Favorite Quotes

"All of man's works intrude upon nature - It is man's obligation to intrude harmoniously."

Alden B. Dow, c. 1958

What green building certification are you most interested in for your new home?

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Image Design Offers Annual Earth Day Special


To help celebrate Earth Day on Monday April 22nd Image Design, LLC will be taking $250.00 off our design fee for any new design projects that we are hired for between April 22nd and April 26th 2013. We hope that you all enjoy the different Earth Day events through-out the next week.


"YOU MUST BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD." 
Mahatma Ghandi


Monday, February 25, 2013

Habitat for Humanity of Kent County dedicates its 100th LEED-certified home designed by Image Design, LLC

100th LEED certified Habitat for Humanity Home
Today I had the pleasure of being at the dedication of  Habitat for Humanity of Kent County 100th LEED certified home. We feel privileged to have designed this home for habitat and the homeowners. The house was packed with over 100 house guests to see the homeowners receive the keys through the dedication ceremony and to tour to the home. I want to commend Habitat for making the commitment to building 100% LEED certified homes and for being on the for front of the Green building movement.  Beside being a projected LEED for Homes "Platinum" project (The second single family home certified Platinum in Grand Rapids). This home is one of only five homes in Michigan that is working with Ferris State University's Energy Center and the National Housing Research Center to test moisture performance movement in high performance wall assemblies.  They have moisture, temperature and humidity sensors in the walls that remotely communicate data. It is a two year study on a number of different wall configuration to better understand these wall assemblies.

Simple, Decent, Affordable, Historic, LEED Certified.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Image Design Awarded Best of Houzz 2013

We just found out we were awarded the honor of Best of Houzz for 2013 for Customer Satisfaction. Wow what a great Honor!

Grand Rapids, Michigan -- January 21, 2013 – Image Design, LLC of Grand Rapids, Michigan has been awarded “Best Of Houzz” 2013 by Houzz, the leading online platform for residential remodeling and design. The nationally recognized sustainable residential design firm was chosen by the more than 11 million monthly users that comprise the Houzz community.

The Houzz “Best Of Houzz” award for 2013 is given in two categories: Customer Satisfaction and Design. Customer Satisfaction award winners are based on homeowner members who rated their experience working with remodeling professionals in 12 categories ranging from architects, and interior designers to contractors and other residential remodeling professionals. Design award winners’ work was the most popular among the community of 11 million monthly users, also known as “Houzzers,” who saved more than 124 million professional images of home interiors and exteriors to their personal ideabooks via the Houzz site, iPad/iPhone app and Android app.

“It is an honor to have been selected by Houzz for this recognition. We enjoy interacting with the Houzz community and sharing our expertise with them on issues related to home improvement,” said Eric Hughes, President of Image Design, LLC. “We are passionate about the work we do and are excited to see our projects added to the ideabooks of those looking to remodeling or building a new home,” said Hughes.

Houzz provides homeowners with an in-depth, 360-degree view of building, remodeling and design professionals through images of their work, reviews and an opportunity to interact with them directly in the Houzz community,” said Liza Hausman, vice president of community. “We’re delighted to recognize Eric Hughes of Image Design, LLC among our “Best Of” professionals for exceptional customer service as judged by our community of homeowners and design enthusiasts who are actively remodeling and decorating their homes.”

With Houzz, homeowners can identify not only the top-rated professionals like Eric Hughes of Image Design, LLC, but also those whose work matches their own aspirations for their home. Homeowners can also evaluate professionals by contacting them directly on the Houzz platform, asking questions about their work and evaluating their responses to questions from others in the Houzz community.

About Image Design, LLC - www.imagedesignarch.com

Image Design, LLC is an national award winning sustainable residential design firm located in Grand Rapids Michigan. We specialize in designing new homes, cottages, remodels, additions and developments and can create a custom home that is suited to your individual lifestyle and the unique nature of your site.
We believe that design is a collaborative process involving the skills of owner, designer and builder. We are strong advocates of Sustainable Design principles, Lifetime Design principles and the Not So Big House principles and are one of the few design firms actively promoting these progressive standards in home design. We believe in the very near future, green design will be the standard by which all other designs will be measured. We are excited to be at the forefront of this growing movement.

