Posted by Kevin Lofgren

I have had a dream for many years now. It came into focus when I first visited my friend John Swieter's studio (then called Swieter Design, now called Range). When I walked into his old studio, it had a strong sense of both old and new. It was at once a commercial space, yet in many ways it felt very much like home. Music was playing throughout the place - Beck and Bjork grooved in one corner, Eminem rapped in another and a bit of cool jazz echoed around the corner. The diversity had a hippie-ish communal feel to it, while the consistency of focus on creativity within the environment made it clear that this homey place was intended to create great work.

I suppose it was my time between 1974-1980 growing up in the hills of Jefferson City, Tennessee, that made old houses feel soulful to me. I have always found great comfort in the creaking of the stairs, the smell of the wood and the smallness I felt when enveloped in their great wrap-around porches. They just make me feel like a kid again.

So, it is these two experiences combined that brought us to our current – and hopefully final – home.

Farstar has been working out of temporary office spaces for the last four years - cube farms, at best - mainly because I knew where I wanted us to end up and I didn't want to settle for anything less. I remember telling my friend Sean when I first interviewed him in 2000 that one day I wanted to have an old two-story house with a big wrap-around porch where great work was inspired and a community was nurtured.

In a few days, stage one of the dream will be complete. We have found a Prairie-style house that was built in 1913 sitting on Main Street in nearby Frisco, TX. For those of you who may not know, we are currently in Plano, TX (suburb of Dallas) and Frisco is the city directly north of us.

The house needs some help. Frankly, it has been largely neglected for some time, even as it was operated as a restaurant during the last decade. I guess the owners either didn't place great importance on aesthetics or couldn't justify spending the money on it. Here are some pictures of how it looks today. But don't worry – we have big plans.

This is a photo received by the Tax Assessor's office from when the house was being used as a retail store called "Divine Designs."

This is what it looks like today. It was most recently being operated as a Cajun restaurant called "Rod's Cajun House."

And this is a rendering of what we're planning to do to it. Clearly this is just a stab at how it might look and I currently have no idea how close it will end up looking to this, but this represents our vision for it.

So, I'll keep you posted along the way. As an avid photographer, I'm certain I'll be documenting the progress pretty often. We should move in sometime around September 1st (which is when our current lease is up here). The work won't be done, but we'll work in temporary spots in the house while the crew works on our permanent spots.

A note to our clients: if you're on the phone with one of us and hear pounding, sawing, or the air compressor in the background, please pardon our mess. We are working to make Farstaropolis a better place for all of us.

Home Sweet Home. I just can't tell you what big hopes and dreams I have for this place – and for our work. It's going to feel so good for Farstar to finally have its home.

kl

Related Posts:
Home Sweet Home - Part Three
Copernicus Comes Home