Cost Effective Design

  • 2007 Builder's Choice Winner: Oldfield At Lakeside Village

    Expansive porches, soft colors, and a visual feast of well-crafted details —all the hallmarks of gracious Southern architecture—are on display at Oldfield, a 90-lot resort development on 24 acres. Dominick Tringali Architects looked to Savannah, Ga., to the south and Charleston, S.C., to the north...

     
  • Design Details: Sweat The Small Stuff

    The mood in the home building industry is officially glum. Buyers are playing a waiting game, and inventory isn't moving. Except in the case of that builder around the corner whose homes are being snapped up faster than free NFL tickets on Craig's List. What gives?

     
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    What (Single) Women Want

    Single women now represent 22 percent of home buyers, up 14 percent from a decade ago, according to the National Association of Realtors. So what exactly do they seek in a home?

     
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    Affordable By Design

    Architecture, site planning, and construction pro formas can make or break the bottom line.

     
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    Generating Traffic Through Referral Programs

    Referrals are the most cost-effective way of generating traffic and sales in your communities. If you’re not asking your home buyers for referrals, you need to start today.

     
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    Architects' Own Homes Rich in Cost-Saving, Space-Saving, Eco-Friendly Ideas

    Architects’ own houses often hold the keys to cost savings, building efficiencies, and new standards of beauty.

     
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    Futurists See Several Possible Paths for Builders Moving Forward

    A murky present has builders just hoping for better days ahead. But looking forward, futurists see clearer paths to energy-efficient homes and walkable communities.

     
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    House Blend: May 2007

    - Faulty plumbing fittings cause legal morass in Las Vegas area. - Data from the National Association of Realtors show that single women accounted for 22 percent of home sales nationally in 2006—up from 14 percent in 1995. - TNDs have sparked a revival of classical elevation styles in recent...

     
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    Talkin 'Bout an Evolution

    When markets turn soft, things get interesting. With housing starts correcting to a more sustainable pace and inventory piling up, builders are reevaluating the rote and the slapdash when it comes to design and pondering how savvier floor plans and features might serve as a differentiator in...

     
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    Just Right

    House size is a tricky thing. Some folks want a feeling of space that's expressed in volume—soaring foyers, three-car garages, and cavernous master suites come to mind. Others, to quote Goldilocks, want spaces that are “just right,” with rooms that work for their particular lifestyle.

     
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    As lot sizes get smaller and smaller, builders are coming up with inventive ways to build homes that offer quality over quantity.

    It's a curious thing. At the same time that houses are getting bigger and bigger, lot sizes keep on getting smaller and smaller. Just look at the numbers: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average size of new homes increased from 2,095 square feet in 1992 to 2,434 square feet in 2005.

     
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    Building a sustainable and energy-efficient home is easier than you might think

    By any standard of measurement, green building is hot. Green building has now spilled over into the residential world as well. According to the NAHB, 14,600 green homes were built in 2004, up from 2,500 in 2000.

     
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    Hit the Shower

    ONE OF YOUR JOBS AS A BUILDER IS to make your houses as desirable as possible without breaking the bank. Anyone can add high-end baubles that cost serious money, but how do you achieve an upscale look for a relatively low cost? Adding cool features to the bath is a good place to start.

     
  • Green Standard

    IN 2005, THE NAHB PUBLISHED the Model Green Home Building Guidelines to move green building further into the mainstream and to provide a practical baseline for resource-efficient, cost-effective home building.

     
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    Plastic Adoption

    Twenty years ago, it would have taken about 15 years for a new building product to emerge and hit profit pay dirt. That time frame applied to successful products that made it into the supply chain over the long run. Now, as a result of builder consolidation, better communications via the Internet...

     
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    Sun Spots

    WASHINGTON IS KNOWN MORE FOR FILIBUSTERS than for innovative design. For one rain-soaked week in October, however, innovation was the word when 18 university teams converged on the city for the Solar Decathlon, an event in which students compete to see who can design, build, and operate the...

     
  • CSI: Design: Less is More

    In flush times, design often drove what was built, and until recently, many builders sought to blur the line between production and custom homes.

     
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    The Best of Both Design Worlds

    Big builders use a blend of in-house architects and outside firms to meet their design needs.

     
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    Find Your Niche

    many forward-thinking builders and architects are actively pursuing projects that revolve around an edgier set of buzzwords: Affordable. Urban Infill. Green/Energy-Efficient. Nature. Good design is a consistent theme across the board.

     
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    The College Park Neighborhood, Phase 2

    THE RESIDENTS OF MEMPHIS, Tenn.'s struggling South End have much to cherish about their neighborhood, including LeMoyne-Owens College, a historic black institution founded in 1862. But there were cheers all around when LeMoyne Gardens, an impersonal and dilapidated barracks-style public housing...