SOLA Group, Inc.

This fall, Kitchen & Bath Design News magazine will unveil its 8th annual list of Innovators. Now is your chance to nominate a trendsetting colleague or peer whose ‘new method’ or design idea is undeniably moving kitchen and bath design forward. Maybe it’s you. If so, it’s A-OK to self-nominate.   From now until midnight on August 2, 2024, nominations are being accepted at https://lnkd.in/g-kS6ubb. The Innovators honors kitchen and bath design professionals as well as industry channel partners only. If you’d like to read about 258 previous announced innovators, you can do so at kitchenbathdesign.com. Only completed nominations will be considered. #kitchendesigning #bathdesigners #kitchendesign #bathroomdesign #kitchendesigner

2024 Residential Design Architecture Awards — Graoni Beach House by Montalba Architects Citation • Custom Urban House Situated on the coastline with views to Santa Cruz and Santa Catalina Islands, this home’s full-scale renovation made several big moves. Vertical fins fastened to the Shou Sugi Ban rainscreen help to resist battering from waves, sun, and wind, while subtle shifts in the angles create movement and depth on the two main beach-facing façades. With views to a point of land on the east, “you feel that shift on the interior as well, reorienting you from a typical straight-ahead view of the ocean to a skewed view on angle,” says David Montalba, FAIA. Keep Reading + See More Photos: https://bit.ly/464rlaU Residential Design magazine | Vol. 3, 2024 ... Architect: David Montalba, FAIA, Montalba Architects, Santa Monica, California Interior designer: Matt Blacke, Los Angeles Photography: Kevin Scott #residentialdesign #residentialarchitecture #customhomes #architects

2024 Residential Design Architecture Awards — Meadow House by Waechter Architecture Honor Award • Custom Urban House “I love this little courtyard house,” said one of our jurors. “It’s a different scale and feels somewhat attainable.” Situated within Eugene, Oregon’s urban grid, its design thoughtfully addresses an adjacent public meadow, the rainy Northwest climate, and the homeowner’s wish for a low-maintenance dwelling. Chief among them was the meadow, whose “big beauty” called for a house that has presence but also blends into the natural surroundings. Ben Waechter, FAIA, and his team accomplished this with a squarish house wrapped entirely in Bonderized standing-seam metal, “as if carved from a single material,” he says. Its four pavilions anchor each corner across glass connectors, forming a porous square around an interior native grass courtyard. Keep Reading + See More Photos: https://lnkd.in/gxq24TVs Residential Design magazine | Vol. 3, 2024 Photos: Lara Swimmer Photography #residentialdesign #residentialarchitecture #customhomes #architects

Skilled trades professionals, including those tied to residential remodeling, are overwhelmingly satisfied with their careers, a level of satisfaction that contrasts sharply with that of other industries, a new report has found. According to the report, released by Denver-based website Angi Inc., “a staggering” 90% of tradespeople are far less concerned than workers in other industries about artificial intelligence replacing jobs. Read More via Kitchen & Bath Design News: https://lnkd.in/dzjt3d7M #skilledtrades #residentialremodeling #remodeling

This story in today’s Wall Street Journal is great, and it's also quite unique. Trade-specific content rarely overlaps with content written for the general public. In March, one of our contributors and conference speakers, remodeler Michael Anschel, created an insightful seminar about the many uses of generative A.I. in home remodeling. That session became an article in Qualified Remodeler. WSJ reporter Nancy Keates found the QR article in her research for this piece. From a professional standpoint, it was cool to speak with Ms. Keates and to see what information she felt was most useful to WSJ readers. And it was nice to be quoted in the story. Generative A.I. tools offer huge business opportunities for sticks-and-bricks industries like home remodeling. Our B2B media company, SOLA Group Inc., is committed to helping remodelers and designers capitalize on advancements in software and technology. A recent example was our successful FAST conference for home improvement pros, which was held in Austin, Texas last month. The business benefits of A.I. have only just begun to emerge. Those benefits will multiply dramatically when A.G.I. is deployed by the end of this decade. A.G.I. stands for Artificial Generalized Intelligence. It is software that can ‘learn, understand, and apply knowledge’ similar to the way human beings use knowledge. A post about A.G.I. on the Amazon website says these “systems are intended to be able to perform any task that a human can do, including reasoning, problem solving, planning, learning, and abstract thinking.” Some have estimated that A.G.I. will take the place of 10 percent of the jobs held by today's workforce. New jobs will invariably emerge. But I digress... Business owners in the residential design and construction industry stand to make huge gains in productivity and creativity with these powerful new tools. And as Ms. Keates writes today, home owners planning remodeling projects, will also benefit enormously from A.I. tools. At SOLA, our aim is to help our readers embrace A.I. now and to help them make incremental gains so that they can take full advantage of what is coming. Michael Anschel, Nancy Keates, SOLA Group, Inc., QUALIFIED REMODELER, #FASTRemodelerLive #TOP500LIVE #Agile #B2B