If you live near a body of water and have set up gear on the beach for a day, you understand resistance. As soon as you step foot on the sand, your heels sink, and different muscles begin to engage as you plod and tread to your destination.  What was an unconscious action is now thoughtful.  Along the way, the breeze brushes against your skin, cooling you, bringing smells of wet sand and warm sunscreen in tropical undertones. If you’re fortunate enough for the breeze to be stronger, a light wind, then you anticipate a glorious day but engage in a little more effort to reach your destination. Once you have “arrived,” you set up and begin to twist your umbrella into the sand. The deeper the staff goes, the harder it becomes to turn; until, with a sigh, you decide that is far enough. It is the beginning of a perfect day, filled with sounds of the crashing waves, murmurs of conversations, giddy laughter, cries of the gulls looming above; sun, sand, and air-kissing your skin.

If you’re fortunate enough, you’ll be with family and friends, or perhaps your sojourn is for a moment in time alone. But, no matter the reason for the escape to the shore, no matter how far you traveled to arrive, being along the coast latches onto a memory, unlike any other experience. The affair becomes rooted in your memory because of the pilgrimage you took to get there and the resistance you overcame. Walking in the sand, leaning into the breeze, forcing a pole into the wet sandy earth, these acts become unremarkable because thoughts were elsewhere, the time after, the future.

Designing a home for some of my clients is like a day on the beach. A pile foundation is designed similarly to a beach umbrella being set. There is a certain depth and force to be met for the home to be secure.  We create a home to resist the elements, the wind, yet the cooling ocean breeze needs to be captured, a contrast to be met with skill and nuance. If successful, my clients will live in their homes, and it will be effortless, unlike the trek across the sand. Things will flow from the time they walk in, drop their gear, and travel to their haven within the house. The home will live and breathe and have a spirit forever evolving just as the sand gets sculpted by the ocean. The spaces within will fill with sounds, murmurs of conversations, giddy laughter; cries of sadness.

Entertain with family and friends no problem; need a moment of solitude to gather your thoughts; it’s there. High ceilings or low ceilings, an architect can alter and design a home three-dimensionally to provide a space for living a life that is as unpredictable as the sea.  With Virtual Reality, my clients can experience the dynamic features we have planned for them before excavation begins. The process is a journey, an adventure, and an intimate escapade. So come spend a little time with us, let us explore together what is possible, because you’ll feel the difference when you finally arrive.

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In other worlds we meet people who are the same, yet different and still embody all that is human. Food will dance before us, or we hunt and gather, yet it is always at a shared meal where we come together with family and friends. We eat and drink while discussing our days, our disappointments, our dreams, and defeats. We plan, and scheme, and boldly walk away from the table ready to take on the next adventure or retreat to that quiet place where we just sit and contemplate all we just discussed.

Architecture for me is about creating magic, but it is not mine, it’s yours.  We were born gifted at seeing what is not there and somehow, through the years, an architect learns alchemy for our built world. We create the magic that allows you to travel on your adventure. We design those nooks and crannies where children run around, and pitch tents made of sheets and old sleeping bags. We compose layers so the family can be together in a great room yet have their private realm. We map out the space that allows you to gather with food and wine, bread and cheese; where you speak the language you all enjoy and become inspired.

The most exciting part of my work recently has been the introduction of Virtual Reality to my toolbox. We craft spaces that transport our clients into their dreams. They move and look, and see what isn’t there, but will be someday.  Like a dream, the hallucinatory experience is real to my clients in that moment. I no longer have to use adjectives as a way of explaining what I see in my head, while they look at a piece of paper.  The power of my magical abilities is now shared, and my words are directives, look up, do you see……Turn around, see that over there, that is the space you asked for. It is equal to Jake, crossing over to Pandora in the Avatar. We can now sculpt a space, inside, outside, upside down I’m sure, and you can experience it before we build it.  It’s most gratifying when a client allows us the opportunity to transport them into their world, so we can bring into existence their perfect home.

