and the winner is...

Envelope please… [insert ripping sounds, blowing-envelope-open sounds, and unfolding paper sounds here]. The winner is [insert delicate yet suspenseful pause here]: Architect 2d! [Manic applause! A well-dressed lady collapses in the front row!]

Although all the architects we interviewed could handle our project, Architect 2d is the full package of what we are looking for. A nice guy, an appreciation of (our shade of) green, an appreciation of budget, registered, a brick-and-mortar presence, reasonable fees, and no alarm bells in our interactions (thus far). Architect 2d was not one recommended by the builder, so there is a potential risk there. Nonetheless, his demeanor is similar to the others and, based on his blog, his views line up quite well with ours. And comparing the above to my thoughts in that hissy fit I threw in October, we didn’t do too bad. Not to mention that “2d” means “2^nd” in some cultures, so in that way it was perhaps ordained by my lame yet confusingly complicated numbering scheme. Plus, before making our final decision, I was able to furrow my brow and proclaim loudly “2d or not 2d. That is the question.”

We meet with Architect 2d later this week to discuss the economic aspects of our project in a more serious light…

(photo from Wikicommons)

dancing with the (st)architects...

Spent the Wednesday before New Years visiting the last two architects on our list and gawking at their associated projects. In all, we’ve visited with five “firms” totaling six architects (“firms” are in quotes because two are one-man shops). Why so many? Because we were intent on having three viable firms to choose from. Two of the early firms we looked at were out of our range (their target projects had price-per-square-foots too high for us) leaving us the remaining three, solid contenders all. As I’ve said before, architects tend to be lovely people to chat with (I haven’t met one yet that wasn’t), and these six indeed were.

We stopped in at Architect 2d’s office to chat about our project and get more of a feel of the dude. I had picked through his web site and blog and spoken to him several times on the phone. For me, at least, his web site (which includes construction costs of his projects!) and his blog (which clearly laid out his philosophy on green and costs) prompted us to call him. Based on our visit, everything seemed as advertised. He steered us to two of his projects under construction, one at the 200 to 250 per foot range and another at 100 per foot(!). Both were quite nice. The builder for the 100-per-foot house let me wander through the project, and it was surprisingly nice at that price point. The architect noted that it was a modern style home but built using standard building practices. Nonetheless, the place had a garage with doors on front and back walls (a nice touch), a garage apartment, foam insulation (in the wall and included in the cladding), a roof-top deck with hot tub, and a master with a separate tub and shower. Some of the details were lacking (you can tell how good a tiler is by how clean the built-in shower shelves are…), but all-in-all the project was real nice.

I met Architect 2e at the lot (he’s officeless, but it was a nice touch to meet, greet, and squeak on the dirt). I went up to greet Architect 2e when he pulled up, and he had a pooch in his car, a creamy lab wearing a burnt orange sweatshirt. The pooch wouldn’t come out right away, so the architect left his door open. After wandering over the lot a bit, he went back to the car to finally coax the pooch out. We then decided to check out a couple of his projects under construction. I offered to drive. After we got inside my car, I said “I don’t mind if your pooch comes with us.” thinking it odd that he would leave his dog wandering around the neighborhood (with a burnt orange sweatshirt on, no less. What if he ran into a gang of pooches wearing maroon sweatshirts?). The architect replied “I thought he was your dog!” Turns out that as soon as Architect 2e stepped out of his car, the pooch ran over and jumped in!

Anyway, we had a lovely afternoon checking out two of Architect 2e’s projects under construction, one in south Austin and one out by Lake Travis (Good Gawd is the lake low!). It was the first time I had actually been on a construction site with an architect, and it was good solid fun. He pointed out why things were the way they were and how certain design choices can save money and add coolness. It was also kinda fun seeing him react to stuff that had been done wrong such as placement of HVAC equipment, odd holes cut into exterior walls, and some metalwork. No screaming, just mellow and reserved sighs of disappointment. “Whelp, gonna have to work around that…”

Architect 2e was pleasantly unique in that he was very focused on budgeting the project to fit potential resale value as it related to underwriting to get a construction loan (his cue might have been the hail-damaged Honda I use to haul my butt around town). It was a timely discussion as I’ve been getting angsty lately about this very topic (more on this later…). After spending more than four hours with Architect 2e we returned to the lot. The dog was gone, but the Green House lady drove by and waved (howdy!).

