By Castro Design Studio | The Design Studio Blog

Thank You For Five Years!

Written on June 14, 2012 by Rodolfo Castro in Projects, Thank You!

It is almost impossible for me to believe that it was five years ago this month that I quit my job to start Castro Design Studio. It was a great job that I loved very much. I had the great privilege of working with some wonderful people on really incredible projects, but I felt a void I knew could not be filled there.

I spoke to my amazing wife Kim who said “You HAVE to do it, we’ll find a way to make it work”… I then thought of my grandfather, who survived the Great Depression sometimes having to fight for food and shelter,literally, as a prize fighter in Mississippi and Louisiana. He used to tell me that insecurity and self pity were luxuries he simply never had. He used to say that the worst thing that could happen is that you would fail, and then have to pick yourself up and start again. So I turned in my notice, and embarked on this enterprise.

Pictured are my grandparents Jose Maria and Virginia Castro with Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball

Since starting Castro Design Studio I have had the great fortune of working with the best clients one could ever hope for on some very special projects… To celebrate these past five years I would like to share with you some of the projects that I have done.

An entry detail for one of my very first projects

This was one of the first projects I did. The owners engaged me to design their guest house and basement.

A previously unfinished basement was turned into a wine cellar and tasting room. These wonderful photographs are by Blayne Beacham.

This project was not too big, but it had a huge impact on the way the clients feel about their house. We added an entry portico, new shutters, chimney pots and landscaping.

This house used to be a small post war ranch house. We reused the footprint and most of the exterior walls, but reconfigured the floor plan and added a second floor and front porch.

Our one and only commercial project… A restaurant in Griffin, Ga, in what was at one point the town brothel.

An entry detail for a new house

A new house in Atlanta

Family Room and Kitchen for the house pictured above

A Garden Folly (fancy term for storage shed…)

This is a very special project. The owners of this house waited decades to renovate their home. They decided that instead of leaving their savings in the stock market they would transform their “old ranch” into the house they always wanted. I was so honored that they trusted me to design the house they had dreamed about for all these years.

The owners of this house hired me to design their “forever” house. We carefully worked together to design a house that gave them the aesthetics they wanted while still being respectful to the scale of the surrounding houses.

I was recently at a pool party there, and it was really amazing to see all of the neighborhood families enjoying the house.

The most amazing thing that has happened during these five years is the birth of our daughter Julia Maria. After years and years of trying, we finally welcomed our “little monkey” into the family.

Julia loves to visit my studio, and help out when she can… And yes, that is a drafting table you see in the background. One of the things I love doing is drawing by hand. It is a dying art, but I feel that it is important to craft our drawings this way so that they, like the designs we create will be one of a kind.

A new house in Atlanta

View of the family room and kitchen beyond

Back yard and pool

A new house in progress

Progress shot of the dining room

Progress shot of the kitchen

These past five years have been incredible. They would not have been possible without the love and support of my family and friends, to whom I am eternally grateful.

I am also so incredibly grateful to all my wonderful clients. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for allowing me the privilege of waking up every day to do what I truly love. It is an indescribable honor to help you make your dream house a reality.

Finally, I leave you with an image of one of our projects on the boards, and coming out of the ground this year.

Thank you for visiting and sharing this brief look at the last five years. Stay tuned for many more years to come!

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Savannah

Written on May 18, 2012 by Rodolfo Castro in Inspiration

I am working like crazy to catch up from a recent trip to Savannah, GA. We went there to celebrate my tenth annual 29th. birthday (yes, I am in total denial that next year I will be the BIG 4-0)…

Birthday lunch with my two ladies!

I will spare you all the “archi-speak” that could accompany this post, but I wanted to share some images of details I found interesting this time around.

Love this lantern, and brackets

Dolphin downspouts

Don’t be afraid to look up!

Pretty amazing fence

Lantern, copper bay window, terracotta scrolls, window boxes…

handrail

Not too bad for a fountain out of a catalog…

Live oaks, Spanish moss, cobblestone streets, pretty houses…

Finally, if you are going to build a six story parking garage, put it under ground and build a park on top of it… preferably with a fountain!

