McCollum Architects is a Union Pier-based, full-service architecture firm that has designed everything from urban to country homes, condominiums to second home communities, low income to upscale housing, single family to multi-family homes, tiny boutique restaurants to large eateries.

The firm is involved with renovating and creating new housing, amphitheaters, band shells, pavilions, daycare centers, senior housing, and special community development projects designed to create flexible environments; providing dignified alternatives to those often neglected members of society.

McCollum Architects also makes a point of leaving a footprint – in a good way – to his client’s projects and neighborhoods. “Architects have a responsibility to design ‘in scale’ with the surrounding areas,” says Bill McCollum, owner of McCollum Architects. For example, McCollum designed the award winning New Buffalo Township Pavilion to blend in with its setting. “A new design should look like it has always been a part of its neighborhood.” “I am thrilled that the Pavilion structure has been used so actively as an entertainment and meeting place.”

Two recent, very exciting Southwest Michigan projects include the The Stray Dog and Camp Buffalo Cottages, each demonstrating the unique twists in McCollum’s architecture.

Throughout the projects, McCollum is fully dedicated to sustainable energy, environmentally friendly buildings, universal design, and low maintenance costs. Although he has done plenty of elaborate “green” mechanical systems, he mainly focuses on a well-sealed envelope with sensitive placement of high performance windows as well as careful positioning of the home to reduce the solar gain in the summer and provide supplemental heat in the winter. “Simple and practical green solutions can give you more bang for the buck,” McCollum says.

McCollum is licensed in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan and, in addition to designing whole structures also provides zoning variances, feasibility studies, additions, and new porches. In fact, Bill McCollum is also a dealer for Sunspace porch enclosures – the porch windows that slide up and down to keep the weather out.

There is always an element of surprise in McCollum’s designs—unexpected old parts given a new life, hidden vistas, bridges to entryways, and customized spaces for personal collections. A sense of arrival is key to any project. McCollum reflects, “With respect for the past and a vision of the future, this office designs and builds community-based projects and homes that enrich the lives of our clients.”

When it came time to design the house replacing the 3,000-square-foot summer home they’d enjoyed for 15 years, Mary and Kevin Beyer knew they wanted to take full advantage of their waterfront property on scenic Gull Lake in Hickory Corners, Michigan. But Mary Beyer wanted a home with a street presence while her husband opted for a home with a definitive lake presence.

“They talked to different designers before working with us,” says Andrea Muldar, director of sales and marketing for Visbeen Associates Inc., a Grand Rapids and Chicago based architectural firm which won 12 American Residential Design Awards (ARDA) last year.  “They weren’t happy with their ideas.”

Wayne Visbeen, the AIA and IIDA certified president and founder of Visbeen Associates, was able to combine both visions to design Highfield, a $1 million 5,297-square-foot summer home built by Falcon Custom Homes and featured in the2012 Home Builders Association of Greater Kalamazoo’s 22nd Annual Parade of Homes.

“The home was created for entertaining and to maximize the view of the lakes,” says Muldar about the five bedroom and four and a half bath house. “The couple have adult children so to give them privacy there’s a two bedroom   apartment over the garage.  Outdoor living is enhanced with screened in porches and Wayne designed a boat bar that literally looks like the rear of a boat complete with a fog machine where smoke comes out of a pipe. There’s also another boat bar outside.”

The boat bar, with its rich mahogany features, is a homage to the vintage watercraft of yesteryear before the advent of fiberglass. Other special touches include five stall and three stall garages as well as one with space enough to accommodate the necessary toys of lake living such as boats, fishing gear and watercrafts such as jet-skis. Two of three bedrooms have walk-outs and the master bedroom features a private deck overlooking the landscaped garden fronting the water. A screened in porch connects the dining room to the lakefront without impeding the view.  The kitchen, with its two level island, is great for entertaining and a walk-in pantry with its sliding door can hold all the viands necessary for feeding large crowds.

The yard fronting the water has a stone pathway leading to the docks and almost every room in the home’s upstairs has a view of the lake. High ceilings, large windows, granite counters, white trim and warm toned colors accented with nautical themes which tie into the owners’ love of water make the home inviting rather than baronial. Heated hickory wood floors are a stylish way to keep feet from getting cold.

