Blog - SALA Architects Blog

Welcome!

06.01.13

Since 1983, SALA has opened new possibilities through architectural design for clients and projects of every scale and sensibility. Our team of project architects and staff professionals work collaboratively to uncover ideas that contribute to the beauty and function of all that we create. The results are highly inventive, thoughtfully crafted, and intimately connected to the lives of their users. We see design as an exploration. What follows are small windows into the world of SALA Architects and its myriad efforts to enrich the human experience while sustaining the environment that supports it. The magic of Architecture has...

The Pay As You Go Cabin Dream

Posted by Dale Mulfinger on 06.11.13

For many folks, cabins appear as luxury, only to be paid for by cash available. But there is a way to build your dream cabin – on a budget. After the land is paid off there are several options for a pay as you go strategy for cabin creation.

Spend a Night with Wright

Posted by Bryan Anderson on 06.07.13

For anyone looking to expand on the typical Midwestern architectural pilgrimage to Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright’s studio in Spring Green, Wisconsin, consider a trip to Mason City, Iowa, where instead of settling for a 45 minute tour, you can stay—docent-free—in the recently renovated Historic Park Inn Hotel. Constructed in 1910, it is the only remaining Wright-designed hotel in existence, and a rare opportunity to indulge in the scale and intimacy of Wright’s Prairie School prowess for as long as you like. The pilgrimage continues right out the front door with a local walking tour. Mason City,...

Small Home. Small Lot. Small Energy Footprint. Here’s How.

Posted by Eric Odor on 06.01.13

URBAN GREEN The Task: A small home on a small lot with a small energy footprint for a growing family. The Solution: This LEED for Homes, 2250 sq. ft. three bedroom house with detached garage is nestled within a 42’x128’ infill lot in Linden Hills. It features an eclectic blend of traditional and contemporary elements which weave it seamlessly into the existing fabric of this transitional neighborhood while at the same time addressing the client’s desire for sustainable living in the context of a more modern open plan. The home’s elegantly simple...

81 Minutes After the Bridge Collapse

Posted by David O’Brien Wagner on 05.24.13

Sometimes, Architects Get to Make History. Most of the time, architects are focused on the present, or even the future. Clients come to us because they’re expecting children and their house is getting too small, or they are thinking ahead to retirement years, and want something smaller. Recently, I had the chance to go back in time, to August 1, 2007, to be exact. As anyone in Minnesota will tell you, that was a horrific day in our history. Just after rush hour that evening, with no warning, the I-35 W Bridge over the Mississippi collapsed, dropping nearly 300 people, and causing the deaths of 13. Like many others who...

Should You Install Replacement Windows?

Posted by Joseph G. Metzler on 05.19.13

Should you install replacement windows? It's getting harder to ignore the window replacement tsunami. The ads urging you to replace your windows are everywhere, and these days most major window manufacturers have joined specialty window manufacturers in offering replacement windows. The claims for comfort, energy savings, decreased maintenance, and cost savings are everywhere. The arguments sound very convincing. But there are even better reasons why you don't want to replace your windows.

Real Rewards of Winning Awards

Posted by Wayne Branum on 05.09.13

Spring time is what some refer to as awards season in the Residential Architects community. A couple of the well promoted honors are The Home of the Month Awards by The Star Tribune, and the RAVE Awards by Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine. This year SALA was privileged to be the recipient of three 2013-2014 Home of the Month Awards that will be presented in The Star Tribune throughout the coming year. Of course it’s always wonderful to receive praise from one’s peers, but what’s even more rewarding is the public gets exposure and inspiration from past clients’ projects. I always have great satisfaction when...

Bark Siding is Back

Posted by Dale Mulfinger on 05.04.13

One of the historic building products appropriate to cabins that has returned to the market is bark siding. Once popular to rustic lodges and cabins in the 1890’s to 1920’s it then disappeared due to blight in the chestnut trees from which it was harvested. Recent growth of yellow poplar has created a substitute product which is now available to the market through Bark House in North Carolina. An excellent book, Bark House Style, by Chris McCurry and Nan Chase records the history of possibilities of this product. At SALA Architects we are now in our second lake...

Net-Zero Farmhouse

Posted by Eric Odor on 04.23.13

After a year of fine-tuning work has begun the NET-ZERO Farmhouse where our goal is to produce as much energy as we consume and hopefully more! Our approach here is an extremely tight and energy efficient envelop with triple pane windows, natural lighting and ventilation, and highly energy efficient fixtures and appliances to reduce the overall load balanced by a high efficiency wood burning boiler and an array of 16 photovoltaic panels to heat and power this 2000sf farmhouse. The excavation and footings are complete and the formwork for the Thermomass foundation is also nearly done with the concrete pour to come in tomorrow....

Original Bookcase?

Posted by Bryan Anderson on 04.10.13

I enjoy books and over the years have collected quite a few, from slim paperbacks to oversized architecture tomes, but my partner and I recently moved into a house that offered no place to visibly store them. After a semi-exhaustive search, we identified a freestanding unit with potential, but wondered if we couldn’t design something built in for the same amount of money. I did a scaled sketch of the fireplace wall with a custom design and sent the drawing to three cabinetmakers for review and estimates. To our delight, the high estimate came back at only a few hundred dollars more than the freestanding option....

A Walk in the Woods

Posted by Katherine Hillbrand on 04.10.13

When my husband, Deane and I went for a walk in our woods a few years back, I needed to look down so that I could step over stones and the underbrush without getting tangled up and losing my balance. Deane on the other hand, had his head tilted up and back. As usual he found his footing easily while he studied the trees above us. We had been commissioned to design a barn that had the genuine feel of an old English tithe barn. We talked to our client about using trees in their natural form as the supportive structure and using traditional square mortise and tenon joinery. (Imagine fitting a square joint into a...