A Point In Design

Residential Design – Arnie Jacobsen Lamp House

This house was patterned after the shape of a lighting fixture, the Jacobsen lamp designed in 1960 by the Dutch designer Arnie Jacobsen. Jacobsen was best known for his chairs, but he also designed lighting fixtures and other home accessories. The house’s footprint mimics the lines of the lamp but instead kinks to embrace the rear pool patio. This two story house is well suited for a Miami beach locale as it evokes many of the details associated with Miami and mid-century modern architecture. The house has 3 bedrooms and 3.5 baths and overlooks an impressive tiered infinity edge pool. Below are photos and plans.

Residential Design – New York City Tenement Bldg

Hello again readers,
This week I decided to create an infill housing project set in the heart of the NY city. My site was an open lot flanked by older tenement housing buildings. I took a more modern take on the structure and updated it as you can see below. My building is a 2 unit apartment complex with a two car garage (a total luxury in the city). The upper unit is a 2-floor, 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath luxury apartment with features such as a gas fireplace, an aquarium, study, gourmet kitchen, ground level covered patio, and a small rear yard. The loft space overlooking the great room could easily be made into a 3rd bedroom if desired.

The basement apartment (garden level) is a 1 bedroom/1 bath apartment with eat-in kitchen and features exposed brick walls. Lots of light floods the basement apartment from a large light well adjacent to the ground floor patio. Both apartments come with laundry facilities within the apartment. I also designed the building to have a common entrance foyer with mailboxes and a bike storage area. The building doesn’t have a doorman, but with all these features I think you can live without one.

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Residential Project – Post Post Modernism

Hello readers,

After a few commercial projects I thought I would return to residential design. I thought that I would try my hand at something that was both modern and traditional, a post-post modernist interpretation. Post modernism, a trend started by Philip Johnson in the early 1980s was a reaction against the modernist architecture of Mies and his contemporaries that the public felt was cold and overly sterile. Johnson reintroduced classical elements back into architecture reviving the ‘old’ details. The most famous example of post modernist architecture was his AT&T building in New York City.

The skyscraper was topped with an open pediment motif found on colonial furniture. I used a similar technique placing my modified pediment over a modernist box, the typical form of most pre-fab modern architecture.

The column is a central element to this house; the portico and pediment roof are supported by a series of columns and two massive 7′ diameter columns are visible just inside the front entry. These over-sized columns function as a fireplace chimney and a stairwell in the design. Finally there is a lone Tuscan column placed outside the master bath/bedroom which is illuminated at night creating a contemplative if not elegant display. This house has 3 bedrooms and 3.5 baths with a detached 3 car garage and open air pool house. There is also a second floor game room which could easily be converted into a 4th bedroom if desired. The house overlooks a pond so all of the living spaces and the pool face the view.

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Residential Design – The Moat House

Need a place to put all of that leftover Thanksgiving gravy? This house designed around a moat just might fill the bill. This 3 bedroom 3.5 bath minimalist design is most notable for its wrap around pool/moat that surrounds the public rooms of the house. The house is very bright and airy with its many curtain walls, skylights and courtyard spaces. There are even underwater windows located in the downstairs bathroom and hallway looking into the depths of the moat. For added security, the house boasts its own gatehouse that mimics the profile of the main house. Obviously such a property would be expensive, but in the virtual world of design, we will not let a little thing called money get in our way.

Residential Design – Farmhouse

My latest creation is probably one of my best designs, even though I normally prefer a more modern design ascetic. This simple yet classic farmhouse comes in at 2221 sq ft with 3 bedrooms and 3.5 baths. An additional 700 sq is possible if one wished to finish the 3rd floor attic space. The house has an attached 2-car garage and a side entry with porte corchére for visiting guests to use in the event of rain. The house has many high end details from the coffered ceilings in the study & dining areas to the beadboard wainscoting in the bathrooms and mudroom. There are two fireplaces; one the living room and the other in the master bedroom and all rooms have crown molding. The main living area opens onto a patio with a shaded pergola while the front porch offers added outdoor space for relaxation. Below are some photos of the design.

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Stay tuned for my next post featuring a really cool commercial space.

Traditional Home of the Year

As a followup to my previous post, I also created a more traditional exterior to go with the floor plan for my better house of the year project. Below is that outcome.

