Bringing homes up to speed in a tech-savvy world

A study at Bay Colony off Vanderbilt Beach Road. COURTESY PHOTO Bill and Caryn Schuman requested one thing for their residence in Bay Colony off Vanderbilt Beach Road. Sure, they were sold on 18th-floor high-rise views of the rolling green of Pelican Bay Golf Course to the east and calm waters along the Gulf of Mexico to the west. The 3,500-square-foot-condo was dreamy and spacious.

What grounded the purchase and subsequent build-out, however, was a desire to link with the world beyond Southwest Florida.

"He's an attorney, and he's able to be here more because of his wired home office that keeps him in touch with his Chicago office and his clients," said Jenny Carter, president and principal designer of K2 Design Group, an architecture, interior design and construction management firm.

"One of Caryn's top priorities was making sure that the study was a fullyfunctional environment for getting down to business. In the living room, she was as concerned with electronics as she was with décor."

Virtual lifestyles are fueling a remodel craze that's sweeping high-rise towers and older communities built in the 1980s and earlier, said Ms. Carter. For those who can and do squeeze every minute out of busy lives, the second home is as important as the northern home. It was not always that way.

Southwest Florida was a setting for sleepy neighborhoods back in the late 1970s when award-winning masterplanned communities like Pelican Bay were very much in the blueprint stage. Back then, retirees came down to get away from it all. They still do, of course, but second home buyers are increasingly tech savvy.

"My clients are all online," said Ms. Carter. "Even the ones that are not running businesses or working from home are researching every purchase and all medical information online. They look for recipes online. They read world news online, and they e-mail constantly."

For the 15-year-old company that specializes in architectural solutions, a media package is part and parcel of every design. As homeowners turn vacation condos into high-function residences, boxy units are being reconfigured to make optimum use of space and capitalize on media.

"Retirees are more connected now than they ever have been," said Jon Guenther, vice president of Advanced Audio Designs. "Source material is where the revolution is now. It used to be that you needed cable or satellite to watch your TV with video or DVD. As far as audio, you listened to radio stations or played a cd on your cd player. Now homes are wired for total technology as music and computer information is streaming in from iPods, iPhones and computers."

In much the same way a kitchen is no longer squirreled away in a dreary corner at the back of a house, many computer stations are finding their place in living areas where a synergy of function is coming to life. When in town, homeowners that entertain in as much as they dine out want the nerve center of the home to be near a petite computer center ideal for planning meals, sending e-mails and sourcing recipes. More and more, culinary settings feature Jetsons-like digital gadgets that make coffee and prepare food and appliances are oh-so-quiet.

For more information, visit www. k2design.net