Kathy Andrews Interiors Multifamily Interior Design Domain Memorial Leasing and Amenity Centers Business Lounge

National Association of Home Builders selects KAI Multifamily Project as a Finalist for a 2018 NAHB Multifamily Pillars of the Industry Award

We are pleased to announce Domain Memorial is a finalist for a 2018 NAHB Multifamily Pillars of the Industry Award!

Domain Memorial is a finalist for a Developer Award in the category Best Low-Rise Apartment Community (Non-Garden, Five Stories or Less). Developer Awards encompass the full spectrum of market-rate and for-sale multifamily products ranging from garden, mid-rise and high-rise apartments and condos to adaptive reuse, student housing, mixed-use communities, green building concepts and more.

Winners will be announced at the Pillars Awards Luncheon on Tuesday, February 19, 2019 at the International Builders Show in Las Vegas, NV.

Source: NAHB Multifamily Pillars of the Industry Awards

Kathy Andrews Interiors Multifamily Interior Design Domain Memorial Leasing and Amenity Centers Club Room 2

National Association of Home Builders selects KAI Multifamily Project as a Winner of a 2018 Best in American Living Award

We are pleased to announce Domain Memorial has won a 2018 Best in American Living Award!

Category 21: Development up to 3 Stories, For Rent

Judging is conducted by eight industry experts, including builders, architects, designers, and land planners, from across the country. Judges may select winners in any or all categories, and judges may award more than one of each award per category in the event of a tie. Awards may not be given in a category if the entries submitted do not meet the quality requirements.

Multifamily Criteria:

  • Exterior design and curb appeal (materials, colors, façade design, landscaping, etc.)
  • Interior design and interior architecture
  • Site plans (effective and efficient land use, site plan creativity, etc.)
  • Unit plans (effective use of space, fits target market needs, etc.)
  • Building plans (overall use of space and flow, etc.)
  • Amenities
  • Judges’ discretionary (creative and innovative material application, challenging site limitations, ability to meet clients’ needs, etc.)

The award level (Platinum, Gold or Silver) will be announced at the award ceremony held during the 2019 International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas.

Source: Best in American Living: Judging

Alexan Yale Street Kathy Andrews Interiors Multifamily Interior Design

Houston Business Journal selects KAI Multifamily Project as a Finalist for 2018 Landmark Awards

All around Houston last year, major construction projects were completed — from downtown trophy towers and huge industrial projects to gorgeous parks and a new barn for the zoo’s elephants.

The Houston Business Journal’s Landmark Awards recognize these impressive real estate projects that are making a significant impression on the Houston landscape and improve the look, feel and image of the city. Our panel of judges narrowed down the finalists to 54 projects in 16 categories for this year’s awards.

Projects are recognized for excellence in land planning, design, construction, economics, marketing and management. Nominations were open to all real estate projects completed in the greater Houston area from Jan. 1, 2017, through Dec. 31, 2017.

Entries were judged on impact to Houston, such as job creation, innovation, best use of land, site plan, development of surrounding neighborhoods, visual plan, amenities and being environmentally friendly.

This year’s judges were Catherine Callaway, senior associate at Kirksey; Doug Coenen, principal at Walter P Moore; Douglas Demiano, senior vice president at PMRG; Susan Hill, senior managing director at HFF; James E. Springer, vice president at Gilbane Inc.; and Ann Taylor, senior vice president at Midway Cos.

HBJ 2018 Winners - Alexan Yale Street

The finalists were selected in these categories:

  • Community Impact
  • Educational Facility
  • Headquarters Move
  • Industrial
  • Medical
  • Mixed-Use
  • Multifamily
  • Office Building or Campus
  • Project Lease
  • Public Assembly
  • Public-Private Partnership
  • Rehabilitation/Renovation
  • Restaurant
  • Retail
  • Special Project
  • Workplace Interior

Source: 2018 Landmark Awards finalists: These are the top commercial real estate projects in Houston

Multifamily Interior Design - Hotel Zaza Exterior

Hotel ZaZa Features KAI Design and Merchandising

The funky, eclectic vibe of Houston’s newest boutique hotel belies its suburban location. But that urban aesthetic is exactly what developer MetroNational hopes to bring to Memorial City, envisioned nearly 60 years ago by founder Joseph Johnson as a “city within a city” out in west Houston.

