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Imbue Design Blog | Our process of creating meaningful, modern residential and commercial architecture to promote deliberate living.

Day Long Retreat

This is why we love our job.

In previous posts we've expressed our delight that in our line of work the field trip hasn't been lost to past days of elementary school.  Our latest trip down south was no exception.  Though fast and furious the excursion, there is nothing so liberating as when that last wireless signal bar falls to the distant highway rendering your mobile device a paperweight for taming the stubborn curl of a tattered set of building plans.  Perhaps this is what Buddhism refers to as "emptiness", "the space between".

On site the Imbue Team and Marci, the owner, were able to discuss the Buddhist Retreat's progress with Butch, the general contractor.  Calm as a summer's breeze and as on it as white to rice, he had the subcontractors humming along at a beehive like pace.  We met with each sub consecutively, answered a few questions, and marveled at the work being done.

Then, with the arrival of a concrete truck, to our pleasure and amazement, Butch transformed from contractor to artist.  With all the command of a naval captain, yet the care of a tender caress he orchestrated a symphony of concrete and laborers into a masterpiece of flatwork.


The framing of a masterpiece.





360 degree view of enlightenment.





Tibetan prayer blessing the work.
The key players:

The discerning, determined owner appreciating the beauty of her labored vision.



The stalwart, exacting contractor orchestrating the menagerie of parts.

The sleep deprived, caffeine injected designer fretting over details both accounted for and forgotten.

The muscle-toned, sun-bronzed subcontractor executing his art, signed by his personal craft.




The blessed and stalwart moral and financial support leveling unanticipated bumps.