I love modern architecture. I don’t usually write about local architects, but I just had to do a little exploration of a local project. I discussed a project with Sean Kennedy of CCS Architecture and Pete Kasten of Kasten Builders. Up in the hills of Marin, they just finished a modern residence that combines modernism with newer sustainable practices while exceeding an extraordinary level of luxury.

This modern home is a four bedroom three bath with office, art studio, pool and a two car garage. The owners chose to retain the pool with the reworked pool house as a place to change and lounge. The views practically surrounds this property with the master bedroom upstairs situated on the north end to have a nice view of Mt. Tamalpias. The project team carefully weighed the choice between remodel and tear down and found a new structure from the ground up would be more cost effective and practical.

Northwest Exterior

I think Cass and Sean did a great job on creating a design that continues to fearlessly push modern architecture to be more responsive to local environment and sustainability while maintaining modernism’s high ideals and elegance. This is not a box that was just plopped down on a random lot. As with any sophisticated design, it responds to the site and climate while providing a well worked out relationship of spaces internally.

The form of the house has a North South linear orientation, with main living spaces on the main floor, bedrooms and office upstairs, with the studio and additional bedrooms downstairs. The entry is given significance and warmth by a large wood and glass pivot door. The main floor is offset from the upper and lower floors to give the impression of several large sculptural slabs resting on one another with the floor to ceiling inset window over the entry giving the impression entry importance and great light while making a statement with the main floor based on solidity and presence.

Detail Window shade

There are many great details such as the upstairs sun shades. These are custom designed by CCS Architecture and fabricated for the client. It’s a strong and thick sheet of aluminum mounted flat above the windows with the outermost third of the sheet perforated with a screen pattern of small diameter holes. The functional aspect seems to work well, and the look is very clean.

Exterior detail, the West bend

There were several challenges to the site including the slope and trees. CCS had a nuanced and graceful response to one of the redwood groves that inhabit the property by putting a bend in the front face of the house. It’s not noticeable from inside but gives the mass an interesting distinction and gives extra space to trees that they want to keep for a long time.

Northwest Exterior second floor deck to open house

This is California, so the architects truly exploit the advantage of the good climate by making the all of the main rooms open onto the spacious patio that merges seamlessly with the deck over the lower floor. Wow, I’d love to be at a party there. Sean told me that there was a lot of deliberation over the window manufacturer. Expansive yet well insulated large sliding glass panels that are easy to use (lift and push), have high precision, and are well insulated, have been a real challenge to find. After much deliberation over the performance and discussion with the client, they chose Goldbrecht. It was all shipped in a 40’ long shipping container from Germany, and is both better built and significantly less expensive than local manufacturers.

Interior main stairwell

Looking through from the deck the windows frame the grove of redwoods and shape the light for refined entry statement. I always get a little annoyed when I see pictures of stairs in magazines for the united states that don’t show any railing or little enclosure. This always means that they either shot the project prior to installation of railing or it’s in another country. So internally I groan when a client points to such picture and says that they want ‘that’. So here’s a good looking stairwell that is also legal in the States.

Dining to open

The house feels expansive without feeling cavernous, and the fenestration makes the relationship to the outside seems so effortless. The floor transition from inside to outside does not hide the inescapable reality of how the door tracks need to provide good waterproofing, and the detail works well. Noticeable but not intrusive are the skylights in the deck. A closer look shows how well the selection of skylights and pedestal deck system work together and that the spacing of the tiles is part of how the skylights are placed.

Exterior deck skylights West second floor

Exterior detail roof deck skylight and pedistal deck

Detail pedistal decking

Interior First Floor Office and Au Pair

The skylights give what would be wonderful rooms and make them magical. The downstairs studio and office are warm and responsive with the natural light. Yes, I know, I hear some of you saying, “exposed concrete inside?” and I say “YES!”, be brave, be interesting! It makes for great contrast. I get tired of the old knee jerk reaction of plastering and smoothing it all out. It’s all part of a larger composition, and I like it. Concrete may seem cold, but it doesn’t if you’re comfortable due to the warmth or cool from the hydronic heating in the floor.

