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Aspirational Home Offices

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Thursday, May 8, 2008

For those of us whose home office consists of a laptop on a tabletop, local architecture writer Deborah K. Dietsch's book "Live/Work: Working at Home, Living at Work" (Abrams, $35) offers a splendid yet angst-inducing case of "read it and weep." Gaze at the beautiful photos long enough and you may find yourself planning a bank heist to finance your own commodious atelier.

Some of the spaces are additions to existing homes, some are new construction, but all have drop-dead offices or studios that are large enough for a business in, for example, software development or architecture. Others were designed as a wedding-and-party venue, automotive workshop, choreography studio and even a restaurant.

Dietsch found several great spaces in this area, including a traditional Washington home with a modernist, soaring art studio built onto the rear and the community of 44 subsidized live-work spaces in Maryland's Mount Rainier Artist Lofts. Geez, at this point I'd settle for a dining room large enough for a file cabinet.

Annie Groer