So after pleasant visits with all these architects, we learned:

- Design-build doesn’t make sense with a “low-end” house. Where details have to be right and the construction is complicated, design-build (i.e. the architect is closely associated with the project) makes more sense.

- Critical root zone (CRZ) also applies to trees on neighboring property, at least according to one architect (and I believe him because the one house he showed me had to be pushed to one side to get away from the root zone of the neighbor’s beautifully towering oak). This appears to impact our lot as the neighbors on both sides have big trees relatively close to our property line. Something to consider when looking for lots in a town that protects its trees…

- It’s hard to build around a tree without killing it.

- Those fancy-schmancy houses on the AIA home tours average about 350 bucks a square foot.

- The City of Austin doesn’t give you an impervious cover credit for pervious concrete.

- Underwriters tend to only look at the cold hard facts of resale value, not how nice your house is.

- Geotech can miss bad stuff in the subsurface.

- Pouring slabs in the heat of July can lead to bad results.

- You can build a pretty nice place at 100 a foot with the right builder.

So who did we choose? Stay tuned till next week!

(photo by mwah.)

Modern Home Tour Austin coming up!

This tour is predominantly if not entirely dedicated to modern homes on the market. The cool thing about that is that photography is OK in most of the homes! Wh00p! Wh00p! Really looking forward to seeing a number of these homes, and that bathroom is simply a dream... (perhaps in more ways than one!).

For more info, click here. February 4, 2012.

Photos recklessly ripped from Modern Home Tour Austin.

cool blog: Life of an Architect

As I wandered the interwebs in search of a deeper understanding of this critter known as "architect", I parted the sashes of the Serengeti to reveal a prime specimen: Bob Borson of the most excellent blog "Life of an Architect". While the title suggests a yawn-fest of barely-riveting tales of pencil sharpening and lost CAD files, Bob's blog is a hyperly pleasant mix of tech, goofiness, and insight. And he just so happens to live up the road in Dallas. Highly recommended!

survey says...

Just got a tree and topo survey done on our lot. In a tree and topo survey, professional surveyors survey lot limits, location of important trees (generally larger than 8 inches in diameter, although we asked to have a few smaller ones located), and slope (topography) of the land surface. This is all important stuff because you don’t want the house built on top of nice trees (most architects won’t want to do this, appropriately so) and knowing the topography is important for designing the foundation and considering drainage. If you have existing structures, you’ll need to know where those are as well.

We solicited three bids and went with the low bid in small part because it was the low bid and in large part because they were the only ones that included a detailed list of deliverables. Our tree survey quote included a dozen trees (although the surveyors went ahead and did some more, including one just off the property line [per city code nearby trees have to be considered when designing a house]). If your lot is bigger and/or more topographic and/or has more trees, survey costs are probably higher. If you get a survey done when buying the property, be sure to also get the tree and topo done. Probably saves money in the long run.

We provided each surveyor we invited to bid a copy of the pre-existing survey (no tree, no topo) we got when we bought the property. We figured the company that made that survey would get the topo-tree work since they didn’t have to completely reinvent the wheel, but they didn’t seem to take that into consideration in their bidding (something to consider if you go with the original surveyor thinking you’ll get a built-in deal). A word of advice when getting a survey: ask whether or not you get the AutoCAD file (the digital version of the survey in vector format [with all of the lines]) and then ask to get the file after the survey is done. This is something your architect is going to want and will save you a little time and money during the design phase.

