The family hadn’t been in New Jersey long ... and they still missed their previous home, a modernist design that Ms. Wong, in particular, had loved. So Andrew, who was then in eighth grade, suggested commissioning an architect to build a modern house. [...]
“being type-A parents ... we thought maybe it would be an experience for him to work with architects and be intrinsically involved in building a house.” [...]
"He was interested in design, and they empowered him.”
— nytimes.com
More teenaged architecture dreams:
30 Comments
Lol at the New York slimes positing this exercise in opulent wealth as a parable on raising well rounded children
"type-A" for A***oles?
nice story. too bad he wasn't interested in landscape architecture too :/
This is a fine house design that forgoes the unnecessary "original bits" that interfere with Modernist contemporary architecture. The inclusion of the garage in the facade, and the overall horizontal bias, conjures up associations with suburban "ranch houses" of the 1950s and 60s. The metal cladding is fine, although I think that skillful use of painted wood for the exterior could have worked too.
^What do you mean by "original bits"? I agree that this looks like a reference to the suburban ranch form, though I'm not sure it's intentional.
But the original design had a lot more aesthetic appeal. Maybe the young client didn't have a realistic projection of budgets to guide the process early on.
When he gets out of architecture school his one and only commission will be a house for his parents.
midlander, By "original bits," I mean the tarting up of vernacular-inspired forms, or modernist forms when its simply not warranted or productive for the design outcome. A generic house form that becomes too complicated can end up looking like a fancy dormitory. See for example this Napa valley "farmhouse,":
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/502995852103822848/
Or, see the eventually corporate aesthetic of "mill-building" inspired dormitories for Amherst College by William Rawn Associates, which, if refined considerably more, might have become what the cues in the building are pointing it toward. At first glance these dorms look okay, but then the overbearing slick attributes set-in, and can be observed only too well.
http://www.rawnarch.com/amherst
And, another example of the overly-complicated development of a house design that has its origins in otherwise simple barn-like forms: that is, this house in Great Bealings, Woodbridge, England, by the firm Plan Bureau:
http://www.architectmagazine.com/project-gallery/contemporary-house-6551
This house in Britain makes the Princeton-area house featured here look positively brilliant.
This is painful. Am I missing something, or can someone explain how they got to what was constructed, based on all the work that was done in the office? Aside from the simplistically stated "budget issues". I mean this seems like an horrible disaster. The time, money, and time, spent building those models, all those iterations. Did the owners not give the architects a budget? Did the architects not do a SD cost estimate? The NYT just glosses over something, that seems more of head scratcher, than some idiotic story about a 14 year old picking an architect.
lol...this is some yuppy shit...
b3ta, that was my thought on looking at the architects' website and realizing they actually don't design ugly stuff all the time. I guess they feel any publicity is good publicity because this doesn't really seem like a project to be proud of for it's beauty.
DWLindeman, looking at the study models I don't think there was ever any intent to model this on some aspect of vernacular tradition. It seems like it just ended up with an uncanny resemblance in proportion. Which is kind of cool.
I'll admit though the more I look at it the more I like it. I think again it's the miserable landscape killing it. And corrugated metal never actually looks great - too evocative of pre-fab warehouses.
I think it is a beautiful house and a first project. Keep the good work.
I too, like the house, I just can't get around the idea of spending an inordinate amount of time, to go down a path that has little resemblance to the result. Painful hardly gets at that feeling that pounds in my head.
Critics here need to understand that, as the NYTimes story indicates, this is a Type-A family, including the then teenager . . . there was no other way, really, they had to let their 8th grader select the architects, and commission the house . . . and I should add: Type-A families do this all the time . . .
I like the house. It's minimal without being prissy about it.
But, and I think this is what b3ta was getting at, I cringed when I read that the budget for the initial design came in ridiculously higher than expected.
