Design a 2400 s.f. home on a 50’X125’ lot in a historic section of town.

The votes are in. Chosen is the small home on the small lot. Here is the challenge. Design a 2400 s.f. home on a 50’X125’ lot in a historic section of town. The floor area ration (FAR) lot is 2400 sf. There will be a detached garage due to the zoning codes in place. We can only cover 25% of the lot with the house and garage, as well as impervious surface ratios, etc….. The client wants a farm house. The rest are common requests. A living, dining, kitchen, family, mud, and powder room on the first floor. Three bedrooms, a hall bath (due to size) and a master ensuite to include a walk in closet, full bath with 2 vanities, tub, and separate shower.

The lot has a large elm tree in the parkway as well as an existing curb cut for the driveway. The house on the left (north side) is a center gabled farm house. Not much for detail, just simple geometric forms, and built about 1920. The house on the right (south side) is a folk Victorian house, more commonly called a 4 square. Not a bad looking survivor, since it was built in 1909. Our lot is host to a split level from the mid 1950’s. Poorly maintained, it is unfortunately a tear down. Paul Rudolph commented when his Christian Sciences building in Champaign, IL was slated to be razed, “that when a building has outlived its usefulness, tear it down.” I have to admit he is correct and to that extent we are tearing it down. Still it is a sad occasion.

Interesting day. Jim and Gloria spent the afternoon here, and not much was decided. Gloria can’t decide what her farm house should look like. I have to determine this to get an understanding of the interior placement of rooms, and she is uncertain. The function and the amount of rooms we know but the placement is up in the air. So we discuss various styles of homes.

The farm house is an interesting choice, because it compromises many substyles. It could be Victorian, a colonial, or bungalow. So here’s the question. Does the average person really know what a Victorian is? Or a bungalow for that matter? I believe that if a designer is going to design within a style for a client, he better have an understanding of what the client thinks the style is. So with that I am discovering what the farm house style is in context to this project.

What does luck and an evening shooting pool have to do with architecture?

Thanks for the question about how I chose to be an architect. The answer is being in the right place, a little bit of luck, and recognizing a chance to make a life changing decision.
I always wanted to be an architect. I wanted to build things: houses, churches, bridges. Cool stuff. I was good with my hands, could build or fix just about anything and had a knack for seeing things in ways other people didn’t. In high school a guidance counselor encouraged me to pursue engineering a more lucrative option.

So while engineering was not my first choice, it was the choice I followed. This wasn’t a great match. Not that I didn’t have the ability, I did. Not seeing eye-to-eye with the college Dean regarding GPA’s or lack there of it was decided that engineering wasn’t the right choice.

No more classes, I was going into carpentry. I went to shoot pool to pass some time and as luck would have it, the place was empty, except for one man. He offered to teach me billiards and I accepted. Over the course of the next 2 hours, we talked. We talked about college. We talked about billiards. We talked about carpentry. We talked about buildings. His name was Dr. Kim. I figured he was a surgeon. As we were leaving he handed me his card and asked that I come see him in the next few days. Later when I really looked at his card I discovered he was not a medical doctor but held a PhD in Architecture. By the time I visited him, he had pulled all my transcripts, filled out the paperwork, and wrote a letter of recommendation for my transfer into the College of Fine and Applied Arts, School of Architecture. Based on his recommendation I would be admitted… if I wanted. I accepted.