Wilmington Pergola

Pergola in Purgatory - Brattleboro Reformer article.

The neighboring town of Wilmington just erected a lovely little pergola in a park where an old building burned down at the main intersection.  Wilmington is a minor tourist trap on the way to Southern Vermont Skiing complete with historic buildings repurposed as restaurants and souvenier shops.  Some folks think that the new pergola looks, well, new.  As if the vinyl siding, all the shop signs and the monster Rite-Aid don't look new.  so I wrote a reply to the reformer article.

"I was sad to see the Reformer article on the petition to remove the pergola in the park in Downtown Wilmington but I wasn't surprised..  People in Vermont are, on average, as conservative architecturally as they are liberal socially.  I am also not so ignorant that I don't understand that anachronism and nostalgia sell and if your town is a "tourist trap" you need a certain amount of it.  In Wilmington, if you stand on the corner at the intersection of  9 and 100 where the pergola is and you ignore the cars, the touristy signs and forget about the Right-Aid up the road, use some imagination and squint a bit you can see a bit of old Vermont.  People also come to Vermont for Art and the pergola brings to Wilmington a much needed liveliness that tells visitors that Wilmington cares about art and not just kitsch."

net zero? my house?

It just occurred to me that my own house is almost net zero.  We use no fossil fuels.  We heat with wood grown and havested on our own property (by me - gas in the chain saw) and use a modern high eficiency wood stove.  we use a few hundered dollars of additional electricity for the radiant ceiling panels, mostly when we are away for a few days in the winter.  There is no other heat system and we don't need one.  I have about r40 fiberglass in the attic and our walls are 2 x 4 with (not very intact) fiberglass batts. windows are single glazed with aluminum storms and an additional layer of plain glass by me.  no low e.  In short,the house is insulated to an average level and does not meet code for new construction.  We heat our hot water and cook with electricity and use 500 to 700 kilowatt hours per month.  With the addition of photovoltaic panels, we could achieve net zero!

Grumpy Musings of a bike riding architect

I will probably read this post tomorrow and pull it. I just came in from a midday bike ride during which I thunk things.  Before my ride I was poking around the Thermotech windows web site.  Thermotech makes very nice triple glazed, orientation tunable (heat gain) windows that work very nicely in our primarily heating local climate.  I would love to use them on a project but they cost 1/2 again as much as Marvin Integrity windows which are also very good windows but only double glazed and designed to block solar heat gain.  So on a typlical 300 or 400k house that means 30-40 k in windows versus 20 to 30k. This is the grumbly architect part: Clients typically come to me with a budget and a non-negotiable wish list. Sometimes (usually) the two are incompatible.  Always the client says "I want to go green!"  Always the first thing to go is the triple glazed windows, not the third bath or the granite countertops.   When it comes down to it, very few people are really willing to "go green" if it affects their desired lifestyle.

It's the Economy

Business is generally good for me despite the economy.  I have work enough to keep me busy but I do get nervous.  Right now I have four houses on hold for one reason or another.  If everybody calls and says "go" next week, I will be in big trouble. Also, if nobody calls in the next few months I will be in big trouble although the phone does always seem to ring.   I have a colleague working on getting Vermont Simple House up and running. (Vermont Simple House is my fledgling and not yet up-and-running stock plan business with huge potential)

trending modern

I have been noticing a trend in my contact with clients and potential clients in the past several years.  the statistics mean nothing due to the small numbers involved. It seems that older people are often more adventurous and less conservative than younger people when it comes to architectural style.  young couples send me messages from thier I-phones while driving around in their Prius's saying " eek! - too modern looking" and the older folk are saying " what if this wall were entirely glass?

New Office

I have been absent from the blog for a few weeks as life got even busier.  I am setting up a small office in Brattleboro at the old Cotton Mill. The Mill is filled to capacity with artists, musicians, woodworkers, massage therapists, dogs, a circus school, a jazz center and other similar organizations and businesses - a very fun place.  This working out of the (not so) spare bedroom in my home has its advantages and drawbacks. I cannot meet with clients here and I am finding it increasingly difficult to put in the hours getting work done.  As my business grows I need to feel and act and be more professional.  That was the plan for my barn but the barn seems to be on the slow track as I have very little time to work on it.  Moving my operations is a pain but exiting as well and I have a rediculous number of new projects. In this age of connectivity I can get help with my work from architecture school classmates on an as needed basis and this will be the first step in the growth of my practice. The next step will be hiring an intern next summer.  I already have someone lined up and needed a place for him.  I am a bit scared and very exited to think about where I will be in two years or five.  The response to this blog and my website, both of which are less than a year old, has been very positive. I think I'm onto something and after years of doing good and plentiful work in relative obscurity in the local economy, it seems to be time to step out on a bigger stage.