Living room

The same long thin skylights are used in the living room, giving a subtle continuity. These shots were taken prior to the client moving in, so please forgive the lack of furniture or other staging. I thought I would be remiss if I didn’t show the living room. It’s a wonderful space.

Detail deck copper and window

Exterior detail copper reflection

Note how the copper in the lower left creates interesting patterns of reflection. Warning to my clients, I may suggest this cladding…

Exterior South ramp to Office

Interior Kitchen from Dining

The kitchen is open, warm and inviting, and centrally situated in the plan of the house, reflecting current trends in use. The overall palette of materials both inside and out gives the modernity warmth .

Detail Kitchen Range and Island

Detail kitchen range

The following are several more shots of details that caught my attention, enjoy.

Detail Door Hardware

Detail of Sconce used in Master Bedroom

Detail Railing at office

Detail Skylight in Master Bath

Interior Master Bath

I can’t wait to see some of the up coming projects by CCS and Kasten Builders, I’m sure they’ll please.

Front - Northeast Exterior

All Photography: Copyright 2011 Brant Fetter.

Look honey! no layout work!

Try it out if you have an iPad or other touch tablet, it’s a great example of good user interface.

Napa Guest House

Our latest project featuring rammed earth walls is very near done.  Considering the popularity of the rammed earth article, I’ll share some ‘after’ photos. This should be a treat for my readers since these are not on my firm’s website as of this publish date and I don’t think they’ll will be.  This turned out to be an amazing house and credit goes to Eric Rogers for the design work.

Napa Guest House Dining Room

Napa Guest House DiniDining Room Photo:Eric Rogers

Living Room, Dining

Want to see more and even better photos? Visit our firm’s website and at this page to see more of this successful project. Thanks again to Grassi Construction and a tip of the hat to Nicole Hollis for the interiors.

Kitchen (After, during construction)

Even on the small jobs, effective design can have a big impact. Our clients were wanting to compliment a rework to one part of their house by finishing the main living areas.

Our clients came to us with a very dated living room, a cramped, outdated and poorly lit kitchen, and a family room that also needed a little more feeling of space and light. They also had a restriction of not expanding the footprint discernibly. We came up with a design that was both respectful of the overall style of the home yet worked in a some better practices of the type. We achieved all of this without changing the footprint more than an extra 100 square feet.

We bumped out the entry and the kitchen just a little and the strategic use of this space leveraged into a much larger feel for the house.

Kitchen from family room (Before)

We changed the circulation of the kitchen and raised the ceiling of the family room, kitchen entry and dining room. We also reworked the windows on the south of the house so that they no longer featured the next door neighbor but instead featured the great views. We also reworked the living room to be a better use of space with respect to furniture (imagine that!).The evidence of what good light does is shown in these before and after photos, just wait till they have the (high efficacy) lighting going! The clerestory windows do not work for many styles of home, so finding the right method according to each house is important.

(Before) Entry detail shot

The contractor on the project is Floyd Construction, and they did a fantastic job. We’ve worked with Joe Floyd and his crews for many years and they always deliver a great result large and small. The foreman on this project, Paul, has excelled. We also brought in Serge Anderson for the cabinetry, and he did a great job also.

Entry from inside (after, during construction)

I think owners who want to live at the work site need to think very carefully about the pros and cons. This is a rare project where the client was actually able to live at the project site while the work was being done. Here are the reasons why it worked:

1. Paul and his crew were working on a discrete and easily sectioned-off area of the house. So the scope was well defined and limited.
2. The client was able to easily convert a large bathroom to a temporary kitchen and still had another two baths for the kids and the couple.
3. The bedroom areas of the house had reasonable access to the street.

We typically don’t have projects that are this small, but on the rare occasion when a client can live there, we usually recommend against it unless it meets many important conditions. If all of these conditions line up, it can save some money.