“If someone told us 25 years ago that Hotel ZaZa was going to anchor this development, we would have laughed,” president MetroNational Jason Johnson, the founder’s grandson, said. “This hotel proves that west Houston is growing into its own.”

Built on a former parking lot, the Kirksey-designed tower features 10 floors of hotel rooms and 133 apartment units on the upper floors. The 159 luxury hotel rooms, designed by Duncan Miller Ullmann Design, boast art deco furniture, king-size beds with artsy headboards and butterfly designs, and mid-century modern sputnik lights.

Hotel ZaZa Memorial City will bring a sensibility familiar at its first Museum District location – think family staycation, girl’s night out or a bachelorette party – to west Houston when it opens Dec. 1. Move-ins at The McCarthy apartments are expected to begin in February.

More Information

Memorial City, By the Numbers

3.1 million square feet of Class A office space for companies like Air Liquide, Cemex and Group 1 Automotive

2.3 million square feet at Memorial Hermann Memoiral City

2.2 million square feet of shops and restaurants

11,000 square feet of green spaces

289-key Westin Memorial City

159-key Hotel ZaZa Memorial City

Nearly 1,000 apartment units, including The Fountains, The McCarthy and the Barryknoll (under construction)

“This brings a completely different clientele to west Houston, beyond that corporate user who stays at a typical hotel,” Johnson said. “A lot of people want to come into the city for the weekend, looking for a different experience.”

For more discerning guests, Hotel ZaZa offers eight themed “Magnificent Seven Suites,” larger suites featuring themed furniture, accessories and designs modeled after travel destinations. Hotelier Z Resorts has 50 so-called “concept” suites in Hotel ZaZa locations across Texas.

“We wanted to take our guests and transport them to a place where they feel like they’re at a beach or in Paris,” interior designer Kimberley Miller said. “It gives them a sense of place.”

The hotel already has two holiday parties and two weddings scheduled for December, as well as eight other weddings booked in 2018, according to Ian Bush, the hotel’s general manager. The double king-sized bedrooms start at $279 per night, and the suites start at $900 a night.

“It really shows the strength of the brand,” Bush said of the advance bookings.

The 17-story tower is MetroNational’s first mixed-use hotel-apartment tower, Johnson said. As Memorial City has grown beyond the mall to include office, hotel, restaurants, the developer has been adding more apartments in recent years. The Fountains, a 114-unit luxury apartment, opened in 2010, and MetroNational is working with Gilbane and Slate Real Estate Partners on a 333-unit apartment project called Barryknoll.

“We needed some more residential,” Johnson said. “We’ve been a little underserved on the apartment side. This was a great opportunity to put in multifamily units and have more of an urban feel on this side of the campus.”

The McCarthy apartments, designed by Kathy Andrews Interiors, feature the typical luxury finishes: stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, a speaker system, and views of downtown and the Galleria area. The units, which range from a 530-square-foot studio to a 2,000-square-foot penthouse, also have some hospitality touches, such as entryway sconces and hotel-style doorstops.

The apartments will likely appeal to high-income millennials and energy professionals in their late 30s and early 40s who want to live near work and have access to convenient hotel-like amenities and restaurants. Hotel guests and apartment residents can walk from the tower to Memorial City Mall in minutes, Johnson said.

“Just being on top of ZaZa is a great amenity for our residents,” Johnson said.

Ultimately, MetroNational hopes adding a boutique hotel, restaurant, apartments and events spaces can drive more shoppers to Memorial City Mall, the linchpin of Memorial City. As online shopping has roiled suburban shopping malls around the country, retail developers are seeking new ways to create a retail experience to entice shoppers away from Amazon and the like, Johnson said.

