HOMES BUILT IN WOODED OR BRUSHY TERRAIN are at risk of burning if a wildfire passes through the surrounding area.
D. R. HORTON AGREED TO PAY A HOMEOWNER'S group $39.5 million last summer over problems at a 246-unit condo development in Superior, Colo., a town just outside of Boulder.
-
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY IS largely known for building houses, but the group's Greater Charlottesville, Va., affiliate recently bought a trailer court site in Charlottesville and plans to redevelop it into a high-density, mixed-used neighborhood.
-
Active adult projects do not have enough features that promote ease of use and safety, according to a study that won the 2005 Graduate Student Research Award, given by the American Society on Aging. The student, Glenda Andes, recently received a Ph.D. in housing and interior design at Virginia...
-
Some of the nation's frothiest housing markets are at increasing risk of price declines, says a recent survey from PMI Mortgage Insurance Corp. The PMI Risk Index is based on economic activity and other conditions that PMI thinks are predictive of home-price declines over the next two years...
FOR MID-CITY URBAN, SUSTAINABILITY is as much about people as it is about materials. The Silver Spring, Md.
-
In its May 2005 “Financial Crimes Report to the Public,” the FBI described its efforts to combat various types of fraud, including mortgage fraud. The bureau, which recently consolidated its mortgage fraud operations within its Financial Institution Fraud Unit, identified 26 states with...
-
Vegas is the latest battleground for real estate mogul Donald Trump and ex Ivana, who are now vying to trump each other in the luxury condo market. His $500 million Trump International Hotel & Tower broke ground July 12 and is already sold out. Her taller luxury tower, Ivana Las Vegas, set for...
-
Not all builders are experiencing the best of times. In the Milwaukee market, home builders are offering consumer incentives much like banks, car dealers, and consumer electronics stores. At least a half-dozen metro-Milwaukee home builders are offering specials such as hardwood floors for the price...
-
ONE LOOK AT THE WORK OF JEFFERSON Riley, one of the founders of Centerbrook Architects and Planners, and there's no doubt he and the firm are fending off what he calls housing's homogenization. “It's almost embarrassing,” he says of big, garrison houses of similar, mundane style. “We need to...
-
BY MOST ACCOUNTS, WALT RICHARDSON is a builder's architect—and proud of it. “You can never lose sight of the fact that [the project] has to sell to somebody,” he says. That said, he's no whipping boy for his home builder and developer clients. “We always try to push the envelope, upgrade what he's...
-
CHARLOTTE, N.C., MAY NOT LEAP TO mind as a mecca for great residential design, but David Furman is working on it. Consistently breaking new ground in urban, high-density attached and multifamily housing since its founding in 1980, David Furman Architecture has been a bellwether for the industry by...
-
IF YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF RODNEY Friedman or his San Francisco Bay area–based firm, Fisher Friedman Associates (FFA), it's probably because he and his associates were all but dropped from merchant-built housing in favor of architects designing the Mediterranean-style homes that now dominate...
-
IMAGINE A CASUAL, CLUB-LIKE setting where the best residential architects meet over drinks and cigars to swap stories about cantilevers and porch details ... and where magazine editors can go to eavesdrop for insight about their philosophies and craft.
NO LONGER UNDER THE NATIONAL radar after five-plus years of growth, this border city of 120,000 people (and nearly 700,000 countywide) is the poster town for NAFTA proponents. “Cross-border trade has driven this economy,” says Gary Burch, owner of Gary Burch Construction, a local custom builder for...
-
AN ANGLED WALL WAS A SIGNIFICANT architectural feature in the original kitchen of this mid–19th-century townhouse. The redesigned space mimics the angle on the opposing wall, creating a dramatic false perspective—one that leads the eye to a vintage stained-glass window and the view beyond...
-
HEFTY CONCRETE COUNTERBALANCES the minimalist appearance of this custom kitchen and ties it in with the rest of the massive, 10,000-square-foot, rammed-earth home. The owners wanted a functional yet artful culinary space that could serve as a hub for social interaction. Sculptural concrete...
-
FOR SOME ARCHITECTS, IT WOULD be easy enough to do the absolute minimum when public housing is the objective. Architect Michael Pyatok takes a different view: Everyone should be on a quest to design better affordable housing.
HOW DO YOU INSERT A 400-BED student housing community into a nonresidential area of a college campus? With thoughtful planning and careful execution. At least, that's how Sasaki Associates pulled it off.
THE HEART OF THIS NINE-STORY, assisted-living center in the cultural core of San Francisco is, appropriately, its fifth floor. Setback requirements created space there for a patio with a view, drawing and dining rooms, and other amenities. The 120 studio units are comfortable but snug, the result...
