New Homes' Modern Touch - Page 2

Two similar designs, the Sidebreeze models, range from $1.3 million to $1,855,000. In expanding their line last month, the company displayed the results of its 2012 acquisition of Modern Cabanas as well as its new joint venture with California Closets to maximize the use of space in its products.

"It's more about cubic feet than floor feet," Schick observed of the smaller BluHomes, which are as compact as the 400-square-foot "accessory dwelling units" dubbed the Cabana that start at $235,000. "It's really a very efficient use of space."

"We're really trying to espouse to people that less is more," the art director said of marketing BluHomes, which actually include models as big as 3,200 square feet for a two-story variation of the Modern Farmhouse model priced at $1,075,000. A more typical example would be the new Lotus model, one of the byproducts of the partnership with California Closets.

"It comes out of the factory 95 percent finished. You just bolt it down," Schick said excitedly of the Lotus, which ranges in size from 640 to 1,600 square feet (at prices respectively from $275,000 to $725,000). Noting the inclusion of efficiently features like a Murphy bed, he termed the Lotus "a whole new level of readiness" for BluHomes.

And what would you suppose the company credo might be given its modernist origins and extensive use of glass doors and walls?

"Our whole motto is, 'Let the outdoors in,'" Schick revealed.

Sound familiar? Wright and Eichler would be proud.

For more on BluHomes, click here.