“E-commerce will affect us, but this is one of the better-performing malls in Houston, typically only second to the Galleria,” Johnson said. “We’ll be here for quite some time.”

Source: Hotel ZaZa brings Inner Loop vibe to Memorial City

Kathy Andrews Interiors Builder and Developer January 2017

Front Page: Builder and Developer

We are proud to share that a model home in East Shore community with David Weekly Homes made the front cover of Builder and Developer. You can view the magazine and see our work online here… skip to page 36 to see our story!

Woodmont Ridge at Upper Macungie Township

We are very pleased to share the installation of our first project with Woodmont Properties; Woodmont Ridge at Upper Macungie Township in Allentown, Pennsylvania. We have more projects in process with Woodmont Properties and look forward to sharing them.

Stay tuned!

David Weekley Hall of Honor Video Screen Shot

David Weekley Inducted into Texas Housing Hall of Honor


AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas Association of Builders inducted a pair of pioneer members into the 2016 Texas Housing Hall of Honor. The event was held inside the Driskill Hotel in downtown Austin on November 18. Well respected Ray Tonjes and nationally known David Weekley became the 20th and 21st members to appear on the esteemed Hall of Honor wall.

Weekley and Tonjes are true pioneers in the Texas residential home building industry. Tonjes spearheaded green building practices. His decades of work have led the green building movement into mainstream building practices. Weekley made a commitment 40-years ago to “do the right thing” with his customers, community and team members by putting customer service and loyalty first.

2016 TEXAS HOUSING HALL OF HONOR INDUCTEE (VIDEO):
RAY TONJES
Ray Tonjes Builder, Inc., | Austin, Texas | Home Builders Association of Greater Austin

Tonjes has brought sustainable construction to the forefront of the home building industry. He has led the green building movement into mainstream building practices as he advocated at the local, state and national levels. He chaired committees, developed standards, wrote educational curriculums, taught classes, and presented seminars.

In 1985, Tonjes became one of the first “Energy Star” builders in Austin. This was an aggressive conservation program that evolved into the nation’s first green building program that became a valuable part of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). He continues to advocate at all levels for the improvement of energy efficiency and participation in green building programs.

For over a decade, Tonjes worked diligently on the Green Building Sub-Committee which established the “NAHB Model Green Home Building Guidelines”. These guidelines served as the go to resource for associations looking to develop green building programs. Also, as chairman he championed the American National Standards Institute process which led to the development of International Code Council’s 700 National Green Building Standard. This ground breaking document has proven to be an invaluable tool for home builders and has effectively changed the way homes are built.

Tonjes was a founding director and the first chairman of the Board for the Green Building Initiative (GBI) in 2004. The vision was to create a program that would bring conventional builders and developers into green building practices. He was integral in conceiving and launching a platform that would accelerate these building techniques while being credible and having a real-world application. GBI was able to support NAHB’s efforts to bring green building to the forefront of residential construction and certify thousands of commercial buildings.

Tonjes has testified before numerous United States congressional committees, appeared before Texas Legislative committees, published professional articles for national magazines, and spoken at dozens of conferences.

A 29-year veteran of the home building industry, Tonjes served as the 2005 President of the Texas Association of Builders, the 2003 Chairman of the NAHB Custom Home Builder Committee and the 1998 President of the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin. In 2009, Ray was honored as a finalist for the inaugural Hanley Award for Vision and Leadership in Sustainable Housing.

A graduate of the University of Nebraska, Ray made Austin his home following his service as a pilot with the United States Air Force (1971-1977). He and his wife, Rosemary, have two grown children.

2016 TEXAS HOUSING HALL OF HONOR INDUCTEE (VIDEO):
DAVID WEEKLEY
David Weekley Homes | Houston, Texas | Greater Houston Builders Association

A native of Houston, Weekley embarked on his home building career in 1976. At the age of 23, he started his own company and nearly 40 years later, he has sold more than 80,000 homes and expanded to 18 cities across the nation.