Thanks For Visiting!

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Houzz Award!

Written on April 6, 2012 by Rodolfo Castro in News, Projects

I can’t believe that it is April, and I am just now writing the first blog post for the year. It has been an incredible 2012 so far, with lots of great projects in the works.

Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to be honored with a Houzz “Best of 2012″ award. You can see the full list here, and check out the third photo… It’s Mine!

For those of you who are not familiar with Houzz, it is the leading online platform for home remodeling, providing inspiration, information, advice and support for homeowners and home improvement professionals through its website and mobile applications. Houzz features the largest residential design database in the world, articles written by design experts, product recommendations, a vibrant community powered by social tools, and information on more than 1.3 million remodeling and design professionals worldwide who can help turn ideas into reality.

The project which won the award is a porch I designed. This back porch was built by Wright Marshall, and his team at Revival Construction.

Now that we are in the spring season, we can really appreciate a good porch. Porches are not the biggest projects I do, but they seem to have a giant impact on the lives of the people who build them, and the way they enjoy their houses.

I hope you enjoy this deeper look at the “Midtown Porch”.

The house had a great back yard and pool, and a deck existed where the porch is now, but the owners were not able to fully enjoy their outdoor space. They wanted to create a porch that not only tied in with the house, and looked like it had always been there, but also extended their living space into the outdoors.

This is the house before the porch addition.

Classical detailing and proportions were used in the design of the porch, with the idea of giving it a timeless look.

We included a small water feature as part of the design. The idea was to add the sound of water, to enhance the laid back, relaxed quality of the space. We also added a terrace and outdoor kitchen off the porch.

The porch is big enough to accommodate a dining area, which is adjacent to the breakfast room.

The “living room” portion of the porch is located off the family room, and acts as an extension of the room.

There are a few details in the space that are worth noting. The swiveling shutters always get a lot of attention. The side of the porch looks down on the garage and driveway. We wanted to block the view, but still be able to open the side of the porch to get the most breeze possible. The mantle is wooden, and more delicate than you would expect on a stone fireplace. We also incorporated skylights into the design. These were brought in to minimize the loss of light into the adjacent family room. They are copper skylights, reminiscent of what you would see in a museum, or old New York loft building. A very subtle, but note worthy detail is in the log storage area under the hearth. The masons were able to execute a compound curve in the design. The opening not only curves front to back, following the hearth, but also right to lest to create an arch. I assure you that putting this together was no easy task!

What I most enjoyed about this project is knowing that the clients’ lives have been truly impacted by it. Months later I ran into the client at a house tour, and she could not stop telling me how much they were using their new space, and how it had made them enjoy their house so much more.

Thanks for visiting!

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German Inspiration: The Weyberhofe

Written on December 1, 2011 by Rodolfo Castro in Inspiration

Years ago, when I was in college, I had the chance to live and work in Aschaffenburg, Germany for a few months. The firm for which I worked had only one client, who would purchase and rehabilitate old properties throughout Germany. They would turn old hunting lodges into hotels, and old stores into restaurants.

The original lodge, or “schloss” was built by the archbishop of Mainz, Werner von Eppstein in 1265. He lived in the “castle” until his death in 1284. The castle then burnt down, and was rebuilt in 1557 by archbishop Daniel Brendel of Homburg. In 1907 the von Cancrin family acquired the property and began to reconstruct some of the areas that had been damaged by time and neglect. In 1991 the property was sold and following strict historical guidelines it was turned into a hotel, The Weyberhofe. The offices of the firm in which I worked were located in a converted barn in the property.

I was fortunate enough to stay in The Weyberhofe while I worked in Germany. I lost a lot of my photos from that trip to a flooded basement a few years back, but I want to share with you some images from this lovely place, which still inspires me to this day.

Photo from the Weyberhofe website, by Thomas Haltner

You enter into a courtyard formed by the lodge, or schloss on the far end and two old barns on either side.