All of the green building technology and large complex projects are fun to talk about, but it’s important to highlight the every day successes we have.  Want to find out more about great design, visit Wagstaff Architects.

Family room from kitchen (After, during const.)

Modern vs. preservation: Parisians have finally decided to raise the height limit in Paris.

 

Paris skyline from Pompidu Center

Marais District, Paris, winter 2010

The city of Paris deliberately keeps all buildings under a 37 meters, resulting in a very consistent skyline that doesn’t compete with the Eiffel Tower. The monuments thrust up and act as classic landmarks From the top of the Pompidu Center, (which was begrudgingly allowed to rise above the height restriction)  you look across a fairly even skyline of residential roofs and that makes it easy to see the Eiffel Tower.The heights of Paris are found elsewhere.  Around the 1970s, the city of Paris decided to enhance an outlying district in line with the Champs Elysees, the statue in the middle of the round-a-bout there was called “La Défense de Paris”. The result was a new financial district that departs from the rules and allows large modern buildings. It has been so successful that they’ve decided to keep expanding the area with increasingly adventurous modern architecture.

La Defense at night

There is this extreme contrast between most of the neighborhoods (arrondissements) where every building looks like it was built in 1730, and La Défense.  The exception to this rule 18 years ago was the Tour Montparnasse, which is still widely despised by Parisians. I couldn’t bring myself to go to the top for the view, mostly because they’re willing to charge, yet the structure has very little charm.

It’s still worth stating that Paris is a city with a distinct contrast between modern and traditional districts. Who knows? that may change in the coming years. There are of course exceptions to the unrelenting pattern such as the Branly Museum near the Sein, a stones throw from the Eiffel Tower.

musée du quai Branly from the Eiffel Tower

This is a very current and modern museum that, ironically, or not houses anything, but modern art. I was glad to see a lot of French kids at the museum, so that more than justifies the mission.

From the standpoint of a visitor, the distinctive style and traditional texture of the architecture can be both impressive and draconian in a Imagineering® fashion. I’ve listened to French architects lament the suffocating stricture they hold, while the tourists and writers still wander through the streets in awe. Of course, many quaint little villages all around Europe can have that feel, each with their own unique architecture and personality, yet in Paris, it’s the immense scale and consistency that impresses. Every street is lined with 6 or 7 stories of what is or used to be residential flats adorned with what would be considered outrageous and extravagant detailing in the states. At ground level are small boutiques, large chain boutiques, with the occasional real estate office, repair shop, or Monoprix thrown in. Cafes and brasseries tend to gravitate to the corners.

Musée du quai Branly, color and form

Professions such as dentists, internists, attorneys and psychologists that eschew store frontage usually have discreet name plaques at the ground level indicating their presence somewhere upstairs, shoe horned in between oh-so-haute boutiques. In contrast to U.S. professional businesses that seem to invite more attention, it’s as if French professionals should be spoken of in hushed tones.

What struck me was the evidence of so many years and so many man hours of effort to build in such a distinct and consistent style and form. It just goes on and on. It will be interesting to see how the change in rules intrudes.

Kentfield California Craftsman by my firm, eaves featured

In our effort to maintain a higher degree of finish quality or improve the sustainability of a design, I tend to venture into areas that I suddenly realize nobody has seemingly bothered to investigate. I’m always exhilarated by the discovery that I’ve stumbled into an aspect of our trade that has not been pushed.

So here’s the challenge: Find affordable prefab trusses that meet WUI code with open eaves.

I’ll explain a couple terms there for those of you that may not know, otherwise skip to the next paragraph. There are new rules for homes built and remodeled in areas near “wild lands” adopted recently in California: WUI (Wildland Urban Interface) regulations and get this… the majority of the enforcement and oh-so professional people in the trades are are pronouncing it “woo-ee or woowee”. Try looking professional while saying “ we need to comply with woo-ee.” When I say ‘open eaves’ I’m referring to what you see in this picture. Prefabricated Trusses are becoming more commonly used even in custom homes due to the sophistication of the software used to design and engineer the product.