The company had great success in the Houston market, allowing him to expand his home building business to the other cities in the state by the mid 1980’s. This also allowed him to shift the focus to the people: the customers, the community and the company’s team members. David Weekley Homes started differentiating itself from its competitors with innovative homes, best in class customer service and by providing a work place that now ranks as one of the best in the country.

He was the first production builder to provide upscale features as the standard builder grade and the first to allow large scale personal customization to its floor plans with its unique FlexSpace options. The open-concept floor plans incorporate what Weekley calls “LifeDesign”: a concept that blends the fundamentals of design, architecture, engineering, physics, psychology and sociology to create homes that look and live better than other mass produced housing.

David Weekley Homes also embraced the “Build on Your Own Lot” concept, a concept that has matured into a mainstay of its business plan. He also was the first to incorporate energy efficient mechanical systems, building techniques and energy ratings into his homes.

His philosophy of “doing the right thing,” increasing interactions with the home buyer and training team members to speak with one voice was his greatest asset. Because of such efforts J.D. Power and Associates has ranked David Weekley Homes as Highest in Overall Customer Satisfaction among New-Home Builders and New-Home Quality. This best-in-class customer service produces an extraordinary 30 percent customer referral rate.

His company has been named as one of Fortune magazines “100 Best Companies to Work For” a remarkable 10 times. Weekley credits his company’s purpose of “Building Dreams, Enhancing Lives” for creating the company’s success and award-winning culture.

Weekley is a current member of the Board of Directors for St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital; Past President of the Houston Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization; and Past President of the Greater Houston Builder’s Association. Weekley has been named National Builder of the Year twice, received Builder magazine’s “Hearthstone Builder Lifetime Public Service Award” and won the National Housing Quality Awards, to name a few of his many accolades.

Weekley regularly donates 50 percent of his income and time to philanthropic endeavors. He is a pioneer in product design, customer service, business practices and philanthropic giving.

He and his wife, Bonnie, have three children and three grandchildren.

About the Texas Association of Builders: The Texas Association of Builders (TAB) is a non-profit organization serving the needs of home builders, remodelers and land developers throughout Texas, as well as the companies that service them. Founded in 1946, the Texas Association of Builders is an affiliate of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and has 28 local home builders associations and nearly 10,000 members across Texas. Representing over 400,000 jobs and more than $22 billion annually in the Texas economy, the state and local associations play a crucial role in providing housing for Texans. For more information about the Texas Association of Builders, visit www.TexasBuilders.org.

Product runway cover 2016 Kathy Andrews Interiors

Product Runway 2016

 

Product Runway is an avant-garde couture fashion design competition with a twist. IIDA Houston City Center’s Product Runway, influenced by the concept of the hit realty TV show Project Runway, is one of a handful of fashion shows of its kind in the country. Product Runway puts teams of interior design and architecture professionals and interior design students in a fashion design competition by creating handmade garments out of standard architectural finish materials such as glass, tile, carpet and wood. Product Runway promises to showcase eye-popping creations during a runway performance by each team on nearly 150 ft. of runway at Revention Music Center!

Each of the 20 competing teams has been assigned one hard material and one soft material, which must collectively make up 80% of their final garment. With this year’s theme: Avant Art, each team will be assigned a specific art movement with a correlating artist, as well as a piece of work from their artist that shows a true representation of that particular movement. The majority of a completed garment (approx. 60%) must be made of their hard and soft goods that are as close to the team’s assigned art movement and artist. Teams are encouraged to work with their garment label representatives to select goods that will best reflect their particular art movement. The assigned artist and image should serve as an abstract design inspiration. Within the portfolio submissions, each team will be asked to describe how their garment’s design relates to or interprets their assigned art movement and artist. Final entries, also modeled by a member of the design team, must be designed and constructed completely by the team.

