Give and Take in the Creative Enterprise Zone!

Geoffrey Warner and Alchemy are proud to support the efforts of St. Anthony Park's emerging Creative Enterprise Zone.  We are excited to invite you to their upcoming event, "Give and Take in the Creative Enterprise Zone."

From St. Anthony Park's website...
"Give & Take, the event where happy hour meets show and tell, arrives in the Creative Enterprise Zone."

On Wednesday, October 10th, a special one-night GIVE & TAKE event will take place in St. Anthony Park’s emerging CREATIVE ENTERPRISE ZONE. Centered at the crossroads of Raymond and University Avenue, the Creative Enterprise Zone is rooted in the idea that creative work is both necessary and satisfying and that innovation grows when interesting people and projects increase their connectivity. The Creative Enterprise Zone emerged out of the disruption and excitement generated by light rail development in an already fertile and highly concentrated area of creative development. This enterprising spirit is a perfect match for Give & Take, a public program designed by WORKS PROGRESS in 2009 with creativity, interactivity, and fun in mind.

The event will feature presentations by members of the neighborhood’s creative community, interactive audience-led games, snacks and beverages, and other unexpected opportunities to connect to local creativity and ingenuity. This will be a prime time to meet the entrepreneurs, artists, designers, makers, business owners, and residents who make this neighborhood hum with creative energy."

Head over to their website for more information about the event.  We look forward to seeing you there!

Students Stop by Alchemy Office!

Last week, a group of fourth and fifth graders from Echo Park Elementary School and Oak Ridge Elementary School stopped by the Alchemy office to ask a real architect some questions.  After spending time studying architecture in class, the students ventured into the real architecture office as part of their "Architectural Tour of the Twin Cities."  The field trip started at Alchemy where Geoff explained the role of an architect as well as answered student questions.
After Alchemy, the class had a full day of stops including the Ramsey County Courthouse, the Cathedral of St. Thomas the Apostle, the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, the observation deck of the Foshay Tower, and lastly the Guthrie Theater.
We enjoyed having the students stop by and hope they had a great time the rest of their field trip.

Blair BarnHouse Featured in Dwell!



Our friends at Dwell decided to feature the Blair BarnHouse in their recently released March issue. The Blair BarnHouse was chosen as this months "Houses We Love" selection. The concise article discusses Donna and Bert's inspiration for the project. Grab a copy of the recent Dwell to check out the article.

Minneapolis Star Tribune: Twice In One Week!

Alchemy has been fortunate enough to be featured in two separate Minneapolis Star Tribune articles in the last couple of days. The first of the weeHouse mentions was part of the 2011 AIA Honor Award Winners announcement. The Marfa weeHouse was selected as a 2011 Small Project Honor Award recipient by AIA Minnesota. The Marfa weeHouse as well as the other AIA Honor Award winners can be seen on the Star Tribune's website here.

On Sunday morning Alchemy woke up to a second story which featured photos of weeHouses floating though the air. The article titled "Prefab cachet is catching on" highlights the benefits of prefab construction. Alchemy's Geoffrey Warner is quoted a number of times in the article. Check out the online version of the article here.

Thanks Star Tribune!

weeHouse Featured in Natural Home and Garden

Our friends at Natural Home & Garden recently highlighted the weeHouse in their January/February issue. The article written by Susan Melgren is a brief overview of the original weeHouse with insight from Geoffrey Warner. If you are curious about the design process that created the Arado weeHouse, be sure to read the article here.


Dwell Dwellers!


Alchemy was recently featured in Dwell Magazine for a number of our ongoing projects.

The cover story of the December/January issue of Dwell magazine focused on the next generation of American prefab housing and serves as a "shoppers guide" to buying prefab. Dwell was kind enough to feature weeHouse in the article.

Alchemy was also featured in the issue for its recent work with Dror Benshetrit and his studio on the wee[QuaDror]House. The brand new design utilizes Dror's QuaDror system as the support frame for a house. If you would like to learn a bit more about this, check out the QuaDror website.

Alchemy is featured one last time in this Dwell issue. For fun (and to help our friends at Dwell) you will have to pick up your own copy of the issue to find the last Alchemy mention. We could barely contain our amusement by this final mention. It is slightly hidden, so you may have to play "Where's Waldo" to find it.

Be sure to grab a copy of Dwell and look for Alchemy and weeHouse in future Dwell issues!

The Department of Public Design visits the Saint Paul Forum

Recently, Geoffrey Warner of Alchemy participated in a discussion on the Saint Paul Forum through the Saint Paul Neighborhood Network. As a member of The Department of Public Design, Geoff joined Jay Isenberg to discuss the idea, goals, and functions of the Department. If you would like to learn a bit more about The Department of Public Design check out the video here or check out the Department's blog here.

weeHouse Delivered to Centuria, WI!

Delivering a weeHouse is always exciting. Two weeks ago Alchemy delivered the one time Saturn weeHouse to its new home overlooking a lake in Centuria, WI. Check out the video from delivery day below. Hope you enjoy!