About Houzz

Houzz (www.houzz.com) is a 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 1.5 million remodeling and design professionals worldwide who can help turn ideas into reality. @houzz_inc

Monday, December 17, 2012

LEED Platinum "Glenn Retreat" Home Video

Checkout the video's of the LEED "Platinum" Glenn Retreat home in Glenn, Michigan produce by the Alliance for Environmental Sustainability (AES) interns from Grand Valley State University (GVSU) and Aquinus College. The video explains the design, building science (Part 1) and the biophilia, gray and black water systems (Part 2) behind one of Michigan's most nature friendly LEED certified homes.

Glenn Retreat Video Part 1
Glenn Retreat Video Part 2

Sunday, December 09, 2012

Help us by recommending us!

Calling all clients, builders, friends and Image Design, LLC followers! As you may have noticed from an earlier posts here on the blog, we are a part of the Houzz.com community. We hoping to be considered for their 2013 Design Awards, for Best in Remodeling Design from Houzz, but there is a little twist. To be considered for an award, we need to have recommendations as a part of our profile. Will you help us enter these awards by offering a recommendation of our business and design work?

Here are the three quick steps it takes to write the recommendation:

1. Go to our profile on houzz.com - http://www.houzz.com/pro/eahughes/image-design-llc


2. On the top of the page, click where it says 'Write A Review.



















3. Fill out the short form with your recommendation and click submit. Presto! You're done. Now that wasn't so bad!


Thank you, in advance we really appreciate any recommendations you can offer our firm. Without all of you we wouldn't be were we are today.

Friday, November 16, 2012

The "Pineapple Hearth" Project is taking shape

"Pineaplle Hearth" Project in Gobles, Michigan
Our projected LEED for Homes "Platinum" "Pineapple Hearth" project is starting to take shape. It will be a Colonial Style Organic Farm on a former 40 acres apple orchard in Gobles, Michigan.  The project name comes from the Colonial symbol of the Pineapple which has served as a symbol of hospitality and warm welcome through the history of the Americas and the project's property have a lot of pine and apple trees on it. The name means "Welcome Home" to my clients.

The home will be built by Kris Herzog of Herzog Homes, LLC an experienced builder of LEED certified homes. Below please find some of the key features going into the home.

Key Features:

  • ICF Basement.
  • SIP Walls & Roof.
  • ZeroStep Certified.  
  • Elevator.
  • Climate Controlled Root Cellar.
  • Garage/Barn Combo.
  • Vermont Castings Fireplace - EPA Phase II certified.
  • Geo-Thermal Heating & Cooling.
  • Energy Star Windows.
Please watch for the projects Web-log coming soon!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Passive House Alliance Michigan

Eric A. Hughes of Image Design, LLC has been elected to the Board of Director of the Passive House Alliance Michigan Chapter which is a state chapter of Passive House Alliance United States. Beside offering design assistance for GreenBuilt Michigan, NAHBGreen and LEED for Home certification, Image Design will now be offering design assistance for Passive House certification.


Passive House is the highest certified building energy standard in the world, with the promise of reducing the total energy consumption of buildings by up to 80%, while providing superior comfort and indoor environmental quality. When combined with renewable energy systems such as solar photovoltaic or solar thermal, Passive House puts true zero energy buildings and carbon neutrality within reach.

The name Passive House is derived from the German term “Passiv Haus”, which describes a building with an extremely reduced (passive) heating system, versus conventional buildings with large (active) systems.

Energy Conservation First

Passive House is an “energy conservation first” approach. The basic idea is to radically minimize heat loss through effective heat retention, and maximize passive solar and internal heat gains. In our local climate, the sun can provide up to 50% of the energy needed to heat a Passive House. Internal heat gains provide an additional 15%.

The Passive House building energy standard limits the amount of energy a building can consume per square foot of usable floor space and year. The limit for heating and cooling energy is 4.75kBtu, and the limit for source energy accounted for at the utility is 38kBtu. Air tightness of the structure is limited to 0.6 air changes at 50 Pascal pressure.

Designs are modeled with a scientific energy modeling software called the Passive House Planning Package, and field tested for various parameters during and after construction. Design and field testing are submitted to the Passive House Institute U.S. for certification.

With its low energy consumption—as little as 10% of standard code-compliant buildings—Passive House buildings perform at an estimated 15 on the HERS scale, meet the 2020 requirements for the Architecture 2030 Challenge today, and can meet energy and carbon neutral goals for operation with a modest amount of renewable energy systems.

Watch for some new Passive House project from Image Design coming soon!!!!!!