Holy Modern Home! Renovated Church Townhouse In Utrecht Is For Sale.

In 2009, the Saint Jakobus Church, located in Utrecht, on Bemuurde Weerd Oostzijde 56, was converted under architectural supervision of Zecc Architecture, into a beautiful modern town house called "The Residential Church XL."

Originally built in 1870, the Utrecht Old Catholic Parish had ordered the construction of a church and vicarage. Architect Gerard Gerritsen 'finished the job' in a little more than seven months, for the sum of 25,481 florins.



The church tower at the front was unfortunately too heavy for the foundation and had to be demolished in 1889. The Saint Jakobus was a soberly decorated church, being the only church built in Utrecht in the so-called 'plasterers' gothic style.




Inside, the stained glass windows date back to 1911:




The original nave (14 meters high) is impressive, but the balanced design of the inner space ensures that a human dimension is not ignored.



The atmosphere, created by both the furniture and styling, is the work of Thomas Haukes from (springers) wonen. The result complements the strong design of the architecture, creating an extremely original, modern and streamlined living space.




The clear plainness that the Saint Jakobus exuded at the time of architect Gerard Gerritsen still gives power today to this monumental building.




The current owners were very careful in the renovation and refurbishment. The renowned Utrecht-based firm of ZECC Architects undertook the transformation from church to home with a great attention to light, space and functionality.

Unfurnished upper level:


The former Saint Jakobus Church is of historic and architectural significance due to its location and relationship with the surroundings. The church is also registered as municipal monument.

Good restaurants, cafes and terraces full of atmosphere but the city will not disappoint you in its cultural side: it offers various museums, theaters and concert halls.

Most attractions and nightlife spots are within walking distance.



Some specs and details of the home for you:

Dimensions (approximately)
• Parcel (own ground) 670 m2
• Living area 475 m2
• Front garden 90 m2
• Back garden 150 m2

HOUSE - GENERAL
• Living kitchen
• Elevated living room floor
• Hobby room/study
• Study
• Sleeping room/bathroom (incl. toilet)
• Guestroom/ bathroom (incl. toilet)
• Guest toilet

KITCHEN
• BULTHAUP cooking island (3.60 m x 1.20 m)
• Refrigerator
• Dishwasher
• 5-burner induction cooker
• Combi-oven
• Quooker
• 2 pantries
• Remotely-controlled sophisticated lighting program.

MISC.
• The Church is registered as municipal monument
• (newly implemented) architectural elements built under warranty
• Isolated crawlspace
• No previously existing cemetery
• Full exterior painting done
• Owners are members of Monumentenwacht
• Municipal subsidy confirmed for long-term external maintenance

EXTRA OPTIONS
• Internal elevator
• Bar
• Electronically operated railing in front garden
• Alarm installation
• Additional sleeping room(s)


FOR SALE: BEMUURDE WEERD OOSTZIJDE 56 UTRECHT

The renovated church is for sale right now, if you are interested, please contact THOMAS HAUKES +31 (0)6 53 67 19 14 | info@wonkerk xl.com

Oh Tannenboing! A Modern Sleek Aluminum Sustainable Christmas Tree

Designed to appeal to your modern sensibility and your green lifestyle, tannenboing is a hip, environmentally friendly and reusable modern Christmas tree made of recycled aluminum. Produced in the USA, it easily springs into a modern Christmas tree each season and can then be flat-packed away for easy storage until the next year.







The tannenboing is a blank slate that can serve as a display for cards, ornaments, or jewelry. The smaller version makes a great point-of-purchase display to hold gift certificates, cards and other small items. The clean design doesn’t take away from the articles or ornaments being displayed and it can be used as a display tree, design element, or modern sculpture all year round.


Tannenboing is environmentally friendly, and can be made from aluminum, wood and even recycled paper. The display piece is flat-packed and easy to assemble. At the end of the season, the tree can be taken down and put away for next year, or it can be recycled.