Like the modern version, the traditional house has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths with a vast array of options and price points. I opted to use more expensive materials for this house, so the likely cost would be higher then the $219,900 base price of the modern house. Below is a list of the standard features with an additional list of options. The renderings shown reflect the house with all the options included.

Base House

• 3 bedrooms 2 baths 1 car garage 1497 sq ft
  
• Clad with HardiePlank Siding (choice of colors)
  
• Double Hung Eagle Windows & Doors
  
• Full Unfinished Basement with Bulkhead Egress
  
• Cherry wood flooring in living areas and bedrooms
  
• Ceramic tile in bathrooms & mudroom
  
• HydroSeed Lawn with Driveway & front walkway
  
• Kitchen with Stainless steel appliances and Kraftmade Cabinetry
  
• Corian Countertops in Kitchen
  
• Oil-fired forced hot air heating/air conditioning system
  

List of Options

• Hand-split White Cedar Shingle Exterior with PVC Trim or
  
• Brick Exterior with PVC trim
  
• Front-Entry Portico with Tuscan Columns & Barreled Ceiling
  
• 20′ Bluestone Patio
  
• Wood Pergola off living room
  
• Cathedral Ceiling in master bedroom
  
• Coffered Ceiling in Dining Area
  
• Wood-Burning Fireplace with brick chimney
  
• Built-Ins in Living Room
  
• Landscape Upgrades (includes sod, shrubs, Walpole Woodworkers picket fence, Nantucket Picket Entry Gate)
  
• Radiant Floor Heating in Master bath
  
• Beadboard wainscotting in master bathroom
  
• Walkout Basement (site conditional)
  
• Finished Basement (possible media room, lav, office, and wine cellar in basement)
  
• Palladian Window in Front Second Floor Bedroom
  
• Skylight in Upstairs Bathroom
  
• Upgraded Kitchen (Wolf Appliances, Sub Zero Frig, Granite Countertops, Woodmeister Cabinetry)
  
• Geothermal radiant floor heating/air conditioning
  

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Residential Design – Creating a Better House of the Year

This past weekend I visited an open house in CT for the so-called ‘House of the Year’. The project’s objective was to create an affordable small house for families just starting out or those looking to downsize from a larger residence. The house was a side-split (split level) with 3 tiny bedrooms on the upper level, a garage, den, and bath on a lower level, with an attached kitchen/living room wing that was in between the upper and lower levels. The house was being sold for $219,900 on 1.4 acres and contained 1598 sq ft of living space ($137 sq ft).

This house looked like it cost much less then its asking price and possessed a truly terrible plan that was more an exercise in how to do something as cheaply as possible then how to create quality housing. There was literately more space for parking the car then there was living space in the house. On entering you were presented with a small kitchen with almost no living area. The stairs were not conducive for those entering retirement and the bathrooms had no tile around the tubs, so its likely that the drywall would mold (even if they used green-board). In keeping with the recent trend of ‘greenwashing’ the house did use ‘green’ materials (bamboo and cork flooring) although the light colored bamboo looked inappropriate for a traditional colonial style house and the cork seemed like an odd choice for a bathroom. The only real positive was the non-traditional heat source, a heat pump which provided heating and cooling for the house.

Inspired by this lackluster property, I opted to create a better house that is more deserving of the title House of the Year. I constrained my design to be no larger than the 1598sq ft model home and used identical materials to the model house so it would come out at around the same cost. Below are plans and spec sheets from the model house I toured to give you an idea of what you were getting for the money.

My Solution

I opted to create a much more contemporary design that has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths with 1497sq ft. If you add the optional guest house and opt to finish the basement the square footage will rise to a much larger 2915sf ft in size. (see room schedule below)

The renderings show the design with all the options and I will give you a breakdown of the costs with realistic estimates for the individual options. Keep in mind I am not a builder, so I am pricing these options at cost without profit.