THE THREE-STORY COLONIAL building (circa 1895) that sparked this adaptive reuse project occupied less than a third of a long, skinny lot. But space is at a premium in Georgetown, and architect Stephen Vanze made the most of it. Leaving the original historic structure (in the photo, the second...
SPRAWLING HOMES ON 6,000-square-foot lots are the norm in Gilroy, Calif., a farming community within commuting distance of Silicon Valley. Higher-density clustered dwellings on small lots were a new concept to the area, but one that proved appetizing to commuter couples, young families, and...
PARKING OFTEN CONFOUNDS THE site plans for urban infill projects, but in the case of Cityview Lofts, a significant slope on the site proved advantageous. David Furman Architecture capitalized on the grade to create an underground parking deck for 25 attached condo units in the heart of Charlotte's...
AT THIS UPSCALE PROJECT IN Naples, Fla., architect Mark Scheurer looked to historical references to come up with a plan that puts a courtyard, a loggia, a lanai, an outdoor kitchen—and a pool—right in the middle of this Spanish Mediterranean knockout, something that's fairly common on the West...
HISTORIC BUT NOT STUFFY. THAT was the design goal for a clubhouse expansion at the Oakhurst Golf and Country Club in Clarkston, Mich., and architect James D. Nordlie hit a hole in one.
DAVID DELASANTOS, PROJECT architect for the Woodmark Collection condos, didn't have to look far for design cues when his firm took on this 36-unit, high-end project. It's set in a mature residential neighborhood (University Park) near downtown Palo Alto that is filled with tip-top examples of...
THE OWNER WANTED CONTEXT with a twist—and he got it. Designed to fit a narrow (50 feet by 100 feet) lot in an established community, the house is well-integrated, although it hardly reads as a generic copy of every other home on the street.
LOCATED JUST A MILE AND A half from downtown Dallas, Fitzhugh Avenue is a street that has seen better days. The planners behind Cityville Fitzhugh, a new apartment/retail complex, are hoping to change all that by luring young professionals back to the urban core.
THE MASTER PLAN FOR HARBORSIDE, a 128-acre chunk of the 1,700-acre new urbanist town known as Lake Carolina, called for a mixture of commercial and residential development. But planners were loath to herald the community's grand entrance with a supermarket-anchored strip mall or big-box retail...
RENTAL HOMES TYPICALLY don't win beauty contests. Their plain vanilla styling often makes them easy to overlook.
DESIGNING 89 RESIDENTIAL units in four unique housing types in one project is no easy task. Looney Ricks Kiss Architects met the challenge head-on and delivered a project that's become the centerpiece of the commercial town center in a new traditional neighborhood development (TND).
YOU CAN FIND EXAMPLES OF Mediterranean-style houses everywhere, but that doesn't mean they are good ones. In designing the Vicara model, Robert Hidey Architects set a high standard. The goal was to pay homage to the Spanish-revival style of the early 1900s, but with a floor plan that facilitated...
CALIFORNIA—LOS ANGELES in particular—has a rich history of modern architecture. Names such as Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler, and Joseph Eichler evoke distinctive feelings for the contemporary minded. This 13,000-square-foot custom home seeks to carry on that tradition.
FLEX SPACES ARE FAST BECOMING must-haves in new homes, giving buyers the option to create exactly what they crave, be it an extra bedroom suite, a study, a home theater, or a fitness room.
THE NORDBERG RESIDENCE in Chevy Chase, Md., looks like it's been there for decades—and that's no accident. Built on an acre that was once home to a humble rambler, this English-inspired brick beauty takes full advantage of its corner lot, complete with mature trees. “To make the program work with...
SOME CONDO BUILDINGS RESERVE the wow factor for the penthouse, but not 301 Kenwood. Its elevators open directly into every unit. The ground-floor parking lot is hidden from the street by a two-story townhouse. (There's another parking level underground.) This avant-garde solution is only fitting...
EVEN DEVELOPERS OF HIGH-end suburban projects keep security in mind during the planning phase, but that's one design facet that takes on extra importance in the inner city. Pueblo del Sol, an affordable “urban village” on the eastern edge of Los Angeles, was formerly home to a public housing...
-
ARCHITECT RICK SUNDBERG IS the first to admit that designing a collection of 10 contemporary, affordable homes for Habitat for Humanity was a challenge. Not the contemporary part; once the nonprofit (surprisingly) signed off on the idea, Sundberg had no trouble coming up with something edgy. It was...
ARCHITECTS BILL DEVEREAUX and Sandra Fennell looked to traditional New England architecture when it came to designing the Chilton at Thorndike, a 2,600-square-foot single-family home in the Pinehills in Plymouth, Mass. The combination of weathered shingles and painted siding (in this case...
