Architecture class, 11/29/06, part 1
Our guest architect on 11/29 was Tom Lenchek of Balance Associates, Architects, a six-person firm in Seattle. They do about a third of their work in Western Washington (mostly Seattle and the islands), a third in Eastern Washington, and a third throughout the west (Montana, Oregon, Idaho, BC). About a quarter of their clients are from far away (Los Angeles, for example), so they end up having many jobs in which the client, the architect, and the work site are in three far-apart locations.
Tom, in particular, seems to enjoy focusing on vacation homes in and around Winthrop, Washington. The project he focused on in detail was his Wintergreen Cabin project in the Methow Valley in north central Washington, between Winthrop and Mazama.
It's a 1500 square foot cabin built to withstand the harsh conditions in the valley: 100 degree summers, but -30 degree winters, lots of snow, nearby forest fires.
Tom walked us through his firm's site analysis procedure. It's very different from Bill's, which I described in a previous entry. Tom takes a huge number of photographs from many vantage points and heights, so that he can generate sun angle diagrams with view-obstructing hills and trees built into them. Because Tom so frequently works in remote locations, he wants to gather as much information as he possibly can in the initial site analysis. It is prohibitively expensive to run out to the site to check details later so he's learned to be very thorough.
His schematic design and cost analysis procedures seemed pretty standard compared to all of the other ones we've seen this quarter; I seem to be getting a feel for how these things usually work. Every architecture firm seems to have its own very complex Excel spreadsheet full of choices. Some of the choices are up to the homeowners: do you want to have plastic laminate countertops or granite? Others are imposed by the character of the site: if you're building into a steep hill that's going to be more expensive than a flat site. All of these carefully-crafted, hand-tuned spreadsheets attempt to capture the major factors that end up affecting the bottom line.
Tom's construction procedures differed a little from those of the more urban architects we've met, again because of the remoteness of his build sites. In-city architects try to visit their work sites on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, but Tom may visit as infrequently as every 4-6 weeks for very remote sites. It is getting easier to use electronic means of monitoring work progress.
A few more tidbits from Tom's presentation:
In a later post: in the second half of class, Bill talked about working with builders.
Tom, in particular, seems to enjoy focusing on vacation homes in and around Winthrop, Washington. The project he focused on in detail was his Wintergreen Cabin project in the Methow Valley in north central Washington, between Winthrop and Mazama.
It's a 1500 square foot cabin built to withstand the harsh conditions in the valley: 100 degree summers, but -30 degree winters, lots of snow, nearby forest fires.
Tom walked us through his firm's site analysis procedure. It's very different from Bill's, which I described in a previous entry. Tom takes a huge number of photographs from many vantage points and heights, so that he can generate sun angle diagrams with view-obstructing hills and trees built into them. Because Tom so frequently works in remote locations, he wants to gather as much information as he possibly can in the initial site analysis. It is prohibitively expensive to run out to the site to check details later so he's learned to be very thorough.
His schematic design and cost analysis procedures seemed pretty standard compared to all of the other ones we've seen this quarter; I seem to be getting a feel for how these things usually work. Every architecture firm seems to have its own very complex Excel spreadsheet full of choices. Some of the choices are up to the homeowners: do you want to have plastic laminate countertops or granite? Others are imposed by the character of the site: if you're building into a steep hill that's going to be more expensive than a flat site. All of these carefully-crafted, hand-tuned spreadsheets attempt to capture the major factors that end up affecting the bottom line.
Tom's construction procedures differed a little from those of the more urban architects we've met, again because of the remoteness of his build sites. In-city architects try to visit their work sites on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, but Tom may visit as infrequently as every 4-6 weeks for very remote sites. It is getting easier to use electronic means of monitoring work progress.
A few more tidbits from Tom's presentation:
- Did you know there's something called the National Fenestration Rating Council? In reality, they measure window quality. I'd prefer to imagine that they are official judges for fenestration and defenestration competitions.
- There was a theme, as Tom showed us slides of older projects. He kept saying that he'd do it better now. I'm also seeing a pattern over all the architects we've seen in class: the older ones really do seem better. Experience does seem to count.
- In a vacation home, it can make sense to build cabinets and use them as closets rather than building big walk-in closets. You just don't have to store as much clothing and other stuff in a vacation home as you do in your first home.
In a later post: in the second half of class, Bill talked about working with builders.