One of the best-known buildings on The University of Texas at Austin campus, Gregory Gym, was built in 1930, making it almost 100 years old today. Its unique appearance is partially the result of the style and color of its brick, made by a young company located 200 miles north of Austin, near Fort Worth, called Acme Brick. 
 
The story of Gregory Gym became part of the folklore of the Texas Longhorns.
 

Pop culture aficionados might find it interesting to learn that the first official reference to a “man cave” occurred in a best-selling book in 1992. In the extremely popular “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus,” author, John Gray casually references a man retreating to his “cave” to unwind and relax. The term captured the imagination of both genders and catapulted the cave into home design glory! 
 

The jury in the “court of home design” seems to have returned a verdict on the prediction about Zellige tile made in this space a few months before 2024 officially arrived. Every year, the Acme Brick “What’s Hot” list uncovers one or two products that seem to have arrived from nowhere and suddenly are on the computer screens of interior designers around the globe.

It may surprise you to learn that most new home buyers want a patio included in their new residence. For example, in 2022, of the roughly one million single-family homes started, 63.3 percent came with patios, according to construction industry source eyeonhousing.org. This number is up from 63 percent in 2021 and represents the seventh consecutive year when a new record was established.
 
Patio popularity partially came about as an unintended consequence of COVID concern.
 

When asked about their preferences, most home buyers would likely say they favor large rooms with high ceilings and lots of natural light from large windows. This sounds great, but, unfortunately, these popular features don’t really sound great. Living in an echo chamber is not that cozy!
 

Photo credit: Sthanlee Mirador for SIPA via AP Images

Once Henry Ford’s Model T made automobile ownership commonplace, architects began designing homes with garages. According to this source “In the 1920s, garage design began to evolve and become more specialized. Garages began to be built with specific features such as windows, workbenches, and storage cabinets.”
 
Not-so-coincidentally, this was about the time problems started out in the garage.
 

For almost a decade, the annual Acme Brick What’s Hot and What’s Not in home design makes an educated guess about the trends homeowners can expect in the coming year. Looking back on these articles, the predictions have proven to be amazingly accurate. However, it should be noted that this has almost nothing to do with the training or artistic sensibility of the author.