the featured project box is way to big IMO. make it a small thumbnail, and then people can click it for a larger view.
also, i dont care for how you have your slogan going throu ght reflection on the site title.
give some color to the center content area versus the page background too. seems really empty with all the white space, but, if you give some borders and colors, it would help a lot.
try making the site width 980 instead of 800.
800 x 600 screens are really outdated at this point, and you should worry more about 1024 screens and up. 980 is a good size cause it fits 1024 screens with just a tiny bit of white space on both sides when centered.
good start, but, needs a little improvement.
**EDIT**
didnt see deckers post to index2. that looks a lot better, and so does the logo.