If you’re using trusses for your roof (in an effort to reduce cost, improve efficiency, and reduce the use of wood and thus improve sustainability), AND you’re in what is called a WUI zone, then you need to provide fire rated assemblies at the eaves. Our California Craftsman homes typically have open eaves with the rafter tails showing. This happens two ways, either you 1) run the top member of the truss out to the fascia or two 2) ‘scab on’ or attach a rafter tail to the truss. These trusses are made of regular lumber and they’re ridiculously expensive if they’re made entirely with exterior grade fireproof lumber. You might as well hand frame or ‘stick frame’ the entire roof.

I’ve worked with Tim Carley when he was at Peidmont Lumber (Capella Truss Division) which, despite their great service and product, succumbed to financial ruin during the great recession, so he’s at Kelseyville Lumber’s Truss Division now. Recently when I called him I realized during our conversation I was wondering off into new territory with him. What on earth could be new and innovative in the production of trusses (or even interesting)?  Talking to Tim, I gathered that at this moment, no truss manufacturer in California is producing affordable trusses on a regular basis with rafter tails that meet any kind of exterior fire rating. They can but they don’t.

WUI has been on the books for several years, yet nobody is doing it, yet. Does anyone see an business opportunity here?

Today I thanked Pat Ravasio for loaning me a bulldozer to destroy a building that did not live up to my aesthetic standard. We’re also designing it’s replacement. (Don’t worry, we’ll take care of that little building in the background).   In reality, Pat,  Bob and another investor are actually the clients on this project.  Pat was so excited about getting started, I just had to congratulate her. I’m thrilled to be working with Pat and Bob again.

This is also a good opportunity to mention that I strongly encourage our clients to use deconstruction as a great way to offset the cost of demolition and benefit the environment. I’m not talking about using a design methodology that reassembles the form and material of a design to evoke a more striking, expressive and evocative result… I’m talking about taking the darn thing apart, literally. There is a burgeoning industry that can take apart a house and reuse and recycle the majority of the materials. Unfortunately, Pat and Bob Ravasio did not have this option since the home had been damaged by fire earlier this year. Comment or send me a note if you’re curious about firms I recommend for deconstructing a structure, and of course, if you would like to discuss designing a new home or facility.

Rammed earth columns.

The Napa guest house gave us a chance to experiment with rammed earth instead of concrete. I’m going to take you back to the spring of this year (2010) when the project was just getting started. The use of the rammed earth turned out to be a great success. Ian Neilson of Grassi and Associates worked closely with our firm to bring our designs to life.  Ian had just been finishing up another project where he used rammed earth, but in less complex fashion. We were trying to evoke a feeling of rock of the earth being cut through to reveal the columns and walls of the structure.

Many projects that use rammed earth are authentic to the method of rammed earth which is typically done in consistent ’lifts’ which yet, can look a bit like unfinished concrete which doesn’t really play up the significance of the material being utilized in contrast with concrete. As the methods are refined, the trend is toward techniques that evoke natural stratification. So we chose a slightly more complex layering and coloring.

We know that it’s always a trade off between rammed earth and concrete. The increased cost gives you a much prettier result and an average reduction in energy use and carbon emissions.

We turned to David Easton of Rammed Earth Works to provide the expertise and placement of the rammed earth in the forms.  For this project the cost hovered around 110 per sq. ft surface area due mostly to the extra labor for the slightly more refined forming and David’s crew for the earth ramming. We had 3 different colors in lifts, set in a stratified or sedimentary pattern we had designed for these structural elements.

Note the sloped forming

Unfortunately the structural engineer was not comfortable with anything less than 1500 psi strength for any of the rammed earth walls or columns. This led to a high cement ratio so it may have been a bit less green, but our overall score for the house was very high regardless (kudos to Eric Rogers at our firm).  There were several steel columns in the rammed earth walls.

