Few of us pay attention to how we get around in our home until for one reason or another it gets harder to navigate that home. I personally had not given much thought to the fact that my master bedroom was on the second floor until I had knee surgery and found that it was difficult climbing those 13 steps. Luckily for me that inconvenience was temporary and I worked around it with the help of my wife. Baby boomers [...]
Designed for friends who bought a beautiful piece of land on the side of a hill in Columbia County, this home embodies the phrase ‘Simple can be better’. We were given the mandate to design a small home on a budget, but to also give it style and grace. Another strict requirement was to include a dramatic steel staircase and keep it simple. We always welcome a design challenge and set about our work. In the end, we accomplished those [...]
Small structures on roof tops have a special place in my heart. It was to the belfry (a cupola with a bell) of a renovated 1865 school house that I took my wife Alicia on our first date. We talked about life, watched the sun set, drank a glass of wine and felt like we were on top of the world. Three children and 15 years later, I think that belfry must have played a part in my [...]
Our clients asked us to design a small, energy efficient, comfortable home to replace their existing log home which felt confining and dark. Both we and our clients are overjoyed at the way this 'not so big' house turned out. For a home with about 2000 square feet of heated living space, there are many surprises including plenty of room. One important design element probably adds the most to the livability of this home: porches. Their site is a beautiful [...]
Have you ever looked at a house and sensed that something about it wasn't quite right? Perhaps it didn't look finished or feel balanced. Was it the placement of the windows? The pitch of the roof? The size of the porch? It's not always easy to put your finger on what's wrong, but it helps if you understand a few principles of good design. These drawings illustrate the difference between porches that are appropriately placed and in good proportion to [...]
One of my favorite jobs is visiting construction sites. On those visits I enjoy studying our homes from the most minor details we have designed to the overall execution of the project. Earth moving is always interesting but is especially dramatic when it involves the installation of a geothermal heating and cooling system. Almost all of our designs include energy saving elements but few have the impact of an energy efficient mechanical system. Conceptually a geothermal heat pump exchanges the [...]
We would like to thank all the visitors and all the vendors for what can only be described as a huge success. The weather was perfect and the show was filled with enthusiastic patrons and vendors all day long. The demonstrations were fascinating, with Fletcher Coddington of Arrowsmith Forge drawing the biggest crowds while he forged steel into useful tools. Kids had the best time painting the decorative bird houses with non toxic paint. Experts in geothermal heating and cooling, [...]
Today’s garage, in some ways, is simply an update of the nineteenth century carriage house. Compared to today, those structures seemed more important and therefore more time was taken for planning both the look of the buildings and their relationship to the home. Often the carriage house was part of a barn or stable and occasionally included living quarters above. I consider the character and placement of a freestanding garage as important as locating the house on the property since [...]
Living through the seasons in the Northeast reminds me of my daughters’ favorite book ‘Going on a Bear Hunt’ where the father, the kids and the dog go looking for a bear and when they find one, they run home through the snow storm (Hoooo woooo), the forest (Stumble trip), the mud (Squelch squerch), the water (Splash splosh) and back through the grass (Swishy swashy). They then run into the house(without wiping their feet), up the stairs, into bed and [...]
Photo by Philip Gould The master architect, A Hays Town, was a friend of mine. He passed away a few years ago at the age of 101. Although in recent years, he was not as well known nationally as he deserved, he was the master of Southern(especially Louisiana) vernacular architecture. At a time when traditional architecture was frowned upon by the architectural elite, he was its greatest proponent. In the 1930s, Mr. Town was on the cutting edge [...]
