Friday, February 25, 2011

New House Case Study, No. 1

With a strong background in historic preservation, most of my architectural commissions involve improvements to existing houses or apartments.  It is a process that I enjoy, and I get great satisfaction from comparing successful "After" to the miserable "Before".  But I also design new houses.  Some of these new residences have not been realized, however.  Well, not yet anyway.  The Devoted Classicist thought readers might enjoy an occassional glimpse at these classic residential designs that will be place in the category New House Case Study.  A brief look will be presented on an infrequent basis, in no particular order, and arbitrarily numbered.  So here we go with the first, which we will call No. 1.


All of my houses, especially the new ones, have a strong connection to their landscape setting.  This house was designed to suit the site, a pie-shaped parcel in the curve of the road.  A former horse farm in a desirable area was being redeveloped for a variety of uses with this section being divided into small lots with houses close together.  This site was an exception, however, because it splayed so wide to the rear.  The small front was to be completely occupied by a circular motor court with the angled wings of the main block of the house embracing it, leaving a larger-than-usual gargen to be fully developed for the rear as the owners are avid gardeners.  The treeless pasture was essentially a blank slate.  All these perimeter parcels are walled, so the site would be essentially its own private setting despite the relatively small size.

The basic program for the house was similar of many in the suburbs.  There was to be four bedrooms with the Master being on the ground floor.  The square footage is about 2,700 square feet, not including a double garage.  The design intent was to provide a viable alternate to the typical subdivision house, offering studied proportions and scale for eye-pleasing, functional results at a competitive price.

15 comments:

  1. Looks charming!! Would be nice to see it a bit bigger - is that fencing in the front?

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  2. Thanks, Q. All of the lots in this section are walled with the frontage along the road completed as the construction of the house is finished. It would have sections of ironwork between masonry piers. This image is in the "large" Blogger format as the "x-large" created an overlap into the right column of text, and even the scan was done from a reduction of my original drawing. Apologies, but I hope you can get the general idea.

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  3. Thanks. This is just #1, part 1, right?

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  4. Terry, more may be revealed. I am advised, however, that posting my original drawings should be kept to a minimum in order to protect my artistic content. But if you find this interesting, do not worry as there is much more to come. Thank you for your continued readership.

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  5. John this design for a "new house" is fabulous. Will it be built as I would love to see the finished product. The gardens which you have indicated are walled would be gorgeous and you could really go to town with topiary, rose arbors and even a small maze. The house has a feel of Tudor style to me, mainly because of the roof I think. That might be incorrect but it just came to me as I was studying it. Also, love the internal curved staircase .. very elegant.
    Can't wait to see more
    best wishes
    Frances

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  6. Frances, this project is "on hold", but I truly hope it can someday be realized. That is part of the thought behind posting this first of a short series. The clients had a good collection of French and Baltic (primarily Danish) antique furnishings, so the style of the house was designed to compliment this Continental mix.

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  7. Hello John,
    How intriguing and what little you have shown your delighted readers is very pleasing (I enlarged it and studied it). Reggie is all agog at your skill, and looks forward to enjoying this series. Many thanks, RD

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  8. Love that you couple the design with the property..when building our own home this was of paramount importance to have a home that looked like it actually belonged in its setting and I think we have achieved this quite successfully. It is amazing to me and I am sure you, how often this is NOT done. Huge mcmansions are seemingly dropped out of the sky onto this horrible flat lined very vanilla parcels with little or not attention to the placement of the home. I have seen it over and over.
    I look forward to hearing and seeing more...like what I see so far.

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  9. It is difficult to decide if I am more taken with the house or the rendering---both are so delightful

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  10. Enchanted, it is amazing that such a huge number of new houses, even very costly ones, are built with little if any considerations for the site.

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  11. Reggie and Dilettante, your compliments are especially appreciated as I am a big fan of your blogs and value your opinions. Architectural drawings are meant to convey an idea, whether it is just a quick study, a client presentation, or a construction drawing. I do my best to illustrate the design concept and get the desired points across.

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  12. Super cute. Probably not what you were hoping to hear but from me, that counts as my highest compliment!
    Lynn from Decor Arts Now

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  13. Hope this one gets built! Super cute (my highest compliment!)
    Lynn from Decor Arts Now

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  14. Thanks, Lynn. I'll accept "cute" as an architectural compliment any day.

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  15. Dear Readers, sometimes your comments come to me in minutes, sometimes in hours, and a few times it has even taken days. I do not understand it at all. But thank you for your patience and understanding.

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