Though the original property was a heritage home, it also was definitely just for warm weather having no central heating and, awkwardly because of the way the ground slopes down to the water, access to the front meant walking down steps. The new home instead is multi-leveled with an indoor bridge providing easy access from the guest quarters and main street entrance to the lakeside living and entertainment areas.

“It’s a unique design even for us in the custom home business,” says Muldar. “It certainly is perfect for what the couple wanted.”

An African garden titled Embedded In Mother Earth, and designed by Ann� Cilliers, David Dorgan and Byron Leppan, is this year’s winner of the Lifestyle Garden Design Show, which is now on in Randburg.

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• Bringing romance to the garden

Johannesburg – The 17th annual Lifestyle Garden Design Show opened recently at Lifestyle Home Garden in Randpark Ridge.

Eleven large show gardens are on display.

Eight were designed and built by landscape design students at the Lifestyle College, under the direction of landscaper Richard Gibb.

Three were built by professional landscape designers Sonita Coetzee, Bruce Stead, Debbie Smit and Mike Rickhoff.

“Our show takes place in peak growing season and not only showcases the hottest trends in garden design, but also highlights the latest ‘must-have’ plants, gardening products and accessories,” says Lifestyle Home Garden’s Mike Gibbons.

“With more and more people living in less and less space, there is a greater need to make smart decisions about what to grow and how to grow it. Our designer gardens are the ideal way to get ideas necessary to create the perfect small space haven,” he adds.

An Italian garden, titled Antico Argilla, was designed by Karl Sutcliffe and Joanne van der Westhuizen. It’s a herbal orchard patio design set in a 15th century Roman villa.

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This year’s theme is Gardening Through the Ages and takes visitors on a journey through the history of garden design. The gardens reflect the evolving art of gardening by combining colour, composition, texture and creativity and have provided beauty and pleasure for centuries.

“Today’s gardeners create everything from traditional English gardens to practical vegetable gardens to colourful and geometrical Islamic gardens,” says Gibb. The show reflects the widest variety of gardens since at the show in years.

The building of the gardens involves a team of nearly 60 people and most of the build-up took place in January’s sweltering heat. “Last year we built through weeks of rain,” says Gibb. “This year we had extreme heat.”

After four weeks of construction, the student gardens were judged earlier this week by top landscapers Aileen Joubert, Trish Manicom and Debbie Smit. All the judges remarked on the students’ creativity and the use in every garden of at least one unique design idea, not seen in previous shows.

Breadth of vision is the key to this year’s gardens. “There is a huge variety of gardens this year. There is something for everyone’s taste or design style,” says Gibb.

“In particular, there is an enormously creative use of everyday garden products. For example, window boxes are turned into water features, retaining blocks are turned into pillars, and vertical walls are created with wooden trellises,” he adds.

Although a wide range of plants were used in this year’s show, every garden contained herbs and edible plants, many of which were incorporated into ornamental gardens. Another aspect was that the gardens could be duplicated quite easily in local gardens and were filled with interesting ideas.

The 2013 Best on Show Trophy and a Platinum Award at the show went to an indigenous African garden titled Embedded in Mother Earth. The garden was created by a close-knit team of designers, including Anné Cilliers, David Dorgan and Byron Leppan.

With an indigenous planting scheme, the team created a forest garden using thorn trees, colourful crocosmias, ericas and anthuriums. A living green wall was made up of drought-hardy plants and a bug hotel made from recycled material to attract all the bugs in the garden.

Two additional platinum awards went to an Aztec garden and a 15th century Roman garden.

An excellent garden with a difficult brief, the Aztec garden, titled Moctezuma’s Garden, needed to include all the terraces, colour and grandeur of an Aztec mountain. A vertical garden planted up with asparagus ferns and a water feature, created using a variety of water features, was eye-catching.

Third place at the show went to the Roman garden, titled Antico Argilla. With a simple design, beautiful shades of colour and an innovative vertical garden, this garden had a unique design as visitors view it from the back of the garden. Its positioning creates a secret garden which includes a water feature and fragrant plants. – Saturday Star

* The show runs until June.

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