Projects with both beauty and brains win the highest accolades in the 2008 Gold Nugget Awards competition.
THE BUILDING WHERE COSTA Pacific Communities had its offices until recently offers a big clue as to how its CEO, Rudy Kadlub, works. “Nondescript” would be a charitable way to describe the low-slung, '60s-era brick structure that was once the administration building for the Dammasch State Hospital in Wilsonville, Ore., just south of Portland. Closed down in 1995, it's now the site of Villebois, an ambitious, transitoriented master planned community developed by Costa Pacific. Its name is French for “village by the woods.” The former hospital grounds make up close to 200 acres of the site; another 300 were acquired by state and local authorities.
The dominant visual element of the arrival court at this Hudson Valley farmhouse is a barn-board-clad tower, which serves as an entry point and links the main wing of the house to the guest quarters. The entry under the tower is like a breezeway with big barn doors on each side.
Who says a garage can't be both practical and gorgeous? That's certainly the case with this two-story, 1,152-square-foot, two-car garage that repeats many of the details of the main house.
Boasting some of the most beautiful and well-maintained bungalows of the late 19th century is Washington's Cleveland Park neighborhood. Its residential streets are distinguished by that most significant Craftsman icon: the front porch. But that certainly wasn't the case with No. 2909.