One tannenboing – the aluminum, spiral Christmas tree comes with an installation kit containing a gated hook, a gated wood screw and two cables (for ceiling heights of 8 and 9 feet). For ceiling heights higher than 9 feet, be sure to purchase the appropriate size cable.

The tannenboing has over 200 small holes around the inside and outside edges to use for hanging ornaments or display items. The holes are 1/8 of an inch and work best with metal hooks.

Only 100 first edition trees have been created and are available now for just $395 plus shipping. Order now, while supplies last.

Murakami Over Manhattan. Pop Art Kaikai & Kiki Thanksgiving Day Parade Floats.

above photo courtesy of NYClovesNYC

above photo courtesy of deadstockdon

Japanese pop and anime artist Takashi Murakami added some modern art to the world's most popular Thanksgiving Day Parade. Studio mascots, Kaikai and Kiki came to life as 30-40 foot tall "balloonicles" in this year's 2010 Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade joining Snoopy, Sponge Bob, Buzz, Kermit, Spidey and other perennial favorites.


above: Japanese artist Takashi Murakami watched as balloons of his Kaikai and Kiki characters were readied for the parade.

Kaikai, a childlike character in a rabbit costume, and Kiki, a companion with three eyes and sharp fangs, are examples of Mr. Murakami’s signature superflat style. Their balloon likenesses are about 40 feet long and about three stories tall when filled with helium.



above: Murakami's inflated Kaikai and Kiki, ready to be released.

In 2008 Macy’s also began communicating with Mr. Murakami, who in the global art scene is known as much for his inflatable sculptures of psychedelic anime-style cartoon characters as for the Louis Vuitton handbags and Casio watches he designs. But at that time he was preparing for a retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum and could not immediately contribute to the parade.


above left: Takashi Murakami in his Thanksgiving Day parade costume and right, his floats in the parade.

This year Mr. Murakami sent word that he wanted to create balloons of Kaikai and Kiki. In response to e-mailed questions, he explained that the characters “in many ways represent the aesthetic philosophy behind my work.”

“They are cute yet fearsome,” he wrote, “modern and yet connected to the past. They embody eccentric beauty.”


above: completed models of Kaikai and Kiki for the floats, courtesy of Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd

The Macy’s parade studio in Hoboken, N.J., had only a few months to work on the designs with Mr. Murakami. Of particular concern to John Piper, the vice president of the studio, was whether the balloonified characters, with their gigantic heads and teeny-tiny limbs, would be able to achieve what he called free lift — meaning, Mr. Piper said, “that there’s enough helium inside the balloon to not only compensate for its weight but to make it fly.”

At an accelerated pace Mr. Piper and his team exchanged sketches with Mr. Murakami and his staff, and over the summer Mr. Piper chaperoned two small clay sculptures of the balloons on a trip to the artist’s Tokyo studio. (The sculptures, Mr. Piper said, traveled in “a very big, very sturdy piece of luggage, inside of which was a whole other steel structure to absorb any shock.”)



The completed balloons were flown for the first time this month at a Macy’s testing facility in South Dakota, but Mr. Murakami — who plans to accompany them in the parade wearing a flower costume of his own design — had not seen the finished works until Wednesday.

Nor, for that matter, have the thousands of children who will watch the parade live — or the millions who will watch on television — Thursday morning, and have likely never heard of Mr. Murakami.



Mr. Hall acknowledged that Kaikai and Kiki’s mix of cuteness and weirdness was pushing boundaries for Macy’s. “There are details about them that, I think in isolation, as they’re described, sound kind of grotesque,” Mr. Hall said. But, he added, “the final thing is not so bad.”

Ultimately, Mr. Hall said, Macy’s criterion for its parade balloons is “not a question of: Will the kids recognize it?”

“Our rule here,” he continued, “is whether the kids understand it or not? Will the kids like it?”

Watching the inflation of Kaikai and Kiki on 81st Street, Tami Marsden and her son Alex, 6, were less sure about what they were seeing.

