Anyone here into Architecture/Design??

[speedracer]

Just wondering if there is anyone else that shares my love of both architecture and cars??? I tend to think that people who like the smooth lines of a Porsche or BMW might also enjoy the lines of lets say an Eichler or Koenig. Any thoughts??

[84porsche]

I actually love architecture. I was going to major in it before accounting (long story) but for now I will just admire the beauty of it. Frank Lloyd Wright has designed some incredible designs. It is truly amazing the thoughts and hearts that go into the designs of a buildings (and or cars).

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Or Calatrava or Gehry, etc. Yes, I'm an architect (still apprenticing technically - still working on my registration). There are actually quite a few guys into architecture / design that love Porsche and BMW. Three of my coworkers at the firm where I am now own BMWs; there's another that works upstairs at another firm with a nicely restored 356 and another (probably one of the principals) with a GT3 - I've met several. I guess the aesthetic just appeals to us design types for some reason. . .

[techweenie]

Yes. Into architecture and lucky enough to live in So Cal where FLW, his son, Schindler, Neutra, Soriano, Buff & Hensman, etc. all worked and left great legacies. I volunteered with the group working to preserve the Ennis-Brown house.

I've noticed that architects I know are drawn to the lines of the 911 (pun intended).

[MFAFF]

Only of handful of 911s in this particular architecture practice....
we do all appreciate the lines of the 911, its one of the better design icons...

I live and work in London, home to many great buildings, past present and future. Especially as we have had a hand in many of them.

[tabs]

How bout Wallace Neff...FLW...Prairie School..... Wallace Smiths Spanish Colonial Revivial.

I got into a world of **** on another Board for even wanting to discuss anything along these lines....

I have always wanted to build a custom home, to creat a space that is uniquiely mine.

[MFAFF]

Building or getting your own built is a painful experience....

[tabs]

No pain no gain.....I've got a good friend who is a retired Electrical Contractor. He acts as a Super/general contractor for owner /builders (5000 to 8000 sq ft) and has remodeled several homes that he has owned, as something to keep himself busy and put a few $$$$ in his pocket.

While I have bought ready made house to this point, I have subcontrated out my pool, back yard landscaping and interior design on my previous home in CA.

So with my freinds help, I am ready for the challenge and besides what else do I have to do thats better to do than something constructive...

[MFAFF]

Just a nickel's worth of advice....do not work with friends on your own house they will become ex-friends pretty quickly.

I have refused to work for friends and family professionally....offered advice and spent a lot of time going over other architects' drawings and contractors proposals for them to ensure they understood what was drawn written etc, but never in a position to harm either their mental or financial healths.

Having been the architect for individual clietns I have seen the most painful scenes within families and couples as the wrestle with the issues of their lives.

Get an architect who you ihe to do a service and treats you professionally. If it all goes pearshaped then you have a contract in place and can pursue correct legal avenues as needed. The same with contractors.

Sure it will cost you additional $$$ over a using friends and acquaintences if it all goes smoothly but it will cost you less if it goes wrong...

Good luck.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Well. . . you just have to make them understand that business is business - don't be afraid to charge them and don't let the owners become overly fickle. A lot of architects (myself included) don't care to do a lot of residential work because the owners are horrendously fickle and keep changing their minds on every last little thing. The way around this is to make it VERY clear (and put it in the contract) that "owner-directed design revisions past Point X are considered 'extras' and subject to additional fee at the standard hourly rate" - and don't be afraid to hold them to it! Additionally, a lot of residences require almost the same amount of work as a small-to-mid-sized commercial building, only you typically are going to get far less fee - thus, a lot of architects don't bother - you have to pay the bills, right?

Overall though, balance is good. Right now housing is a HUGE problem - particularly in the LA area and most particularly "affordable" housing for middle class families. I'm personally intrigued by the problem of the death of the middle class home; it seems that government, planning, and design efforts all go to "high-end" residential (better fee) when it's free-market driven or to "affordable" low-income housing when it's part of urban renewal, charitable, or government-assisted projects. Like so many other things in our society, the middle class gets the door slammed in their faces and left out in the cold. Prices for modest, "middle class" single family homes (or even multi-family homes) in the city are upwards of half a million dollars now and most of them are architecturally sterile and usually in some state of disrepair. It's truly sad, but only the super poor or super wealthy get to see the skills of true "architecture" applied to their residences any more. The middle class is left with crap-looking, developer-designed junk that costs an outrageously disproportionate amount of their income. Many middle-class people can't ever afford their own places now and are forced to either flee the city entirely or be stuck in a perpetual "rental rut". $500K+ for a combined household income of $100K or less is not doable after other expenses are considered - it's a real problem facing us today and very few people are doing anything about it!

Anyway, this is one of the areas I'm trying to put a little outside pro-bono work into. I'm considering volunteering at Arcosanti in AZ later this year to examine alternative solutions to the detached home (this was the big Wright-versus-Soleri difference in philosophy). The real answer to the "new" middle class home is probably somewhere in the middle - or a combination of the two. But it had better start getting addressed soon or there won't be a middle class left, at least not in Southern California!

Anyway, enough ranting - to make a long story short, residential design is certainly noble and poses its own set of highly interesting architectural problems that are worthy of pursuit, it is just typically not economically worthwhile to do so as a primary focus of an individual or firm. As a supplement, it's great. As a staple, you'll be on the street with a tin can in your hand bumming people for spare change unless you're EXTREMELY lucky!

Back to the original topic - it's true that a lot of architects like the 911s also. . . I personally think the 911 has one of the most beautiful lines of any car ever made. It's elegant, distinctive, functional, etc. Maybe more architects don't have 911s because they simply can't afford them! A bit tongue-in-cheek, but you see the point. How many "working" architects can really afford a $100K car? I'll eventually own one (I'm shooting for this time next year) but it'll be an older 911SC or early Carerra that can be had for about $20K or so and I can work on myself.

