Student Design Competition Poster

Early in January, my involvement with the DVGBC Student Design Competition Comittee led me to design a poster for this years contest with another graphic designer from WRT Design, Anna. Collaborating with her, we came up with this poster for the year's competition. I can't take much credit, most of my designs were discarded and she only used elements of mine in the final layout. The challenge is to design a sustainable bicycle transit center. You can see the program summary here.

One thing that was interesting about this was the design process itself. The DVGBC is still an emerging company and brand, which led to challenges obtaining fonts and proper guidelines. For the most part, the DVGBC design style is very clean and conservative, with light colors and subtle gradients with the use of light floral overlays. We are targeting young architectural and engineering students so we wanted to help our poster stand out as well as be in line with the DVGBC brand.

Reflections on 2009. Outlook for 2010

2009 has flown by. Here's what has happened:

• Renovated a 3500 sq ft property for a hookah bar/coffee shop in the heart of Lancaster, PA with friend and owner of the Pillar Lounge, Ralph.
  
• Focused my long-term goals by applying to the M.S. Sustainable Design program at Philadelphia University. Got accepted and now have a semester completed already. Getting to know a handful of great designers, builders, and architects in the Philadelphia region.
• Joined the DVGBC and am now involved in two committee chapters; Emerging Green Builders (EMB) and the Student Design Competition (SDC).
• Bought a beater Ford Ranger pickup truck as a second vehicle. No car payments!
• Improved my credit score to over 700 and met with a few different Realtors about local investment properties in Conshohocken.
• My little brother Andy was married to his awesome wife Sarah in August, and I was fortunate enough to be the best man. Also attended about 5 other friends and family weddings.

Now what does this year have in store? There a few things I'd really like to do and see.

• Study abroad in Copenhagen in June for the MSSD program. It's a 3 week intensive course, plus a few extra days to see the city.
• Complete and see through permit issues at Lancaster property so it can open.
  
• Visit Austin, TX again and try and bring some more friends along. Will avoid breaking my leg this time.
  
• Visit Chicago, IL in December for my little sister Vicki's wedding to Tim. Will try and do a few stops from Man v. Food while I'm there.
• Get my LEED Green Associate certification this spring. Then prep for LEED with a specialty.

What are your plans for 2010? Share them here.

Fixer on East Hector in Conshohocken

Always keeping an eye out for my first investment property, I saw a new opening in Conshohocken for a large brick home at 240 East Hector St priced at $159,000. Contacted local real estate agent Matt Mittman of Mittman+Rehling ReMax to get a showing for Saturday, Jan 2nd.
A few interesting things about this property: First, the lot is exceptionally wide at 60', which includes the house and the vacant lot to the left as well. The house is a good size at 2000sqft. The house has been on and off the market over the past few years, and since last being listed in Dec 8th 2009, it's fallen 40k from it's original asking price or 199k in just the past month. The owner is an asset management company, so it's probably a REO or foreclosure of some sort and they're desperately looking to unload it. The interior of the house needs a complete rehab. I estimate the ARV (after repaired value) of this home to be around 250k based on neighboring home sales. New windows, drywall, bathroom, kitchen, electrical, etc...One can easily see spending 70k on this place, so as it stands, not such a great deal. If it could be had for 140k however, it's much more appealing.

Unfortunately, this probably will be nothing more than an exercise in real estate education. The current asking price, while fair, is still above my range of what I can afford. If I had a proven team or company in place I would hop on this opportunity, however I think I'll have to let this one slide.

-- Update --
This property sold on 2/11/10 for $130,000 and is currently under renovation.