I used to work for a firm that did the typical stuff. For some reason, the spanish elevations sold the best. They tried letting me do the colors schemes one time, and the developer hated it- no matter what, they made me go back to what I think of as sherbet colors... I know there have been a few 'modern' facades tried that sold relatively well, but for some reason developers are still reluctant.

If you have any say in the landscape, obviously look at doing some native planting, in zone technique that places 'exotics' nearer to the water source and natives around the edges. A great book that helps with this stuff is "Native Landscaping from El Paso to L.A." by Sally Wasowski. Skip past the 'garden suggestions' cause they're corny, but it gives you all of the zone info and water requirements and such you need to greatly reduce some water bills.

i took the clients to gregory ain and garrett eckbo collaboration in west los angeles. they knew about it and they like it. also they know about eichler homes the same way, which is a good start.
thanks for the comments and the book suggestion, i made a note of those.

ooh, that could be fun stuff, then. I'm picturing roofs angled to collect the solar radiation perfectly, lots of glass (low-E, of course), happy little succulent gardens.... could be very pretty.

mmm, remembering another good product I heard about recently that apparently saves a good bit of energy- tankless water heaters. Also would be especially good in the desert, as they're less wasteful of water, and won't have the corrosion problems that tanks get with that hard desert water.

Also, don't know if you've heard of ZEH in California, but here's a recent Newsweek article on them. Pretty well done, too bad they stuck to such cartoonish elevations. Of course, your typical developer does want something that they can slap any of three different elevations on, and have three color choices for each of those, because it's what consumers are used to and they know it sells. Glad you've found someone willing to take a chance!

try posting your question on the "dear abra" thread.

never mind...i am we todd did.

ZEH sounds like great selling point. article also mentions nevada being a low subsidy state where the project is located. but, nevertheless, ZEH is worth it even with the initial investment. i think the areas you've mentioned will definatly be part of the project. even though i don't have extensive experience with some of the technologies, i am aware of some available products, literature and practices. las vegas has very suitable climate to incorporate natural sources of energy, such as solar, for consumption and comfort.

did you have any experience with some cost saving measures and fallacies unique to this type of projects?

hahha.. where is 'dear abra'? i guess no news is good news, that everybody is doing fine and out of jam and easily entertained with
t-shirt contest, for the time being..

are any kind of CC&R's or design guidelines drafted for the development yet? if not, it might be fun to get involved with that. you can keep an standard of design that can help make sure decent if not good design keeps occuring in the development.

we have a masterplanning project which includes an area of the development including hundreds of homes. we won't design them but we'll be doing the design guidelines.

and how much control do you have? are the lots set already and you're just doing building design? or do you have some say in the masterplan?

hmmm, cost saving measures and fallacies? Lets see what I can remember....

1) foam trim. ick. don't do it.

2) 5' shared side yards, ironically in a project in Vegas. The purchase contracts had to be done up specially for it because of that, it was a very wierd condition. Basically the planner subdivided more than he really should have, and the developer got attached to the idea of the profits that could bring, and made us keep it that way and design around it. If you're having that big of space issues, just go to duplexes or patio homes.

3) painted stucco. another yummy spec- after a certain period of time, the paint will peel. It just will, doesn't matter what the paint guy says, it's gonna peel. Go for mixed color, or better yet, don't use stucco!

4)crummy fake balconies. Either do it or don't- don't fake it.

that's all I can think of at the moment, but I'm sure there was more. It's been a few years- this was my very first internship when I did this stuff.

site is being subdivided like this which i've had a some input of dispersing different size lots, appearently they use this layout a lot around there and i am okay with it. since it is a one block, they want to develop it all at once based on designs. i have to check with them if they want to get involved with creating CC&R's? i don't know if the design will take us to that direction or solve the CC&R related issues by default. it is a relatively small development. i am also interested in working with varied set backs within the required minimums for some desired relationships between the homes.
thanks center.

abra you may know about this already but i suggest checking out builder magazine or their website. you might get some info there.

seems like you're going about a very UDA (urban design assoc. from pittsburgh) sorta fashion. they have these pattern books that they create for their projects. i have the "Celebration Pattern Book" for their development in florida (masterplan was by Robert Stern) . it's much more prescriptive than what we'd do, but sounds like it'd fit along the lines you're going for. see if you can't contact Celebration for a copy.

i think determining setbacks will be critical in how you design the buildings as it will largely determine the "feel" of the place you're creating. looks also, along those lines, the buildable area will be another factor to consider. how much % lot coverage is acceptable? also if you're going to 2 stories, considering the % of the second floor coverage relative to the footprint is important.

other items to consider: roof slopes, porches, minimum floor to ceiling, finished first floor level, door and window placement...

from the feel of things, it seems like you'll actually be tackling a lot of the CC&R issues by doing your designs. in some ways it might be good to talk to the client about developing some sort of middle ground between actual plans and a well developed set of illustrated CC&Rs.

(i could go on and on. i've got a stack of an 400 page prelim CC&R i just wrote next to me) in any case, i think the celebration pattern book is an excellent starting place.

also if you're interested... somewhat of a PDF bibliography by the Congress of New Urbanism

(disclaimer: i'm not a new urbanist myself)

i like this kind of space and time if i can convince them. many people in so cal are familiar with it, me too. palm springs and some pockets in the los angeles basin, for example. i don't think project has enough footage to go like celebration, however, if it is in fact built, it might remain as a pocket of alternative sample in the area. and than, who knows, maybe abracadabra, faia gets to do the celebration vegas ;) *(could be a new episode). thanks again center keep it coming. i appriciated.

vado, many thanks. no, i didn't know the builders magazine. for sure it looks like a one stop on the know around what i am dealing with. in 'my favorites' already.

PERFECT TIMING!!!

abra - I recently purchased a handful of House+Home magazines from 1952. They are a goldmine! And one of the articles I loved the most is about Cliff May's housing development in Cupertino.

(This may be a well-known project in California, I've never really studied the LA modernists so although I'm familiar with May's work I dodn't know this aprticular little project.)

These modern little houses are awesome, very much what you show above. They are also incredibly simple, and were very inexpensive because they are based on just a few smart variations. A simple rectangle, with the optional third bedroom added on to make an L-shaped plan. One curving screen wall around the kitchen to oppose the rectilinearity of the rest of the interior space. Lots of light from sliding doors and gable end windows. Wonderful.

The genius of the site development is that these open boxy little houses are all sited slighlty differently within their small lots: some are pushed close to the front, others set back, others turned 90 degrees, so along the street you don't get the repetitive domino or cookie cutter effect.

The article talks at length about how the builders decided to invest a little extra money in good design and saw it pay back immensely when these little houses all sold quickly in an otherwise slow market. And it talks about May's design process being experimental - they built one home all the way through then with the builder's help figured out where they could use pre-cut lengths, etc. to save money.

I'd be happy to copy and mail you a copy of the article if you email me. It's pretty cool!

thanks liberty,
very interested in that article from1952.
i just e mailed you. i still have tina's e-mail in archinect records so you'll be getting e mail from tina....@aol