[MFAFF]

You explain so well why I came back to the UK to have a decent job as an architect....most of the work in the US was desperately bad and poorly paid to boot.

Sorry to say that the job, both in terms of the quality of work and the quality of the pay package are better here than there.

We manage a fair amount of residential stuff here. A few private homes and a growing sector of developer projects. Its hard getting commercial building fee rates for residential, let alone the actual fee needed. But we manage quite well. A few burnt fingers along the way.....

I tend to agree that the 'middle-class' single family unit faces an uncertain future in terms of architectural desirability. But the real reason behind that is not the money.....its mainly down to us. For too long we have ignored the basic necessity of providing good quality service to the middle class in an accessible manner.

After all how many of our friends would actually approach an architect to do work on their home?
How often to you hear horror stories about architects making basic mistakes and not being professional...as often as you hear about bad mechanics....
Certainly here there is little demand for this type of work for architects other than sole practitioners etc who by and large are those least able to deliver smoothly because they are alone....in an area where you need the bakc up of a staffed office.

As for working for friends or family...both friends and family are too precious to put at risk, contracts or not. Also in order to do the job crrectly you have to know more about their lives than they do and its usually more than I want to know about my friends....

A few of us manage to run 911, all pre 964 cars, whilst working here, but truth be told its not exaclty every one's cup of tea.
Judging by the umber of SUVs, new Audis and BMWs its not the money that deters them.

[kach22i]

I am an architect................low paying profession, not many of us can afford our own high brow taste.

Just about every architect I have worked for and worked with loved Porsche's, Mustang's, and aircraft too.

When I first picked up my 911, I sent out the below pictures and got a lot of attention for it. Note: the bottom picture is a house/addition on a lake.................three ZBA meetings, one because the client would not listen to me, the second to get approval, the third because the neighbors complained enough for a stop order. My fee stayed the same, residential is a tough gig.

[tabs]

Hmmmm isn't it interesting that when I talk about art, design....Tapio Wirkala, Venini, Alan Adler,...there is a built in audience that understands what the fk I'm talking about....

One of the things I do when I travel is to visit historic homes in the area. I also have a little hobby here visiting the different home builders Model Homes. When Iwas living in SO CA I always made a point of visiting the Pasadena Showcase Home, or any HOme Tours that were going on.

One thing I can say about LV is that the architechture here is BAD....Bad Taste is the order of the day both in design and interior decorating. Gauche is the word for it....I took a trip over the hill to Boulder City and drove around an area of custom homes with lake views. I saw exactly 2 homes that I thought were clean. One was a Desert meets Modern design where the desert landscaping was on the minimialist side, just beautiful. The other was more of a Contemporary Spanish Colonial Revival home that is prevalent here in LV.

With the price of an acre of Developed land going for 500K to 600K here in LV...I might as well go back to CA and look. At least the weather wouldn't be so hot....

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Both LV and Phoenix are getting beyond the means of normal people now too - I suspect the next round of homes for middle-class types will be smaller desert communities like Palmdale / Victorville / Daggett.

[tabs]

If you allready own a house, you are in the game. U can trade your house for another one...the people who the price increase hurts are those who don't own....their means of entering into the market is getting slimmer.

Another point that was brought up long ago, is how many people who own homes could afford to buy them at the current market values. If all those Million $ homes hit the market at once they wouldn't be trading at a million...but somewhat less.

All the price increases is an illusion to someone who allready owns...your trading an apple for an apple if U decide to sell, the only way to gain is to go and buy an orange somewhere else
instead.

So boyz U ain't really any richer than before, all you really got is more zeros at the end of the equation.

[pwd72s]

Maybe I'm spilling too many beans here...anybody heard of a Swiss Architect named Ernst Egli?

[woodman]

As a Lscp Arch i got to work on Gehry's Disney Concert Hall. The most insane building I've ever seen constructed. Absolute blast to execute our scope of work.

Don't do much residential, but do a ton of malls, mixed use (live/work included) resort. Oh, and one Wal-mart. Heh.

Overworked at the moment...

[MFAFF]

Egli sounds familiar....connection?

Disney Concert Hall. Interesting Building to say the least.
I'll refrain form commenting on its merits...or lack of them...
Had the pleasure of Gehry working with us recently on a project in Europe. Agian interesting is the best word.

As to middle-class homes perhaps the inevitable reality is hte single family homes on their own plots are no longer viaable for this type of accommodation.
Over here it has long been realised that the demand for homes in urban areas has exceeded the land capacity. So apartment blocks are the solution, no ideal but as the quality of these increases they get better and better...both in terms of architecture and building but also in theri social perception. Over here living in a 'condo' in town is as much a status symbol as an individual house with the additional advantae of portage, health club parking etc etc....

Keeps us busy.

I know the feeling of being overworked....

[kach22i]

Yea, you guys are very well read, I am humbled by the names your are tossing around.

The project of mine above that I teamed up with another architect to do, is a very small version of new Urbanism or live/work. It sits on 20 acres not 200 as Andre Duany would have it.

My point is that if you sit on any bar stool, or go to just about any party; Joe average will quickly wander into talking about Urban Design. I forgive people for doing so, that is mixing up Urban Design with Architectural design as they are inseperable.

It is a poor building that does not consider it's site, and it's contex in the urban landscape. Design is more than ideas and concepts being explored, it's how it comes all together.

[pwd72s]

Ernst Egli...we have a board member who is married to an architect. They are enduring a restoration of an Egli designed home, built in '31. They hope to move in soon. With this architect supervising the restoration, you can be sure things are being done the right way!!