Some of you may be saying to yourself “Yo! Bubba! Shouldn’t you have already had a survey done with all that previous designing you did with Architect 1.0?” Excellent question. Methinks yes. However, in reality, this didn’t happen. In fact, the survey (or lack thereof) was the first hint that Architect 1.0 was going to be a potential pain to work with. For some reason (it was never explained), Architect 1.0 chose to do the tree survey himself. At the time, I wondered about this, since he had previously mentioned that we would need to get a tree and topo survey at some point and stressed the importance of getting three bids. However, he was the expert, so I didn’t make an issue of it, although it was a minor irritant because he charged us for measuring the location of the trees. That seemed odd since we were eventually (?) going to get them professionally surveyed.

After Architect 1.0 developed the initial design, I trekked to the site to stake out the floorplan. It was then I realized that he didn’t have the trees properly located. Most were off a relatively minor amount and one, one he designed the house around, was off some 20 feet, it’s actual location in the middle of the kitchen island (which could have been a nice design feature, I reckon!). The diagram above shows the result of the recent survey in black and where Architect 1.0 had the trees by his survey. At our next design meeting, I politely noted that the trees did not appear to be in the correct locations. Good Gawd, was that the wrong thing to say. He seemed surprised and asked how I measured them. I started my answer with “from the curb…” to which he immediately responded “That’s wrong. We don’t know where the curb is.” I noted that his survey showed the location of the curb (presumably this came from the professional survey we got when we bought the lot). Nevertheless, my measurement from the back of the lot confirmed the mislocation of said tree. “You can’t measure that way,” was his reply. I then asked where he measured from (because where else could he have?) to which he quickly pivot-pouted to “The location of the trees is not important.” I noted that he had designed the house around one of the trees (#58 on the survey above; see the red dot “to the south” of #58 to see where he placed the tree) not to mention that the house was pushed back on the lot more than it had to be due to the trees in the front and that one tree was much closer to the garage than he showed.

As a manager of some 60 to 80 people, I do not expect perfection. Perfection simply does not exist. And good, competent people make mistakes from time to time. One thing I do expect is an appropriate response to a mistake. Do you acknowledge that you made a mistake? Do you work to fix the mistake? Do you work to ensure it doesn’t happen again? It’s employees that refuse to admit they’ve done something wrong, even when faced with unimpeachable evidence to the contrary, that are trouble. I learned the hard way early in my career that it’s important to own my mistakes. In fact, so few people own their mistakes that when you do so, it pleasantly catches folks off guard. Yes, you’ve admitted you’re not perfect, but you’ve also shown that you can be trusted to ensure something is ultimately done right, even if mistakes are made, as they inevitably are, along the way.

You may also be asking “Bubba! Why didn’t y’all fire that dude when this happened?” In retrospect, I wish we had fully explored the tree issue when it happened. Perhaps we would have fired him at that time if he had remained recalcitrant and defensive, and perhaps it would have prevented later issues that ultimately became fatal to the relationship. (This was the first time Architect 1.0 demonstrated his penchant for (1) denying a mistake had been made [the trees remained misplaced through the design process] and (2), when faced with evidence to the contrary, blaming the client for the mistake.) At the time it seemed like a relatively minor issue (“Save the Hackberries!!!” is not one of our rallying cries; if the tree had been an ancient oak or pecan, perhaps it would have been different...). The booboos would eventually be resolved with a real survey (something I would have eventually insisted on) and the house shifted appropriately. And working with big egos is something I do at my day job. With that, rightly or wrongly, I’ve learned to work around egos and keep my eye on the prize. At this point, we had worked with Architect 1.0 for at least a year while lot-searching with no problems and were developing a healthy friendship, so we cut him some slack. Everyone has their quirks. On the other hand, this was the first time we had (politely) confronted him with something we thought he had done wrong, and his response was a little disturbing.

So to all you budding (and budded) architects out there (probably not) reading this blog: Turn down the ego and own your mistakes! Not doing so is disrespectful to your clients (my bride and I have five technical degrees between the two of us: we know how to use a tape measure) and bad for business. I also highly recommend letting the surveyors do the surveying.