VT Architect may survive ice storm... and moose

Here I am at a coffee shop in Williamstown, MA checking my e-mail, charging my laptop batteries and waiting for some folks to arrive for a meeting. My home has no power or phone and I will be surprised if we get either by the weekend. Cell phones don’t work within miles of my house. Such is Vermont. So I really have been incommunicado since Friday except for these forays into town. Perhaps a generator would be a good Christmas present after all. I noticed more neighbors have them this year. The folks down the road have solar photovoltaics and micro hydro so they’re fine. We’ve all been through the drill before. Candles, a woodstove to cook on and heat the house with, hauling water from our spring, lots of chainsaw work. The neighbors on our road were all out Friday morning clearing the road with chainsaws and plows but the power lines are all over the ground under trees and propped up with sticks where they pass over roads. The hardest part, really, is the food in the basement freezer. It is too warm to put it outside so I chopped some ice out of the pond and put it in the freezer. We freeze a lot of food in the fall, being the dutiful homesteaders and overzealous gardeners that we are. My two year old daughter is way into headlamps so she is fine. Yesterday, we visited friends with power (FWP) to take showers and do a load of cloth diapers. (yes, we really do practice what we preach eco-wise although no prius yet) We really should (and do) consider ourselves privileged to have electricity and telephone 97% of the time.

Random note along the lines of why I live where I do and work from home: Last week I put on my lightweight winter boots (there was snow on the ground) and took the dog for an afternoon jog out to South Pond which is a few miles on trails through the woods behind my house. On the way we encountered the local female moose who seems to be getting rather used to us by now. I had my head down as I ran and nearly ran right into Ms. Moose. Peter Q Puppy enjoyed the chance to bark at her and send her on her way but she hardly seemed intimidated and just sort of wandered off. Mental note: moose are big. I returned home, split a little wood and returned to my work. Good day.

Robert Swinburne AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, zombie, Papa

This morning I passed the LEED exam. This added credential is now reflected on the title page of my website I should probably add a good description of what LEED is other than "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design" and the AP stands for "associated professional" but I am rather tired and looking forward to a night off from study and work. I will instead,  link you to the United States Green Building Council website where you can discover for yourself.  I'm also rather excited about the election and with a two year old daughter, telling her "it's going to be okay" takes on a whole new meaning.  Who's idea was it to schedule the LEED exam for the morning after the election?

"Free" Design

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.

Put green building in a larger frame of reference, please

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.

Complicated Budget Houses

I see many houses around here that would have benefited from some professional design help. It seems that people like to spend more money than they need to . These houses look complicated (if it looks complex then it is expensive) and yet they are obviously intended to be low cost housing. Not many people (or banks) "get" that spending money on an architect or designer up front can save them much more money in the months to follow during construction. Perhaps it is similar to solar hot water systems. Spend 5k to 7k up front and it takes 5 years or so before it is paid off in savings and then it starts saving money. It's like putting and extra $50 in the bank every month. That's an extra $6000 dollars over the next 10 years not counting for interest and certainly not counting for rising oil, gas or electricity costs. There was a picture in this month's "National Geographic" showing a Chinese subdivision from above. Many of the houses had solar hot water systems on the roof. They must be smarter than us.

I guess I’ll never be a rich architect

There is an article in the summer 2008 “Fine Homebuilding” entitled “How to Afford an Architect” by Duo Dickinson. A good article if you ignore the super high percentage of construction cost fee numbers he uses. I have heard of (st)architects getting 12% to 15% of construction costs but 16% to 18% and 60 to 80 drawings for a house? Get real Duo! That’s why people are scared of hiring architects. I doubt I could design a house complicated enough to require even 40 drawings! I think I did 18 once…Of course, maybe I’m going about this all wrong.

I am a Purist

I am a purist, architecturally speaking.

When the subject of style comes up people usually have very firm ideas in their heads. For years it seemed that everyone building their house in Vermont wanted a “cape”…with big windows and lots of light and an open floor plan. Talk about contradicting ones self. People tend to be as conservative architecturally in Vermont as they are socially liberal. Clapboard capes and Greek revivals are certainly not the most economical houses to construct either. I have done my share and I’ve done them well without too much compromising of my purist sensibilities. What I mean by this is that I like a lot of house styles but in reviewing houses that I really responded to emotionally over the years the common theme was that they were not trying to be something they weren’t. Capes trying to live like ranches, neo-victorians with cutesy plastic trim, developer subdivision type houses with layered gables on the front façade for no other reason than to attempt to reduce the scale of the house. I despise fakery of that sort. This reaction of mine applies to other things architectural as well. Concrete trying to look like stone, vinyl trying to look like wood, ceramic tile trying to look like stone or clay tiles, and (sound of “Psycho” violins) distressed wood cabinetry. Legitimacy of materials as well as style is important.

Some thoughts to live by in this industry and beyond:

1. Good, Cheap, Fast – choose two.

2. Rather than thinking “ How can I get everything I want for $xxx.xx?”

Think “ How much of what I want can I get for $xxx.xx?” the first question is usually and unsolvable equation. The second equation can result in some pleasant surprises.

The first is a notion that I have been applying to different situations for many years and have yet to be disappointed. The second is an attitude that I have run into recently on several projects and this is the first time I've put words to it.

