Executive Homes

Sensory Environment Design (sedexperience.com) has its main office in Minneapolis, but it entices customers with its showroom at the Reflections condominium development in Bloomington. In a penthouse in the east tower, the company has designed and built a model home showcase for its home theater, environmental control, and distributed audio and video products and services. And it’s not just a showroom: CEO Paul Krumrich lives there.

“We spent so much money on this place that we figured someone ought to live there,” Krumrich says. And lucky for him—the penthouse has a bird’s eye view of a wetlands that forms part of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. The lack of nearby buildings of comparable height make for an unimpeded view of the sky. It’s a fascinating juxtaposition of high-tech and unfettered nature. Krumrich’s soundproofed windows look out on the turkey-buzzards that congregate on the building’s roof.

And what better way to demonstrate environment design than in the lived-in reality of an actual home. Evidence of Krumrich’s residence are sparse enough—a banana past its first youth on the otherwise spotless kitchen counter, well-thumbed books on the shelves (philosophy, although Krumrich majored in engineering). But the overall look is polished. The experience is much like spending an hour in the home of a friend—one blessed with a $300,000 electronic system that does everything but mix you a Manhattan.

When I first heard of Sensory Environment Design’s technology-driven condo, I immediately thought “Home of the Future” and of every Warner Brothers and Walter Lantz cartoon I’ve ever seen on the subject. The ’40s and ’50s cartoons fondly envisioned a robotic arm that would gently pat the “burp” out of radishes, a glass cone of silence descending over a nagging mother-in-law, or a drone that opens the front door to the man of the house, hustles him into bathrobe and slippers, and provides him with newspaper and freshly clipped cigar, all with swift, silent efficiency. Sensory Environment Design’s vision is almost as fantastic, but the showroom makes it a tangible experience.

The showroom design is based on setting adjustable experiences or “scenes” within the home. As I entered the condo, Krumrich flicked a large-ish remote control and enormous sail-like shades silently rose past the windows and disappeared into the ceiling, disclosing the late afternoon view. Set for a homeowner who first goes to the kitchen, the electronic household genie turns on the kitchen lights and the wide-screen TV tunes to the station of Krumrich’s choice. Or, using Apple TV, it plays favorite songs from an iPod, or even rents a movie. The lights might go dim and the sound system regale listeners with the smooth tones of Marvin Gaye in one kind of mood—or bright lights and ESPN for game night. It’s nothing less than lighting and a soundtrack for all the moods of your day.