“We don’t know who that is, but he knows Kung Fu Panda,” Ms. Marden said, indicating another nearby balloon. “I thought it was a Pokémon thing.”

She added: “I hate to say it, but boys really don’t like anything that’s pink.”

Here's a look at Superflat artist Murakami's making of the floats.

The initial proposal to Macy's:

A production sketch by Murakami:

Murakami and Macy's designer John Piper inspects the balloon maquette at Kaikai Kiki's Miyoshi studio in Saitama, Japan:

Making the clay molds used to create balloons:

The finished clay molds:


At 3-stories tall and 40-feet long, the Parade's newest art balloons will be the largest renditions of Kaikai and Kiki to date.


"Kaikai" and "Kiki" characters ©2000 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.Courtesy of Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd

Ready to entertain millions in the Parade of magic are superstars from music, stage, and screen who will make special appearances and perform for the nation at Macy's famed red star mark on 34th Street. Stars joining the festivities this year include India Arie, Big Time Rush, Betty Buckley, Ann Hampton Callaway, the casts of Broadway's American Idiot, Elf, Memphis, Million Dollar Quartet, the Big Apple Circus, the cast and Muppets of Sesame Street, Miranda Cosgrove, Jimmy Fallon & The Roots, Gloriana, Michael Grimm, Arlo Guthrie, Keri Hilson, Eric Hutchinson, Juanes, Victoria Justice, Gladys Knight, Mannheim Steamroller, Miss USA 2010 Rima Fakih, Power Rangers Samurai, Joan and Melissa Rivers, Crystal Shawanda, Jessica Simpson, and Kanye West.




For 2010, the Macy's Parade will once again follow a route first taken last year as the procession winds down to Macy's Herald Square. Beginning at 77th Street and Central Park West, the Parade will travel south to Columbus Circle, turn onto Central Park South before making a right turn to march down 7th Avenue to 42nd Street. The Parade will then turn east towards 6th Avenue where it will march down the Avenue of the Americas. At 34th Street, the Parade will make its final turn west marching in front of Macy's Herald Square. The Parade will step off promptly at 9:00 AM and end at noon.

Joining returning favorites, the following new stars of the Macy's Parade line-up will delight millions of spectators in their first proud procession through the streets of New York City.

NY times images courtesy of Nicole Bengivano
info and images from PR Newswire, Macy's and the NY Times.

A Photographer's Homage To The Cult Classic Comedy Movie Caddyshack.

For most comic movie buffs, all one has to say is "golf" and "gopher" and there's no doubt you're talking about Caddyshack. The cult flick, first released 30 years ago now, is still remembered fondly by many.



So much so that advertising, commercial and editorial photographer Ted Sabarese has recreated many of the classic scenes as an homage to the movie.


above: original movie scenes on top, recreated images by Sabarese on bottom

From the snickers bar in the pool incident to the relentless pursuit of the gopher by the groundskeeper, the scenes have been immortalized as the following still images and trading cards:















Care to see how they compare?
Below are the movie posters and a bunch of stills from the original movie:











about Caddyshack:
At an exclusive country club for WASPish snobs, an ambitious young caddy (Michael O'Keefe) from an overpopulated home eagerly pursues a caddy scholarship in hopes of attending college and, in turn, avoiding a job at the lumber yard. In order to succeed, he must first win the favor of the elitist Judge Smails (Ted Knight), then the caddy golf tournament which the good judge sponsors. The story also involves an obnoxious nouveau riche land developer (Rodney Dangerfield) who wants to turn the site into a condominium community; an oddball, Zen-quoting, millionaire slacker/golf ace (Chevy Chase); and a psychotic groundskeeper (Bill Murray) with a gopher-fixation.

about the Photographer:
Ted Sabarese is an advertising and editorial photographer whose clients have included Verizon, Bertolli, Microsoft, Kleenex and Blue Shield of California.