Laurence Luxury

Laurence Communities is proud to announce that Jacob Szajowitz has joined the organization as our Vice President of Business Development. Formerly a national sales manager for a food manufacturer and vice president of development for a special education school, Jacob’s strength is in developing new relationships. With Laurence, Jacob will be responsible for identifying new strategic partnerships to assist in growing the Laurence Communities presence in the local new home market.

We look forward to the new opportunities Jacob will bring to both Laurence and, by way of the new relationships he will build, to home shoppers throughout Maryland.

As you may have surmised from my previous blog entries, we spend a lot of time here at Laurence, talking about luxury – what luxury actually is, how to get it, how to provide it, how to design it.  I think that first and foremost, luxury is about always having everything where it’s supposed to be when you reach for it.

Others think luxury is about appearances and grandness, regardless of ease of use. That may be true at first glance, but when considering the meaning of luxury, I am reminded of my mother’s stories of having to drive friends to the repair shop to pick up their “luxury” cars. She would laugh and laugh because her Chrysler was completely reliable, very comfortable, and consistenly worked when it was necessary to pass by Beverly Hills Rolls Royce.

For a while now, we’ve been working on a design called the Hillhouse.  The exterior and basic floorplan are outstanding examples of American Folk Victorian architecture.  But, I wasn’t perfectly excited with the second floor, and had it reworked by one of our staff architects.  Thinking it was still not perfect, our new young rising star, Daniel Ankri tackled the floor plan and I am just thrilled with the results!

Please view this exciting plan in the Custom Homes section of our website here.

Did you see the “Heard On The Street” in October 10^th’s WSJ?  Gianni Versace has closed the last of its boutiques in Japan.  More significant is the rise of Uniqlo, a highly profit able and fast rising fashion retailer worldwide.  Here’s a link to their SOHO store.

Also check out their site www.uniqlo.com for a more international perspective.  The WSJ suggests that, “The switch from haute couture to high street might give fashionistas a hint about fall trends in Paris.” I don’t know.  Even Betsey Bloomingdale has dropped haute couture and now wears and sells ready made clothes.  Could it be that more and more customers realize, as do I, that consistent quality is more important than provenance or grandeur?

We’re happy to share that David Meltzer was recently interviewed by the Baltimore Business Journal for its popular “2 1/2 Minutes” feature. See Below:

Laurence Communities is pleased to announce that Daniel Ankri has joined the firm as a staff designer.  Daniel, a recent honors graduate of architecture from University of Maryland brings creative talent and lots of energy to our team and we are excited to have him.