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Re-use of a beautiful old door

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Here is a photo from a recent project with an old door hung on sliding door hardware.  I sent the client on a mission to find a cool old oversized door from a salvage yard in Vermont.  This is what he came up with.  Note also the concrete floor and the colorful slate floor and exposed hemlock ceiling joists.  All are examples of what the owners brought into the project and emphasize the success of a collaborative approach to design.

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"Prefab is Not the Answer"

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I have been following the growing interest in prefab modern houses with growing interest.  I have been turned off by the very high cost of prefab whenever I have looked into it.  Most seem to finish out at over $200/ s.f.   The standard double wide all vinyl modular homes come in at under $70.  This is what most potential homeowners can afford on an average $50k income.  So I was pleased to see a very thorough critique of the claims made by the prefab mod house industry. This From Jetson Green:

This article was written by Chad Ludeman, President of Philadelphia-based postgreen and developer of the much talked about 100k House.

link to the article here

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Sketchup model

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I have been using Google Sketchup extensively in the early stages of projects this year.  It helps me zoom in on issues and make good decisions fast.  I have also been encouraging clients to download sketchup which is free.  I can then send them the file of what I'm working on which is quite small, a blessing with my slow connection.  Mastering the visualization tools in sketchup is very easy so clients can play with their design in 3-d.  This fosters good communication.  Here is a .jpg file of an early sketchup model.

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Budget modern steel staircase

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Hey all you sleek expensive modernist architects with square toed shiny shoes and funny little glasses! Check this out. I designed this very cool steel stair out of stock pieces of steel - two C-channels and a bunch of 1 1/2" steel angle. Lots of nuts and bolts. Add some stainless steel cable with turnbuckles and there you go! Very Erector Set. No Welding. When it is completed there will be a wooden handrail bolted on and the 2 x 12's that were bolted in place during constructin get replaced with solid planks of cherry from a tree felled on site. I love the rich patina of raw steel.

see also Stair Porn for a larger photo

Plans are available for this $150. See http://swinburnearchitect.com/wordpress/?p=286

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What clients come to me with

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When I first meet with new or potential clients they usually have been working on their project for a year or more and have rudimentary plans sketched up as well as a laundry list of what they want. It is unusual for these two things agree with each other and I am in the position of delicately pointing this out. It reminds me of first year in architecture school when you work on a project day and night for a week and on presentation day someone on the jury picks up your model and says "this is crap" , hopefully followed by constructive critisism. At this point the project can go in at least two directions. The client can clam up and say " I know what I want and I just need it drafted up" or the client may realize that what they have come up with may be unneccesarily complicated and expensive as well as not really achieving all it could and welcome professional input. I don't discourage the drawings as they help me to see how people think and see. This helps me tailor what I do to maximize clear communication. Ideally, I can serve as their "jury" and coax/coach them into designing a scheme that meets all their stated (and implied) goals and perhaps even help them re-visit their stated goals to see if they are realistic. Before architecture school I spent a year in art school but dropped out beause of the lack of productive critisism of my work. If I put enough time into an assignment, I would get a high grade regardless of whether the project was actually good or not. When I got to architecture school, I welcomed the much higher level of artistic and intellectual rigor.

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A Good Architect

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I am bringing this post forward because, well, because I like it. As I have mentioned before, much of my work is for people who would never have gone to an architect in the first place, thinking that they could never afford it. Designing a custom home for someone is an incredibly complex endeavor. You can buy a set of plans relatively cheaply that may go 75% of the way towards fulfilling your needs and end up with a descent house. Most people go this route. However, some of my best work to date has been for people who are more concerned with money and value. I have been hired by clients to say “no, you can’t afford it” when they lose focus in the process of building a home and start to make a decision or series of decisions that would blow the budget. A good architect should be able to save a client at least the cost of architectural services if that is one of the stated goals. If you have $250,000 to spend on a house you can buy a plan and build a house that is worth $250,00 or you can spend $20,000 on an architect and build a house for $230,000 that gets you a better looking house with a more efficient and flexible floor plan and nicer spaces that fit your lifestyle more comfortably, a house that costs less to maintain over the longer term. Notice that I keep saying “good architect”. As with any profession there is a wide range of talent and specialties. Always ask for and check references. Find an architect and a builder who you are comfortable with. You need to develop a good relationship with these folks. They’re not just there to sell you something.