Base Model $219,900

• 1-Car Garage
  
• 3 bedrooms, 2 baths
  
• Laundry Room w/Floor Drain
  
• two-tone vinyl siding
  
• Fixed Energy-Efficient Windows with operable lower panes
  
• unfinished basement with bulkhead egress
  
• bamboo flooring in living areas and bedrooms
  
• bathrooms with ceramic tile flooring
  
• cork flooring used on stair treads and in mudroom
  
• BASF Walltite Eco spray foam insulation R-40 in walls
  
• Heat Pump HVAC
  
• Corian Countertops in Kitchen
  
• White Oak Cabinetry in Kitchen, Foyer, Master Bedroom
  
• Hydro Seed Lawn
  
• Asphalt Driveway w/Guest Parking Area
  

Options

• Stucco Exterior (replaces vinyl siding) $30,000
  
• Guest House/Office (includes foundation, wiring for electricity/internet, wood stove, cork flooring) $45,000
  
• Gas Fireplace in Living Room w/flue (no chimney) $3500
  
• Built-Ins in Living Room $1000
  
• 20′ Bluestone patio $6000
  
• Wood Pergola $2000
  
• Custom Curtain Wall w/French Doors in living Room $20,000
  
• Walkout Basement $60,000 (site conditional)
  
• Finished Basement $60-120,000 (may include space for an office, game room/media room, lav,wine cellar)
  
• Additional Landscaping $10,000 (includes hydro seed plus shrubs and rock garden, privacy wall with picture window opening)
  
• Crown Molding Throughout House $3000
  

High End Kitchen $100,000

• Poggenpohl P7340 Cabinetry and Appliances
  
• Custom Sink and Faucet
  
• Sub Zero Frig
  
• Bosch Dishwasher
  
• Granite Countertops (or similar solid surface of your choice)
  

Bathroom Upgrades

• Skylight in upstairs bathroom $1000
  
• radiant floor heating in master bath $2000
  
• 48″ Dual Sink Vanity in master bath $1750
  

Heating System Upgrades

• Geo-Thermal Heat pump system with closed circuit dry well $40,000
  
• Radiant Floor Heating $30,000 (replaces forced hot air heat pump)
  

Total Cost of House with every upgrade $634,250

The range of pricing and option choices allow this house to appeal to the entry level consumer as well as the wealthy retiree who might demand all the amenities listed.

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PS. If you don’t care for modern design but like the plan shown here, I will also be releasing a more traditional design shortly that uses the same plan with a more traditional feel.

Residential Design – Split Level

This design attempts to reinvent the split level by eliminating the ugly mezzanine entrance and half stair going up and down that is commonly associated with split-level housing. My house is set on a hillside and allows for full height windows on the basement level for optimal light. You walk up a path to the entry located on the side of the house that flows into the kitchen and up to the elevated living room. The staircase connecting the lower level is set in the center of the house above a large skylight illuminating the stairs and the media room below it. The benefit of this design is that all the living spaces are open to each other and viewable from the kitchen/dining area. The south facing kitchen/dining/living rooms open onto a two- tiered patio with a fountain on the lower patio and a gazebo on the upper patio. The house has 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths with a single car garage. The house also incorporates a green roof over the garage which serves as a deck for the master bedroom.

The general concept for this design originated from a study of the Shugakuin Imperial Villa in Kyoto, Japan which is built around an upper tea house set on a hill and a lower tea house set on a lake. The imperial villa is set on 130 acres and was designed as a retreat for the Emperor Gomizuno (1596-1680). I simplified the villa concept down to an upper and lower patio and then had my house mimic the levels of the patios generating the floor plan.

Photos & Plans

Residential Design – The Bridge House

This design uses a bridge to connect the house to the street level. The house is backed up against a hillside and is designed in the Italianate style with 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. A separate garage with a 2 car turntable is also provided. The entry bridge acts as a porte cochére for the ground level entrance to the house as well as framing the motor court and garage. Entering from the second floor street level, the owner descends down a dramatic stair to the living spaces below. Bedrooms are located on the upper floor with the Master bedroom in its own separate wing of the house for privacy.

Residential Project – Sliding House

This design originated around using the elements of a ramp and a courtyard but evolved into an investigation of the idea of sliding. Walls, doors, and windows all slide on tracks in this design. For example, the garage door which normally would roll upwards slides into a pocket in the black wall (seen in elevation photo). The office has a curving pocket door, while both the living room and master bedroom have window walls that slide on tracks. The horizontal planes that make up the composition also appear to slide with respect to one another. The sliding house has 4 bedrooms and 3 baths with outdoor spaces off the living room, kitchen, and master bedrooms. Below are photos of the individual spaces.

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