Rammed earth wall forming with steel column.

Whereas reinforcing bar (rebar) is used directly in the rammed earth (just like concrete) large steel is treated differently due to the significant difference in expansion and contraction with temperature fluctuation. Ian had his crew epoxy seal the beams then wrap them in foam board to provide for sufficient slip allowance. I was surpised to find that no release agents were used but rather just the smooth face MDO plywood for forming was used. This prevented the rammed earth from being stained or having inconsistent results.  At first glance, it may not seem significant, but the arrangement of steel, rebar and foam board in the form is important so I show a picture of the form just prior to filling.

Let’s say that I want to work in the look, to complement the main rammed earth walls, but I need concrete for a thinner wall, or just can’t afford it in every spot or the placement of the wall is less significant, are there ways to combine our new knowledge with the age old practices with concrete? In response to some concepts that David Easton puts forth: An 18″ wide wall has a 12-hour thermal flywheel effect, that means that the outside temprature takes half a day to migrate through the wall to the inside face. This brings to light the value of such solid masses in green building practices. However, it would be nice to bring some of that beauty to regular concrete and other placements.

Don't cover it up, instead use the right material.

As an aside, I also wonder if the substitution of fly ash can achieve a similar reduction in green house gases and reduction in energy use compared to rammed earth. For thin infill walls that we want to do as concrete, is it possible to do some kind of concrete modification to simulate rammed earth or is this just disingenuous rather than authentic to the material? Another possible avenue is thin wall applications over insulation to fit smaller spaces or uses. At this time, rammed earth just can’t be thin, so perhaps onsite methods with modified equipment might be worth exploring.  I think both may be possible expansions of the use of rammed earth or similar processes, while bringing the authenticity to the material.

Architects frequently attempt to utilize materials in a more authentic manner, this means that instead of covering up something like a concrete floor or wall, we just polish it and leave it as is and appreciate it for what it is. Done in the right way, it can be really cool. Or perhaps treat it in a way that brings out the better aspects of the material’s appearance and strengths such as throwing in a little colorant into the mix.

Forming up the walls for the dining room

This does a couple things, it saves money because you are not putting on additional layers to achieve the same goal, and it should make the assembly more reliable since less complexity is typically better for such purposes.  However, some materials just don’t deliver on what many thought would the their strengths. Anybody remember Cor-Ten? It’s a particular metal blend that many in the 70s in the building trades  thought would behave well in exterior applications. It’s a lot cheaper than copper and seemed to have the potential to similarly patina over the long term in a visually appealing fashion. One good example comes to mind is where a colleague who used it as a slatted cladding for large gate across driveway.

Our colleague who worked during that era now detests the material because it may have not fallen apart or rusted out, but instead left very visible and unsightly stains on the driveway from all of the oxidized material that sloughed off. Additionally, the clients don’t really want to touch the gate due to the oxidized material. So this brings to light the difficulty in using a material authentically yet not comprimise on the actual function. A basic distinction between architects is how they deal with this balance.

I think the rammed earth walls on this project strike a very good balance.

There are newer images of the project on the post named Napa Guest House Update.

For a look at more great projects from my firm, visit www.wagstaffarchitects.com .

Napa Guest House From Southeast

Our California Modern home we call the Napa Guest House has been coming along nicely. Casework for the Library and kitchen are being completed. The pebble inlay tile for the interior fountain and sculpture by renowned artist Archie Held has been set, and will act as a good underlay for the large clean form.

It may not look like it from the photos, but those grand old olive trees were recently planted and provide a stunning contrast to the rectilinear forms of the house. Ian and the team with Grassi & Associates are doing a fantastic job of managing this project and buildout. With the finishing of the exterior wood siding and the interior plaster work, the ‘cut earth’ feel of the rammed earth walls becomes even more expressive.If you’re not familiar with this project, you might be interested in a quick overview: The main elements of this modern pavilion style house are the large rammed earth walls; a broad open feel; warm wood and marble plaster finishes; highly efficient green building qualities and the clean raked roofs with solar power arrays.

