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.
"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.
Builder /Architect Magazine
David Powell was featured in the April 2008 Trade magazine "Builder/Architect" Vermont Edition. the article features a number of projects we worked on together as well as an article on page 9 written by me which is a better developed version of a previous entry on this blog.
A Little bit of Me
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.
A nice part of the process
I am involved with a project that is currently in the trimming out phase. This is the point where, if all goes well, the client and the builder can really see what I was blathering on about months ago. The owner is having some "aha!" moments and really appreciating the back and forth of the design process and the builder is humming along comfortable in making decisions and enjoying doing good work. Of course with the warm weather and the snow finally gone here in Vermont and no bugs yet, I think it would be hard not to be happy. Gotta go work on the garden. We get a substantial portion of our food year round from our own garden.
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.
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.
Hiring an Architect
I tooled around the web and found a few informative sites relating to hiring an architect. Bob Vila.com, eHow, and Contractors.com Add these to my post "A Good Architect" and it should say about ninety percent of what I would say if left to ramble on for an hour or so. I like potential clients to call people who I have recently worked with to get a sense of what I do. Few people have any idea how involved it can be and why it's so worth it.
