Sunday, September 30, 2007

Our evolving preferences

So we wanted "a modern, single-story house in the 2500 sq ft range" and now we were needing define what modern specifically meant to us. In addition, the architects' houses we had seen added to the list of what we liked and occasionally didn't like, in terms of overall design, key design elements, and interior finishes.

While such architects will (truthfully) tell you they can design all types of modern houses we inevitably saw preferences in design elements, such as how one favored horizontal wood elements on doors and balconies, while another favored metal for siding and to face garage doors. While we have often noted and liked houses that use such elements we were also conscious of some possibly looking out-of-date in the future -- and remember this is our "last house" which we hope to live in for a long time.

So it was back to looking at more house photos and the breakthrough came when J articulated that we wanted a modern home, with "mid-century modern" influences, that would look "timeless," such as many of the homes we had seen on our Palm Springs visits.

Remember, we are still not at the point of agreeing an actual design, but getting to the next level of direction -- to help us select, and then instruct the architect.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Finding/selecting an architect

We wanted a modern architect, with experience on the LA west side and also with green aspects of home design and construction. So we went back through all our Dwell and Sunset back copies plus the literature from the modern house tours we had been on.

We next went through the Web sites of architects of interest, developing a list of eight that we contacted by email, asking them to meet us. Our email briefly described our goal and the initial meetings started at the site, as we wanted to observe their reactions to it .

In preparation, we developed an agenda, which evolved through our meetings, as we added to our knowledge, -- such as the importance of an architects access to, and relationship with, general contractors (GC) with experience of building in the modern style.

For us, the following criteria evolved and they determined our short-list and then the final selection:
  • Nature of the architects' work todate and how that fitted our (admittedly evolving) preferences.
  • The likely cost of of this type of work, based on more recent projects.
  • The quality of these recent projects, accepting a lot of that falls on the GC but trying to establish how the architect has influenced, or not influenced, this.
  • That amorphous thing called "chemistry," in terms how we would feel working with this person.
For the final four architects on our short-list we then asked to see examples of their current work "in the flesh," and ended up visiting at least 7 houses.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Pictures of our lot











The original house, from the garden area in narrow point of the triangle. Also, from the street, which will be at the rear of the new house.

















Then a street view of the lot from our "new street." and lastly a view looking down the triangle, which will be the view from our living area. Note no houses in sight!


Friday, September 14, 2007

Finding a buildable lot

We purchased a tear-down/lot in Culver City, CA, in Sept, 07. It's triangular, being at the point of two angled, intersecting streets -- what the city calls a "through lot." We were attracted to it because neither street is a through street and we will have just one adjacent neighbor. In addition it's a ten min walk from downtown, important for our preferred lifestyle.



We envisaged a 2500 sq. ft., single story house with a two car garage -- so the key question became could be build it on such a lot?

While going through the offer/acceptance process we researched the city planning regulations, particularly the impact of applying the normal setback rules to this lot. We also had meetings in order to discuss the direction we wished to develop our house design. "Direction" is the key term here as no planning dept will approve a plan without going through the full planning process and yet we only had so much time before the "no going back" phase of our offer. This particular slide became key to illustrating that direction.



We found acceptance of this direction, hearing enough assurances that left us comfortable. One key assurance was that the city applies flexibility to lots like this as they exist because of how the streets were laid out.

We had also started interviewing architects at this point so those interviews became an additional sanity check on our direction.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Some background

We retired to Southern California in late 2003, the location choice influenced by where our children live and the usual stuff about climate. We found ourselves in a hectic real estate market on LA's west side -- our preferred location -- not the ideal situation when you want the time for an architect to look at potential purchases and consult on a possible renovation or re-build.

So we moved further down the coast and continued to monitor the LA west side real estate, looking at many new houses over the years and also potential remodels. While not our original plan, this period was helpful as we became knowledgeable about SoCal's modernist history, through house tours, readings and several enjoyable visits to Palm Springs.

More and more we found ourselves feeling that we wanted to build a modern house from scratch.