Napa Guest House Progress- Southwest

The front entry opens onto the main interior court at the center of the house that is enclosed by two walls of sliding glass doors. These can be opened to create a vast interior space for those pleasant Napa afternoons so the sound of the water can be heard and the views of the hills and surrounding vineyard taken in. The North end of the house is the semi private areas and bedrooms where the South end of the house has the dining, living, kitchen, library and guest rooms.

The social spaces are not overly large but very accommodating, with the spacious living room sharing a bold statement of a fireplace with the dining room. The living and dining rooms are bounded by two massive and tall rammed earth walls that extend out beyond the glass wall into the east patio. The two soaring walls support a roof that shoots out and seems to reach for the sky. For this modern Napa house the expresses openness in many ways, both functionally and figuratively. The two rammed earth walls make such a strong statement while the elegant floor to ceiling glass wall seems to disappear.

Napa Guest House Southwest

While very secure, the house can be opened to create a connected feeling with the natural landscape. The entire project rates highly by green standards while maintaining a high quality standard.More later on the more technical aspects of the rammed earth walls.

Night shot, Corte Madera

This is a kind of case study in regards to a classic issue: “Who owns the architectural drawings?”

I’ll give you a little background. As I mentioned in a previous article, we developed a really nice design for a single family residence on a tight lot, and got it approved by the city planning department. Then we worked on the construction documents right up to where we were about to submit for the building permit and had to put the project on hold. The clients suddenly had a situation where it was more advantageous to move and so the property went up for sale.

I got a call from the client’s realtor yesterday asking for clarification. The buyer had asked something to the effect of: “So if we buy the property, do the plans come with it?”  The realtor had to pause. She realized she didn’t actually know the answer, and called me. I don’t profess to be an intellectual property attorney, but I had an answer for her.

The legal answer is no, but the practical answer is that you can license them.

For all tense and purpose, the reality is that the design is most likely very closely tied to the property regardless, and it’s not necessarily a matter of outright ownership. I’ll explain.

As is common in the Architectural profession, our contract for services is with the property owners. These professional service contracts do not grant ownership of the design or other ‘instruments of service’ such as the drawings, images and electronic files. It is common for most architects retain ownership and copyrights of these. I know that this can seem a bit odd in comparison with the ownership of a work of art or a book, but that’s why there are actually laws written to specifically address architectural services. For all practical purposes, this does not diminish the value of the design for a particular property.

I got the impression that the buyers were hoping to include the ‘ownership’ of the drawings and intellectual property in the sale of the real estate. Outright ownership of the designs is actually very unusual for this situation. It’s more common when a corporation wants to build multiple retail stores or restaurants. Then they’ll just buy the design outright and repeat it. Despite the significant cost, it’s still cheaper than licensing each use.

However, I think I understood their intent, and licensing the work is all very workable, common and most likely achieves the actual desired result. I guessed that the buyers just want to preserve their right to use our designs for this particular property. As it turns out, that’s pretty much what they wanted.

The project is in a jurisdiction where there is always a certain amount of minor revisions requested by the city during the application review; they would need a registered architect to respond. My solution was to offer the following options.

1)     License the design from our firm for a fee and use another great firm to respond to the city and provide construction administration or

2)     Just contract with our firm to complete the project.

As in any site specific design, considering our familiarity with the project and relationship with the city, it would most likely be more cost effective to go with us, but they are welcome to use another firm if they prefer. We’ve had projects brought to us in that fashion, but more often after a long period of time or if the other firm is unable to handle the project. Frankly, a larger concern is the expiration of the planning approval. The planning permit can be extended in most cities, but not forever (in this case another 12 months), and the longer you wait the more code changes will have been made. The more code changes made mean the likelyhood of more issues cropping up when the review is done.

I’ll just remind all my friends out there that I’m not an attorney, and legal advice is best taken from one.