Come spend a little time with us, it will definitely be an adventure.

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For some, they consult a builder first.  Although this may seem appropriate, builders are not designers, and they can seldom give you a cost estimate until you have something on paper to scale with at least an idea of what you envision.  Builders are talented, don’t get me wrong, but my husband, a civil engineer, has a great phrase, you need to know when to “stay in your lane.”  For that reason, the builder comes second, not first.  They build, they install, bring visions into focus.  They can offer up general budget numbers at the beginning of any project. Still, any builder worth their weight will tell you they need the final plans before they can provide you with a real proposal for building your dream. 

The Process

Now what? – speak to an architect.  An architect will meet with you, talk through your ideas, walk through your existing space.  The first meeting may be very engaging with ideas flowing, options, and opinions.  Learning how to work with an architect is as important as you, your program, and your needs. 

Meet & Greet

There are a couple of stages of working with an architect.  The first, of course, is the meeting, which will help you narrow down your selection.  For guidance, see our other module, “How To Select the Right Architect for your Project.” The architect should then generate a proposal that outlines what they will and will not be doing for you and your project and how much it will cost.  The fees will range depending on what you ask the architect to give you as a final product.  Some architects do not offer different levels of service like ours does.  Some architects will only give you a minimal amount of information needed for you to obtain permits.  Whichever level of service you are looking for, it should be clearly defined in the architect’s proposal. 

Pre-Programming (Another way to say – information gathering)

From here, the project typically moves into the information gathering process.  There are building codes, zoning codes, and measurements to be gathered and crossed checked.  Can you build on your property where you want the addition?  Can you create a new home as big as you want?  These are questions on the east coast that need to be reviewed and answered before the design process starts.  Zoning in each town differs and does NOT allow you to build just anything, anywhere.  This is the architect’s starting point, to follow up on the local rules and cross them with your wish list. The architect then will place all the measurements of your existing project into the computer.  In the not too distant past, cave dwellers painted on walls, and architects drew by hand on paper.  Today, although the creative sketches may be by hand, your technical drawings should be done in a computer and done in 3D. 

Design (Schematic)

After we know you can build what you want without having any hurdles to overcome with the town or county, the design process starts.  The architect will come up with ideas.  How the architect will present those ideas to you will depend on your architect, but you will review and tweak these ideas.  Hopefully, you will be excited and delighted with your options.  If you are not, maybe you need to rethink the project or the team.

Design (Developed)

From this point, some architects will either revise their original design or dive deeper into the initial design.  It’s a process, like a layer cake.  Each layer builds on the previous one until you’re ready for the icing. New questions may be asked to you during the design, requiring your active participation in the process. It would help if you, too, were asking questions along the way.  You wanted a pantry to dirty up and close the door?  Where is it, how many steps from the kitchen?  You wanted natural light to flood the great room?  How big are the windows, how far off the floor do they start?  Ask!  It’s your home, your space, your life.  Get the information you think you need to understand the design. 

Construction Documentation

The next phase will be the technical phase of the project.  Here, the architect will generate all of the 3D drawings needed to show you your space and understand what it might feel like when it is completed.  You want to understand the designed space; because making changes during construction will not only add to your budget, but it will most likely add to the building time.  From here, once you are happy and understand what your space will look like when it is built, the architect will do the final drawings needed for construction.  These drawings will be used for obtaining contracting prices, permits, and construction.  They are detailed drawings of the plans, elevations, sections, framing, electrical layout, and more.  You may be very involved with additional questions from the architect at this time because the architect may want to review where the switches to the lights go or exactly how many steps you like in order to get from one floor to another.  There will be choices for kitchens, faucets to pick, and fireplaces to review. 

