Here is a great example of how versatile Niche Modern’s pendants can be and how effectively the Amber color choice can bring warmth and tie a room together. This house is a new construction in Lake Michigan about 75 miles from Chicago. The design was inspired by the original 1906 home on the property, which was in severe disrepair and unsalvageable. As the designer for the project remarked, the home beautifully embodies an Arts-and-Crafts meets Mid-Century-Modern design. Niche Modern’s Pharos and Stamen pendants in Amber were one of the very first choices the designer made for these rooms. RoomTEN, the design group for the project, worked hard to make eco-conscious choices for the house: locally built millwork, furniture and American made fixtures throughout the house. We love being included in such personal, gratifying achievements of architecture and design. Many thanks roomTEN!
A Stamen Light in the Powder Room of the Lakeside Residence
Contemporary Lighting Project Details
Project: Lakeside, Michigan Residence
Location: 75 Miles North of Chicago on the shores of Lake Michigan
Architect: Raino Ogden Architects
Designer: Tai Kojro-Badziak, roomTEN design
Photographer: Tyler Mallory
Reference: roomTEN design – Lakeside Retreat
Handblown glass pendant lights used: Stamen Modern Pendant Light, Pharos Modern Pendant Light
Master bathroom of the Lakeside, Michigan Residence
Pharos Lights in the master bathroom of the Lakeside Residence
A common question at the office here at Niche Modern is: How many pieces made it into the box today? The “box” refers to our annealers and we’ve struggled from the very beginning with limited annealer space dictating how productive we can be. So this wall of giant annealers is an amazing feeling of abundance for all of us as it represents the wide open future of possibilities at the new studio. They’re even bigger in person!
Three annealears have been positioned within the hot shop, ready for action
Jeremy, Zach and our amazing team of plumbers and electricians have been working hard all week to get the new 1,000 lbs furnace installed and hooked up to our gas lines at the future Niche Modern Glass Studio. This is a great perspective shot taken from the mezzanine at the end of a long day. The space is coming together and starting to feel like a real live glass studio!
The new furnace means longer days spent piecing together the puzzle
Johnny and Hal were working hard last week to assemble the metal hood room which will house all of the new hot shop equipment at the Niche Modern Glass Studio. The entire structure has been engineered and custom made for our specific layout by Jeremy, our architect and other members of our superstar team here in Beacon. This marks another huge milestone on the way to being up and running.
A Hood Room for our Furnace and Glory Holes is assembled
Annie and Allana are already hard at work again and settling into the glorious, new Niche Modern Cold Shop! Here Annie dries off some Pod pendants after cold working them for an upcoming order. I think she’ll sleep like a baby this weekend… it’s been a helluva week but oh what a feeling of accomplishment and promise we all feel!
Annie Shepherd cleaning off a Pod Pendant Light
Now that the larger aspects of the construction at the future Niche Modern Glass Studio are winding down we get to enjoy some of the artistic details… such as choosing the right shade of gray for the gantry! It was a tough choice and it was great fun narrowing down our semi-finalists. In the end, Jeremy and I both chose ‘Monument Gray’.
Monument Gray Painted onto the Gantry on the Niche Modern Hot Shop wall
Dan, our resident photographer and social media genius, got fancy last week and made a composite image of the inside of the hot shop at the future Niche Modern glass studio. This is a great view of the main wall and mezzanine from within the belly of the beast. It’s looking even better now since the walls were painted and getting more glorious day by day. (expand browser window wide to get a full view of the expanse of the space)
The wall below the mezzanine that looks out into both sides of the glass studio
This is a great shot from the mezzanine at the future Niche Modern Glass Studio where you can really assess how much brighter and cleaner the glass studio space has become of the past few months. The mezzanine is the next frontier that we’re tackling. Once we get the floors repaired and cleaned and install new railing we can open our studio to the public on certain days of the week. There is nothing more magical than watching glass being blown. I never get tired of it!
A cross-section of the mezzanine and the hot shop
To me the old crane at the future Niche Modern Glass Studio feels like a metaphor for all we’re trying to pull off here in Beacon right now: taking this beautiful industrial building from a place of stagnation to a place of action and meaning again. After a lot of fussing, untangling of old wires and deep cleaning of the tracks more than 25′ above the floor, the crane at the future Niche Modern Glass Studio is working again! It will be very helpful when the super heavy equipment comes later this month and also on a regular basis when we need to move deliveries of batch. Max, our four year old, also has also mentioned his ideas about using it for “flying lessons” but we’ll have to see if that’s covered in our insurance policy…
The hook of the industrial crane at the Niche Modern Glass Studio