Our 8th Annual Product Runway Fashion Show is scheduled for Friday, April 22nd at 8 p.m. at Revention Music Center. Funds raised by the evening of inspired designs benefit the Houston Furniture Bank, a local non-profit that focuses on making houses into homes by providing furniture for families in need via 70 agencies in surrounding counties.

IIDA Houston City Center’s 8th Annual Product Runway benefits the Houston Furniture Bank, a non-profit organization that is often referred to as the “charity of charities.” The mission of the Furniture Bank is to provide a more comfortable and livable environment, making empty houses homes for Houston’s needy families.
The Houston City Center is proud to support an organization that is actively changing our community.

Marvy Finger second downtown houston luxury apartment kathy andrews interiors 3

Sneak Peek: Inside Marvy Finger’s Second Downtown Houston Luxury Apartment

The Finger Cos. is near completion on its second luxury apartment project in downtown Houston.

The Houston-based developer is building 500 Crawford, a seven-story, 400-unit project on two city blocks, bounded by Texas Avenue, Crawford, La Branch and Preston streets. The midrise apartment is located on the site of the former Ben Milam Hotel across Crawford Street from Minute Maid Park.

500 Crawford will feature several new firsts for longtime developer Marvy Finger.

The apartments will offer the usual luxury amenities, such as a resort-style pool, courtyard and resident lounge. However, it will also will feature a sixth-floor residents-only sports lounge and an eighth floor viewing deck overseeing theHouston Astros ballpark as well as a morning room with juice bar looking into the park’s left field entrance.

500 Crawford also will be Finger’s first to have two dedicated restaurants on the ground floor.

Panchina (Italian for “bench”) will be a high-end Italian steakhouse and seafood restaurant occupying 8,000 square feet at the corner of Texas and Crawford. Brocca (Italian for “pitcher”) will be an Italian diner serving breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks, occupying 3,500 square feet at the corner of Texas and La Branch.

Jim Crane, the owner of the Houston Astros, is the owner of the two restaurants. Celebrity chef Brian Caswell and Bill Floyd — the duo behind Reef’s, Little Big’s and El Real Tex-Mex Cafe — is the chef and manager of the restaurants, which are expected to open this summer.

The first phase of construction — the first 200 units — is nearing completion, and the first residents are expected to move in March 1. The first of two resort-style pools and courtyards are expected to open by July.

The units range in size from 710 square feet to more than 1,300 square feet, and in price from $1,700 to $2,700 per month. The units feature hardwood floors, stainless-steel appliances, gas ranges, dual-shower and bathtubs, wine chillers and special soundproof windows and floors to dampen street traffic and ballgame cheers.

Product runway 2015

Product Runway 2015

Product Runway is an avant-garde couture fashion design competition with a twist. IIDA Houston City Center’s Product Runway, influenced by the concept of the hit realty TV show Project Runway, is one of a handful of fashion shows of its kind in the country. Product Runway pits teams of interior design and architecture professionals and interior design students in a fashion design competition by creating handmade garments out of standard architectural finish materials such as glass, tile, carpet and wood. Product Runway promises to showcase eye-popping creations during a runway performance by each team on nearly 150 ft. of runway at Bayou Music Center!
KAI, was awarded “Best New Arrival” out of the 21 competing teams that has been assigned one hard material and one soft material material, which must collectively make up 80% of their final garment. With this year’s theme: True Colours, each team has also been assigned a colour paired with an emotion. Each team’s creation will reflect an abstract interpretation of their assigned emotion, while also meeting the challenging requirement of being a majority of their assigned colour. Final entries, also modeled by a member of the design team, must be designed and constructed completely by the team.

The 7th Annual Product Runway Fashion Show is scheduled for Friday, April 17 at 8 p.m. at Bayou Music Center. Funds raised by the evening of inspired designs benefit the Houston Furniture Bank, a local non-profit that focuses on making houses into homes by providing furniture for families in need via 70 agencies in surrounding counties.