Sixteen years ago I was part of the design team for an addition to a religious building. The client's designated Building Committee kept saying things like "That should be real stone, not ceramic tile" and "We don't like those iron railings, let's see what bronze costs" and
"No carpet anywhere, all hardwood" and when we dutifully followed along of course the cost came in three times higher than expected. I got verbally reamed by one of the building committee members (part-owner of a certain retail establishment that I've boycotted ever since; he was such an asshole about it) but I learned a pretty important lesson: tell your clients honestly what you think it's going to cost. And if you don't know, get your head around it before you go too far down the road on a certain concept.
Sorry, I got it completely wrong. I thought this was a first house designed by a 14 y.o. architecture student. I am in a different time zone at the moment. But still, it is a good house and young man did an excellent job convincing his parents to hire an architect and directing them to a good house that accommodates his family. If this story is real and not just exaggurated one by the staff writer that is.
Every architect should be capable of producing a detailed cost estimate at the end of each phase. During each phase those estimates should go with you to meetings and when they say “hardwood” you say “look, carpet” and if they persist proceed with minutes the next day stating the new revised project budget…if you don’t, then expect to get “verbally reamed”.
Furthermore, who knows what the real backstory is? looks like they might have paid architects for two houses. I have seen many happy booster stories in the press, knowing in real life architects and their clients were in courts fighting for overpaid money and/or unpaid invoices. It is not unusual for type A people to be overly litigious.
Ok, I don't want to speculate any further. It is a fine house and I hope more people hire architects to design their houses.
I like the house too. Love that a teenager commissioned it and his mom loves it. I worked on a project where the parents didn't speak English so we worked with the 13-14 year old daughter, she did a fine job too as far as I recall.
it's a pre-engineered metal building with concrete slab floor? lighting from exposed-tube fluorescent shop lights. there doesn't appear to be blinds or curtains over the window in the bedroom. what's the floor in the bedroom? Is that some kind of cork tile? you can just see a little piece.
i can't find any downspouts. i've never seen a metal building with a parapet or internal roof drains. i'm guessing it's a standing seam roof (maybe screw-down if it got VEed?). maybe water just sheets over a gravel stop or something? that will change the nature of the white walls pretty quick.
as with any picture of a building, it just makes me want to know more. the architect did quite well with what he had to work with.
the dog matches the house. that's what's important here.
curtkram, I love your posts. My dog matched our house, before she died. Not so much in color, but in style.
Those long narrow rectangles at the tops of some of the walls are scuppers.
Personally I don't like white houses in snow. Against snow, all other white looks dingy. But white in the Caribbean is perfect.
i was wondering about those as scuppers donna. i sort of figured they were some weird lights or something. if they are scuppers, then they built parapets on a metal building frame, which isn't bad structurally or anything, but sort of dumb because i think they would have had to build some sort of stud wall there or something. more to the point, there will be big streaky water stains under them. it doesn't look like there is a splashblock under them either, so over time it will dig a hole in the mulch or rock or whatever that is. i think they will need downspouts.
i wonder if they will have to shovel leaves off the roof at the end of fall?
Maybe they painted the walls underneath the scuppers with pee splashback paint?
yeah, i'm not convinced those are scuppers, looks more like lighting - you can't see through either - if they are scuppers, perhaps overflow scuppers, but i'm thinking there are roof drains that daylight somewhere at the rear of the building, or there are downspouts at the rear.
Roof plan, from Leven Bett's website:
i really do not like this house, maybe the landscaping has a lot to do with it. the interior seems "cheap" to me. like the furniture though. glad the kid made sure to have a nice pad for himself though.
alternative nailed it.
Thank you Donna, I did not see the roof plan, I stand corrected.
was going to suggest maybe the roof drain leaders were in the wall where they are thicker at the breeze way but it appears those are the high points of the roof according to roof plan.........google Type A parents and found this http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204479504576638950410953960 what nonsense. whatever happened to STFU, eat your dinner, do your chores. don't worry society demands I do not do that.....having taught its very humerous to see 20 year olds feel like they failed by getting a B, sooner or later they will meet reality and man will they fail unless they have a mommy and daddy batphone.....did this kid become an architect says he is 22 now right? if he didnt he had an excellent life experience,ha
Spent a few mill on corrugated house, then threw in a asphalt driveway, plastic edging, and five shrubs from home depot.
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