The American Institute of Architects (AIA) offers some helpful guidance on selecting a professional architect. Selecting the right architect could be vital to the success of your building program whether you are building a home or designing a commercial building. AIA is a good place to start, because it is the leading professional membership association [...]

We get requests from time to time to explain what is known as the “catch-up” mechanism as it relates to real estate private equity funds, so here goes! (Please read this closely, as we have chosen our words carefully since there is a lot of nuance to communicate.)
The catch-up is a method for allowing a real estate [...]

The holidays provide many opportunities for us to spend precious time with your loved ones, and this tends to mark the kitchen as the social headquarters on any food-related, festive occasion. People are buzzing about while conversation lingers in the air, so why not transform the kitchen to include seating?
Here are a few great options [...]

Many of you know that I do product presentations; you know, the smiling woman in the department store who says, ‘try this’. Recently, I was in The Chef Shop in Gt. Barrington, New York presenting the Krups Espressaria EA 82 Automatic Espresso Maker. It retails for $799.00 and is not considered pricey as espresso machines go. Everyone in the [...]

Percentage Rent, also known as “overage”, is a characteristic of many retail leases that allows the landlord to participate in the sales of the retail tenant at the property. The Percentage Rent is additional rent above the otherwise base fixed rent. The rationale behind this unique lease term, which is seen only in retail leases (and [...]

To make a space look larger and more balanced, lay wall-to-wall carpeting down throughout the room. If there is an adjoining space, like a closet or dressing room, the area will appear even bigger if the carpeting is extended into those areas, as well.
Do you think the wall-to-wall look too boring? Do as the [...]

Listen carefully to people around you. It is not always easy to hear the truth, especially when it seems like the obvious is obscured by a prevailing rhetoric in an organization.
Once upon a time there lived a vain Emperor whose only worry in life was to dress in elegant clothes. He changed clothes almost every [...]

Talk about bringing the outdoors in! Dutch Artist, Berndnaut Smilde, has created the perfect art piece in a real life, fluffy, white cloud. The cloud is created by carefully regulating the space’s humidity, temperature and light. The masterpiece only lasts a few moments, but it is certainly dramatic.
Understandably, this collision of art and science has [...]

In Dan Pink’s seminal book, A Whole New Mind of a few years ago, Dan gave us a new archetype of today’s creative worker supplanting Peter Drucker’s concept of the knowledge worker. The knowledge worker a generation ago was a novel concept compared to more of a blue collar, industrial, manufacturing mindset. Look, we barely had cell phones then [...]

I just completed some customer service training and asked the question, “What famous deceased person would you like to talk to?” The answers were very telling. You’re probably wondering what this has to do with customer service training, right? This is about communication, and customer service has everything to do with communication.
Communication is dependent on many [...]