AN APTITUDE FOR JIGSAW PUZZLES helps if you're going to design something along the lines of Belcara, a 107-unit detached community carved into a coastal ridge in Orange County, Calif. “It's not the sort of development where you have your plans first and fit the site to your plans,” says architect...
“NEW VILLAGE HOMES” is about as generic a moniker as one could pick for an urban infill community. The choice was utterly intentional on the part of Lincoln Street Studio, the architecture firm selected by the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority to knit 100 new homes (including 20 affordable...
-
A HOUSE NEED NOT EXUDE A contemporary aesthetic to be modern. Architect Charles Moore knows this all too well. As principal of his own Alexandria, Va., firm, Moore has renovated many down-at-the-heels houses in the Northern Virginia area and brought them into the 21st century. This time, it was his...
THE MATHER BUILDING has been a Washington landmark since its debut in 1917. In its heyday, it housed film companies and offices of the Royal Italian Navy.
THE FLOOR PLANS OF MOST mid- and high-rise buildings have inherent inequalities. Inevitably, buyers of prime units—i.e., those on the upper levels or those facing the water or park—get the cushy spots, while everyone else settles for what's left. With the waterfront-located 255 Berry Street project...
-
THE LAWS OF NATURE DICTATE that only in our dreams can we be in two places at once. But the design of this magnificent beach house in Water-Sound, a planned community on Florida's Gulf Coast, begs to differ.
-
CHOOSING CANNERY LOFTS as the 2005 Project of the Year was simply a no-brainer for the judges. Located on an acre and a half in Newport Beach, Calif., this little infill pocket has it all: great bone structure, abundant outdoor living spaces, a waterfront address, plenty of parking, and some of the...
-
Article for Builder's Choice Award 2006
-
THE PAST FEW YEARS HAVEN'T BEEN kind to manufactured and modular home builders. But in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, they're in high demand.
Q: When a home is built over a crawlspace foundation, what are the advantages, if any, of sealing the vents versus leaving them open?
AFTER A RECENT COMPANY SALES meeting, many of our top performers told me that they were spending less time with the purchasing agents at our home builder clients.
PLUMBING, ELECTRICAL, AND MECHANICAL systems are among the most expensive and labor-intensive parts of a house.
THE $14.7 BILLION ENERGY POLICY Act that became law this summer isn't just about clean coal, nuclear power, alternative auto fuels, or hybrid cars—although there's a lot of all that in it.
AT ONE TIME, A PRE-APPROVAL LETTER FROM A lender was considered almost as good as cash in hand. It told a builder that a buyer's income, employment, assets, and debts had been checked out and that the buyer had been pre-approved for a mortgage of a certain dollar amount.
IF YOU WANT TO HEAR SOME plain talk about the frenzied competition between the Baby Bells and the cable providers to market bundled services, seek out Randy Luther, vice president of construction technology for Centex Homes in Dallas.
-
WHEN BARRY BERKUS ATTENDED architecture school, he says, no one cared about housing design. “It was beneath most of them,” he notes of his fellow students, who preferred civic or industrial design. But he saw a niche, he says, that would allow him to make a difference. To suggest that he's...
THE SELF-PROCLAIMED “BIGGEST little city in the world” may not be able to hang on to that slogan for much longer. At the very least, it may have to add “quirky” or “business-friendly” (distinctions recently earned from Modern Maturity and Forbes magazines, respectively) to the sign that spans the...
WHEN YOU'VE GOT MILES OF oceanfront, plenty of build-able land, and healthy employment growth, chances are good that the housing market has the wind at its back. “People come here as tourists, look around, and say, ‘This is a nice place,' ” says Susan Darden, executive officer of the Volusia (Fla.)...
LIKE THE BIG RIVER THAT RUNS in front of the landmark Gateway Arch, the St. Louis housing market maintains a steady, seemingly slow-moving course. “There are no big ups and downs here,” says Greg Whittaker, president of Whittaker Homes, the third-largest builder in town with more than 500 starts in...
-
They may not be eating a bacon cheeseburger while soaping a sports car like Paris Hilton, but these four markets are no less eye-catching for their white-hot housing activity.
TY CHIVERS WATCHES THE real estate frenzy in South Florida and remembers a similar scene from another era.
-
Meet the judges for the 2005 Builder's Choice Awards.
-
THE OWNERS' SIX GROWN DAUGHTERS left home long ago. This picturesque guest house, located just a few steps from the main residence, serves as a beacon to lure them back for an occasional visit. Inspired by a nearby historic lighthouse, the structure stands at the foremost point of a peninsula on...
-
CREATING A SPACE FOR LEARNING and knowledge within this custom home was important to the client. Marked by rich wood, classical molding, a coffered ceiling, and custom glass enclosures, the 1,000-square-foot library preserves rare books and other collectors' items, offering a quiet place for...