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Entrepreneur Architect

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I would like to thank Mark LePage for helping me learn how to spell this word.  Don't quiz me yet though.  Mark the blogger /architect has created a new website - Entrepreneur Architect -for those of you readers who are architects trying to build your own businesses.  He seems to be doing a very good job of it so I'm paying attention to what he has to say.

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Perry Road Press

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The Brattleboro Reformer ran an article on the Perry Road Project today "LEED-ing the Way" For those who have been keeping tabs on this project, we will be holding several open house tours during and after construction.  Stay tuned here for dates and more information.  Also my college friend Mark LePage put an entry relating to me in his new blog Entrepaneur Architect It has been interesting to watch Mark's firm as it grows and his internet activities expand. Very inspiring, Now I am trying to inspire other classmates from architecture school to follow suit.

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green going overboard

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I have been mulling over this subject with a builder friend for a while now and I think I can make my point brief. He is building a very "green" house which is small and pretty and so forth but the cost is astronomical. A simple example of why it is so expensive is that the architect specified clay drain tiles around the foundation instead of PVC. Much more $$. Not that I approve of the use of vinyl - just rent "Blue Vinyl" and you'll see why - My thought is: would the world be better off if they used the pvc and put the price difference into their town's fund to help low income folks winterize and add insulation? That seems to me to be so much more environmentally responsible.

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Perry Road update - foundation

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Here is a rendering of the Perry Road project for the press.

The ICF foundation is in and the slab goes down thursday.  The plumber is putting the drains in to the septic and roughing for a future basement bathroom. We used Nudura ICFs which have 2 1/2" of foam inside and out.  and a footing form that stays in place as a footing drain inside and out.  We are putting 4" of foam under the slab and radiant tubing in the slab (in case we need it someday)

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"Free" Design

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I didn't get a job once because the folks decided to go with a full service design build firm that offered "free" design services.  I had the rather funny image of some old retired architect who worked for free because he was either being blackmailed or he was very wealthy and just loved to work so much that he was doing it for free.   The other thought was that the person doing the "free" design work was some high school drafting class kid who they were paying so little that it was easy for the company to absorb the cost.  These people may actually have been gullible enough to think that they weren't, somewhere in the bill, paying for design.

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Update on the Perry Road Project

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We broke ground last Friday and quickly discovered ledge. The big unknown here in Vermont. In comes the architect (me) to lay out the ramifications of moving the house, raising the house or spending the money to blast the interfering rock. This house relies on sitting well in the land without lots of terracing and earth moving to force it to look good. Also raising it would put the first floor even higher above the meadow and driveway where they will park their vehicles. So the decision was made to blast. At 8:30 that evening I got a call from the excavator who had stayed at the site until dark and dug away what he could to expose the rock. He determined that he could rent a jackhammer, one that attaches to a large excavator to remove the offending rock. Done. Cheaper than blasting. I recommended a batch of my famous chocolate chip cookies with secret ingredient to be baked by the owners for the excavator. It is important to feed the folks building your house.

Next come the footings and the ICF foundation. Should make for some good pictures. stay tuned.

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Put green building in a larger frame of reference, please

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There is a lot of discussion lately about second homes and how can they be "green" given their very nature as inherently excessive. I thought I'd add some rambling and incoherent thoughts to the issue. I am often struck by the futility of the notion that we can actually do something significant to slow and reverse global climate change. I sometimes feel that perhaps my efforts should be much better spent in an area where I could make a larger difference that green building. I heard an interview (no reference or url here because I don't remember) with someone saying we should be putting our money and effort into dealing with climate change rather than combating it directly because we are way behind in a war that we cannot hope to win. Anything our government mandates or our people, specifically the American and Chinese people, would be willing to do or sacrifice is going to be way too little and way too late. We should be gearing up the ability of the world to quickly mobilize massive humanitarian efforts when large scale famine sets in - as would seem to be happening now. We should be looking at the ramifications of losing our oceans as a food source. What does it mean to return to a local economy - where would my underwear come from? Water allocation is a huge issue that will cost billions of people their lives not just their livelihoods in the coming decades. The spread of a disease that could wipe out half the world's population is a looming threat that scientists involved with such things refer to as a "when" not an "if". If you think the war in Iraq is costing a lot, just wait... We are soon going to be forced to make much larger changes than building green houses and getting rid of the SUV. So I look at the debate about second homes as being rather piddly and myopic. Phew, got that of my chest but now I don't feel better.