowledge of sustainable materials and technologies, and our look at durability and life cycle costing helps us all to better evaluate our choices and live a heathier life. We know this will become the normal way to design and build. We are just getting there sooner.

This is a movement--culturally, politically, and environmentally. To use a throwback term, client meetings can also count as “green” consciousness-raising sessions.

As demonstrated by our participation in the LEED® pilot residential renovation project “The Sustainable House” by Live Green, Live SmartTM, we at SKD can also undertake affordable rehabilitations of older homes or design for new green construction. We are well-versed in the construction of these homes. Our eyes aren’t fresh, we aren’t re-learning the methods of yore, but looking to old and new ways to be more efficient in construction. As such, we’ve got the experience to know how “green” can be implemented into the older homes to maximize their durability and sustainability, while minimizing their impact on the environment.

Referring to both the houses and ourselves, we’re old dogs...and we’re showing off our new tricks.

For photos, construction diary, resources, and other information specific to
The Sustainable House, please go to www.livegreenlivesmart.org.

 


 

UPON THE PASSING OF THE YEAR:

We would like to extend our gratitude to the thousands of clients who have enlisted our services over the past thirty years. Your enthusiasm, creativity, and appreciation of superior architecture and construction have kept each year as refreshing as the last. Thank you.

We would also like to observe the passing of the first five years of business for MS&I Building Company. Rather than spending its first years crawling, toddling, and then walking, MS&I started its career on a long-distance run with many previous years of management, skill, and imagination at its core. The relationship between SKD and MS&I is one of two separate companies working with both a common vision as well as the necessary checks and balances between them to create the best homes—and building experiences—in the Twin Cities and beyond. To our short lists of clients, employees, subcontractors, and suppliers who made our first five years so successful: Thank you.

From SKD Architects and MS&I Building Company, we wish you and yours peace and prosperity in the next year and always.

 

 

UNDER RECONSIDERATION:

It is said that reality can always be improved upon in art. Architecture as art brings that concept closer to us and further into our most immediate realities--our homes. At this time of year, we find ourselves reevaluating our realities and making resolutions to change what we find to be lacking, practically or aesthetically. Take a look at our project galleries and see how our clients have turned resolutions into reality.

 

 

FOR THE BETTERMENT OF SOCIETY:

SKD and MS&I are proud to announce our participation in the 2008 Parade of Playhouses, a fundraising event for CommonBond Communities. MS&I will build an SKD-designed playhouse to beat all playhouses…or so we hope. Multiple design teams will display their playhouses at the Mall of America in March, 2008, for judging and auctioning off…the first to benefit the confidence of the teams, the second to benefit the mission of CommonBond which is to build and maintain thousands of affordable homes for people in need. For more details, go to www.commonbond.org.

 

 

UPON FURTHER REFLECTION:

Another summer is gone...as is a year of pondering our past thirty. Rather than planning some sort of celebratory vacation, we just live vicariously through our clients and their vacation homes. There’s plenty of fun to be had while designing projects that aren’t your run-of-the-mill, day-to-day houses. No, we’re not known for doing much of anything that is considered to be “run-of-the-mill,” but vacation homes tend to have a high dose of informality to them. They’re about how people relax and unwind, rather than being about how to get the kids to soccer practice. They often involve greater tracts of land in scenic settings...and it’s nice when nature steps up as a higher priority in the living environment.

From the top, down:  Sketch of an under-construction vacation home on Pelican Lake, Northern Minnesota; Wooded retreat in Wisconsin; Hilltop lodge in Southern Minnesota; Sophisticated second home on Madeline Island's Sunset Bay.

Click here to view additional pictures of the Sunset Bay vacation home on the MS&I Building Company website.

 

 

IN JEST:

We love it when our clients have a healthy sense of both humor and decor.  Designed by SKD Architects and built by MS&I, the interior decor of this home in Minnetonka was inspired by that of a French chateau.  Our client lended her unique touch to each room of the home--including the garage.  What is quite noticeable when approaching the home is the exquisite chandelier in the dining room.  With the rest of the house, the home's curb appeal is undeniably stunning.  What is only seen upon the push of a button, though, are the crystal chandeliers hanging in the garage.  Virginia Woolf would grin.

Click here to view additional pictures of the home on the MS&I Building Company website.

 

 

IN RETROSPECT:

The 30th year is a milestone that may make people sit back and assess where they are in life and where they are going.  Sure, we're usually wondering where we're going, but we also enjoy taking this time to look at where we've been.  So, we pulled down the shoeboxes of photos off the top shelf of the coat closet (we're not big scrapbookers) to take a brief trip down Memory Lane.  Or Cedar Pass.  Or West Oaks.  Or Stone Trace.  Or Cantera Woods.  You get the picture.

Click here to view our gallery of luxury homes.

 

 

IN MEMORIAM:

Gone is the old, tired, energy-inefficient, "All-American House" at 3502 The Mall in Minnetonka.  Do not fret.  Should you feel a certain sadness in losing such a neighborhood institution as this house, you can simply turn your head and one of its siblings will be nearby.  That's part of the problem.  As part of the LEED Home Pilot Project called "Live Green, Live Smart," this house is the first "green" remodeling project to seek a LEED Platinum Certification...and to do so in an accessible, affordable manner so that other home owners will follow suit.  Please watch the progress of this project--it's an exciting process.  At this point, it is a cocoon.  (How do you like that for a springtime analogy?)  The deconstruction and construction happening within its walls is nothing short of a complete metamorphosis and we anxiously await the day when the caterpillar will become a butterfly.

 
 

ON DISPLAY:

If you’re looking to update your appliances, make an appointment to visit one of SKD’s recent projects, the newly expanded and renovated Roth Concept Center in Minnetonka.  You will be able to peruse Roth’s impressive showroom of high-end appliances called “The Living Kitchen,” a variety of kitchen vignettes, and even schedule time for observing or applying gourmet cooking techniques in The Culinary Center. 

Click here to see the Roth Distributing photo gallery.

 

 

IN YOUR HOUSE:

What may be a little-known fact about our company is that SKD Architects includes custom furniture design in the services that we offer our clients. Our attention is on the full integration of the client’s wants and needs with our architectural vision, from framing to floor plans to furniture. We have designed notable furnishings for homes of all styles: Modern, Warm Contemporary, Traditional, and updated Arts & Crafts as featured in American Bungalow magazine (right).

 
 

UNDER CONSTRUCTION:

Making its way through the SKD design process to one of MS&I’s construction sites is this modern home in Plymouth. Set on a hill overlooking Medicine Lake, this home features crisp geometric forms, expansive windows, layered ceilings with indirect lighting, clean--but artistic-- architecture...accessed by a bridge spanning from the street level to the front door.