AMERICANS' LOVE AFFAIR WITH the automobile is still alive and well, but it's no longer dominating neighborhood design. Today's pedestrian-friendly aesthetic favors rear-loaded garages that put cars behind the scenes. The result, as seen in this 167-acre, neo-traditional town on the San Francisco...
IF THE SIGHT OF THIS INVITING lakefront home stirs thoughts of campfires, canoeing, and s'mores, it's no accident. The woodsy aesthetic was partly inspired by the boys' camp of which the property once was a part. Architect John Cole captured the vision of his nature-loving clients in a residence...
THE OWNERS OF THIS AUSTERE 1920s home—both Realtors—saw an opportunity not only to preserve a piece of neighborhood history, but to prove that a house with good bones could be adapted to accommodate a more contemporary sensibility. “They also wanted to demonstrate that less can be more,” says...
ARANCH SETTING WITH LOW, rolling hills sets the stage for this rough-hewn beauty just north of San Diego. An alternative to “big box” floor plans, this home's organic arrangement of simple masses and outbuildings was inspired by the traditional farmhouse concept of adding to a basic structure over...
IT'S HARD TO IMAGINE THAT THIS VIBRANT infill community was a gritty, rundown parking lot in a former life. Today, the affordable neighborhood has traded its drab hues for a more lively palette—one that reflects the cultural influences of its Asian and Latino residents. Brightly colored planters...
-
UNTIL THE GARDEN CROSSING townhomes appeared on the scene, the north side of Boulder, Colo., had not seen any major residential development in 20 years. But now the simple, brightly colored structures have spawned a flurry of activity, which is more than any community could hope for. “It has made...
THEY MAY VARY SOMEWHAT IN every city, but “The Projects” are always easily recognizable and definable: dour, anonymous, identical multistory buildings, separated from other neighborhoods by what seems like no-man's land. That's what stood for 70 years on 34 acres near downtown Cincinnati before the...
AT FIRST, THE INAUGURAL RESIDENTS of Fiesta House, an affordable housing community for low-income seniors, had some reservations about the bold color scheme and contemporary design of their new digs. That skepticism quickly turned into pride when their home became an admired landmark in an urban...
HOW DO YOU DESIGN A RESIDENTIAL project—in this case, 64 loft units in three buildings—that straddles large-scale industrial warehouses on one side and smaller-scale residential buildings on the other? If you're San Francisco architect Dan Hale, you keep the hallmarks of those divergent...
LARGE-SCALE URBAN REDEVELOPMENT projects are not for the faint of heart. The most ironic hurdle in the development of Atlantic Station, a 138-acre, mixed-use project on the site of a former steel manufacturing facility, was a steel shortage. But there were other roadblocks along the way, including...
THERE'S NO GETTING AROUND the fact that clubhouses, which can include everything from locker rooms to pro shops to wine cellars, tend to be very large buildings.
-
Just because you have a truckload of bells and whistles at your disposal doesn't mean you should use all of them. Of the many design virtues extolled by the judges in this, the 25th year of the Builder's Choice Awards, the one that received heartiest praise was restraint.
WHY IT WORKED: Large homes at great prices are the winning combination at Timber Meadow, located just two miles from major highways and in a highly rated school district. A low 2.76 percent property-tax rate didn't hurt, either.
-
- Leviton adds new designs to its Decora line of wiring services, lighting controls and wall plates.
- Linear, the home-technology subsidiary of Nortek, acquires Niles Audio.
HOME TECHNOLOGY HAS COME DOWN enough in price that a retirement community with units that average 1,300 square feet and start at well under $200,000 now offers a home control and voice, data, and video package backed up by fiber-to-the-home as standard.
-
Some actors dream of rock stardom. Brad Pitt wants to be an architect. According to the U.K.-based Guardian newspaper, the 41-year-old movie star recently apprenticed at architect Frank Gehry's Los Angeles studio and is now putting his CAD skills to the test as a member of the design team for...
-
TOM BOZZUTO BELIEVED HIS COMPANY WAS building according to county regulations at Clarksburg Town Center, a development in Montgomery County, Md. But an examination of the community by Clarksburg residents found that Bozzuto's four-story, 53-foot-high condo building—along with hundreds of other...
-
THE AVERAGE NEW HOUSE has a kitchen, two and a half bathrooms, and a laundry room, which means that a buyer has to choose at least five faucets. This can be overwhelming, so North Olmsted, Ohio
-
Palo Alto, Calif.–based SummerHill Homes recently donated $25,000 to the Friends of the Palo Alto Parks, a nonprofit dedicated to enriching and beautifying the city's local parks. The gift served as a catalyst to kick off a fundraising campaign for the play structure at Heritage Park, a new...