Kirk Gittings
Viewed from the high-desert scrub that surrounds it, this Albuquerque, N.M., house gives an impression of appealing complexity. With its varied floor elevations, massing elements, materials, and colors, it looks every inch the trophy home. A glance at the floor plan, however, reveals the underlying efficiency with which it does a somewhat more demanding job: gracefully housing two parents, two teenage sons, and one mother-in-law in 2,700 square feet. At a cost of barely more than $100 per square foot, this is a simple and elegant machine for living.
Living space consists of three bedroom suites, one for each generation, surrounding a single great room. “The floor plan is very compact,” says architect Jon Anderson. But with all group functions combined in a single generous space, “It still feels like there’s lots of room.” To further stretch the budget, Anderson adopted a two-tiered approach to materials. Simply detailed gypsum board walls, stock windows, and solid-core slab doors form a receding backdrop for the bolder gestures of a maple-veneered room divider and a circulation spine tiled in slate. “Jon strategically placed nice things here and there,” says builder Paul Kenderdine. “It makes the house look great, but it’s fairly inexpensive. The fixtures and finishes are very simple.” And with its slab foundation and stucco-on-stick-frame shell, it was “as easy to build as any tract house.”
To keep operating costs low, Anderson designed the house for passive solar heating, with overhangs calculated to provide shade in the warmer months and six-zone hydronic heating to maintain a constant temperature in both shady and sunny areas of the house. Cooling is handled by roof-mounted evaporative coolers that run at a fraction of the cost of air conditioning. As important to the success of this project as any single piece of good thinking, however, was the owners’ commitment to meeting the budget. “There were no change orders on this project,” Anderson says. When they approved the plan, “They said, ‘That’s great, Jon. Call us when it’s done.’”
Project Credits
Builder: Kenderdine Construction, Albuquerque, N.M.
Architect: Jon Anderson, Albuquerque
Living space: 2,700 square feet
Site: 1.3 acres
Construction cost: $107 a square foot
Photographer: Kirk Gittings
Resources: Bathroom plumbing fittings: Chicago; Bathroom plumbing fixtures: Kohler; Dishwasher: KitchenAid; Entry/patio doors: Eagle Door; Garage doors: Overhead Door; Hardware: Eagle and Schlage; Kitchen plumbing fittings: Chicago; Kitchen plumbing fixtures: Kohler; Lighting fixtures: Halo; Oven: GE Appliances; Paints: Benjamin Moore; Refrigerator: Sub-Zero; Windows: Eagle.
Aid to the Pour
Stained concrete is remarkably inexpensive when compared with tile or wood floors. Builder Paul Kenderdine says that subcontractors in his area charge only $2 to $3 per square foot over the cost of the structural slab. Kenderdine’s clients pay even less. Because he is on the job anyway, handling everything from site work and footings on up, applying the requisite stains, sealers, and waxes adds little to the labor involved in finishing the slab. “Other then the materials, you don’t see a lot of cost in the floor finish,” he says. “So the owner is, in a lot of respects, getting it for free.”