Grassroots Modern, Carpenter Modern

Living in an aesthetically conservative state as I do, I am led to wonder what is it about modernism that scares people? After all, everybody loves their tiny simple I-Pod and their swoopy sleek cars and fancy footwear (except during mud season). Maybe modernism is still stuck with the images of white, cubist flat roofed houses that leak. Perhaps a survey is in order: what does modernism mean to you? As an architect I get to look at many magazines and books that are filled with warm, easy to live in modernist houses with amazing spaces and light but most of these houses are way beyond the budget of normal people. Dwell magazine comes as closest to the mark although they make regular forays into the high end of modernism as well. As a carpenter I realized that most carpenters are modernist at heart though few realize it. What is the simplest, cleanest way of doing something that results in something that works well and looks beautiful? - Actually bicycle design comes to mind here but this is a common carpentery way of looking at things. I use the term “carpenter modern” sometimes to describe the low budget modern aesthetic that I love so much – see my barn in a previous post. True, a lot of modern architecture is sleek and expensive and impossible to live in but great for displaying artwork. But carpenter modern is a grassroots modernism that seems to be about doing more with less and doing it better. Simplify the detailing, make the plan perfect – inside and out. Play with light. Play with views. Work with the seasons. Make the house as energy efficient as possible. Make it as low maintenance as possible. Make it as low budget as possible so you can splurge on the glass tile in the shower or a little more room in the plan for a bigger pantry instead of architectural shingles or fancy trim or gables on gables on gables which the all plan books seem to be full of nowadays. Window placement does not have to be a compromise between inside and outside. When all this is accomplished, then look at making it a cohesive aesthetic package, work the proportions and detailing to perfection. It is okay to do something just because it is cool. Architecture should be fun. Have no regrets when it is built. (Hopefully you get a client who understands the importance of these things because this takes time and time is money.) I like to design houses that people fall in love with. I like to walk into a house I designed with someone who hasn’t seen it yet and watch their jaw drop. I like that moment when someone realizes that this is what it’s all about.

FSC wood and blood on your hands

Uh oh, here I go getting political, in a semi-architectural way at least. I guess this is why I titled my blog "musings and mutterings" Don't buy non FSC certified hardwood such as mahogany. If you buy even one board, you have blood and exploitation on your hands. Yes, what you don't know may not hurt you but it may kill someone else. As Americans we are conditioned to turn a blind eye to issues of man's inhumanity to man in other areas of the world but please do what you can when you can and this is an easy one. Learn more: the Amazon Conservation Association and The Nature Conservancy

I also get much news and information from The Environmental News Network. Read this also for information on why you should avoid soy based foods and lots of information on cutting edge green building technologies. I also read Discover Magazine and National Geographic Magazine.

Grumpy Architect Time

It may be interesting to know where I come from and how it shapes my work. I grew up in rural Maine. I had friends who lived in houses with no running water, I never knew anyone with more than one bathroom in their house until I went to college, There was usually more than one kid to a bedroom. In the winter I walked the frozen shore line of the nearby lake, peaking into the windows of summer camps owned by the out-of-staters. In the summer, local kids worked 40 hours a week at the camps attended by kids from wealthy Massachusetts families and in the winter many of them worked 20 hours a week after school. I left Maine and attended college with kids who had gone to these summer camps, kids who had never held jobs. Culture Shock. Now I am comfortable in both worlds but I don’t feel that I truly belong to either. I definitely get uncomfortable when a client wants and can afford excess. I chomp at the bit when people “need” more than a one to one ratio of bums to toilets. Isn’t a 10 by 12 bedroom plenty big enough for little Johhny? A special room just to watch tv? On the other hand I love to design large homes that can accommodate several adults and packs of kids of all ages. A 10 by 12 pantry doesn’t seem so excessive to me and even sounds a bit small for a mudroom. Two sinks and two ovens in the kitchen? Why not! A 6 x 6 shower? Yes please and can I put the hot tub partly under the roof for when it snows? Can I heat it with solar panels on that roof? Sigh. These are some of the things that I think about while trying to be a brilliant up and coming young architect.

The True Measure of Good Design

I listened with interest and a level of cynicism to an NPR interview of a bunch of high school kids touring the solar decathalon houses on the Washington Mall this summer. They loved the houses, which were clearly modernist in design, and could happily envision themselves living in such a house. I say cynicism because in ten years when they are looking for their first house to buy, I bet they will be looking for something "phony colony" or "neo-traditional"(Architectural anachronisms) in a garage door dominated subdivision. These kids will grow up and get conservative. Or maybe not. I have been encouraged recently to hear that the baby boomer's kids are not neccessarily looking for houses like they grew up in. Green design is in, cool modern aesthetics are in, smaller footprints and better floor plans are in. natural light is important, neighborhood is important and not just for the quality of the local schools. A good measure of design is "would a twelve year old think it's cool?" This works for houses just as much as other forms of design such as automobiles and electronics.