Sky Lights

We weren't even thinking sky lights when we are thinking of our renovation but our architect suggested them.  On the plans, they are here, over the island in the kitchen:

There'll be three in a row.  The middle will open and close with a remote, which is rather fantastic.  And all three will have remote-controlled shades, also awesome.  Below is a clip of the kitchen floor plan, showing the position of the island.

Growing up, we had a skylight in our kitchen also.  A single skylight coming down a tube.  I had that image in my head for the longest time even when we were doing this.  Recently, I noticed the framing for the three skylights had been completed.  It then finally dawned on me that there wouldn't just be one narrow tube of skylight, or even three tubes of skylights.  But instead, the proximity of the three means that there is one GIANT hole / tube in the kitchen leading up to the skylights.  Its hard to photograph, but here's my best effort:

Here's one shot of the opening indicating the placement of the three skylights.

A wider angle shot of the opening.

Our architect, Mason Miller, tending to something completely unrelated to the skylights (the actual lights, I think).  For reference, he's standing in the middle of what will be the dining room/area, about four feet east of the kitchen island.

And the opposite side view of the whole.

Seeing this, I'm now realizing that this is not just going to provide a huge amount of natural light in the kitchen, but its going to add a lot of additional volume to the space.