Not all architects will provide detailed information like we just mentioned on their plans, which is why you need to understand what they are giving you.  All of this information is absolutely necessary, so if you don’t do it with the architect, you will do it with the builder. There is no way around making these decisions, and trust us when we say it is exhausting! Burn-out happens, but wouldn’t you rather it happen during the design phase, when there isn’t as much pressure about time?  During construction, you want to keep the project moving. When you want your home back to yourselves, or when you need to leave the rental you’re living in because your home is under construction, the timeline is critical and condensed.  There is less pressure before construction starts to make decisions, but make the decisions; otherwise, you’ll never understand the final budget and costs associated with your choices. 

Construction Administration

Time to build!  Here the architect can wear several to no hats.  After the drawings are completed, the architect can review the bids and make sense of the soup you were given from the builders.  Here is an apple, here is an orange, here is your choice, here is the project cost.  Some homeowners prefer to do this step on their own; go for it! But know what you are getting and ask questions and for clarifications.  When the construction begins, an architect will be around to check on the progress.  Depending on what services you hired them to perform, they will, at a minimum, come to see the framing and answer questions from the builders along the way.  Most problems come up during the framing, but there can be questions about finish details, built-ins, lighting design.  At the end of the project, the architect should be walking through one last time to check on the final product.

It’s a wrap! (The Icing on the Cake)

Time to move in!  We have maintained many clients as friends over the years.  The process from start to finish for our average project is well over a year.  The architect’s timeline is 4-6months on average; then comes the building.  Working with both the architect and builder requires you to have an above-average personality fit.  You will be making decisions, relying on their professional opinions and experiences to guide you along the way.  You will share intimate details about your life and how you live with the architect so they can design a space that touches all of your wish list and more!  When you open the door and step foot into the finished space, it should be seamless and feel like it was always there.  You’re ready! – to cook, to sleep, to not trip over stuff.  You’re ready to gaze out the kitchen window toward the beautiful yard, landscape, ocean.  You’re ready to close off the noise in your new office, to crank up the volume at the dinner party you’ve been dreaming about hosting.  Whatever your need, your dream, the right architect can pull it all together.  Go have an adventure!  

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When you enter the museum, you travel down from the largest of the glass pyramids. My intention was to transverse through the galleries in the Richelieu wing, which were highlighted by the smaller pyramids, on my way to see Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss, a sculpture by Italian artist Antonio Canova. That first stop upended my entire plan.

With the overhead diffused sunlight streaming down through the pyramids, shadows dancing off the marble, the space alone was stunning.  Add the white marble statues and tears welled up in my eyes; it was literally breathtaking. As an architect of over thirty years, I can now put into words what I could not back then. For me, my brain has always been attracted to the light and shadows on a form; it’s probably the most crucial aspect of the way I see the world that has propelled me into the field of architecture.

Unlike so many developments in the United States, a well-designed space, room, and piece of art has no back, like the sculptures in this room.  You can walk around each piece as I did and marvel at forms and details, almost alive to a point you want to reach out and touch them, yet knowing they are stone.  Without understanding with my brain, but definitely with my intuition and other senses, that day was the day I embraced my calling as an architect.  To be so moved by three-dimensional form solidified my quest for designing spaces that touched the soul, played with light, and provided the end-user with more than they expected. It seems only natural years later that I have continued to look for ways to express what I envision in my mind.  My Movie is my first attempt at playing with form, ideas, and technology to show you what is possible before a shovel ever touches the earth.

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A WELL DESIGNED SPACE MAKES THE SQUARE FOOTAGE COUNT!

DIMENSIONAL DESIGN SOLUTIONS

WE LIVE IN A THREE DIMENSIONAL WORLD AND UNDERSTAND THAT EVERY SPACE HAS THREE DIMENSIONS. THINK OUTSIDE THE “BOX” – THEN DESIGN A BETTER BOX.

LISTENING

UNDERSTANDING HOW YOU LIVE, OR HOW YOUR OFFICE FUNCTIONS, ALLOWS FOR DESIGNING SPACES IN-TUNE WITH YOUR ACTUAL HABITS AND NEEDS.

DETAILS

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A WELL DESIGNED SPACE AND AN OUTSTANDING SPACE IS ALL IN THE DETAILS.

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