Does anyone hear it?
Apparently so! I just lost a good chunk of one of the larger oaks in the back yard. Hopefully we’ll be able to borrow a friend’s chainsaw this weekend. Any volunteers want to come help? You can have as much firewood as you want in exchange!
An amusing bit of synchronicity just happened today… In checking out the Triangle Modernist Houses web site, I came across a tidbit of news about the next Modern Mini-Tour. It will feature the Dwell NextHouse in Hillsborough North Carolina. This is particularly amusing, since I was in the midst of scanning images from the initial NextHouse tour for the purposes of writing my own little critique of the previous tour. Having seen the house immediately after construction was completed, it will be interesting to see how it has aged (and if any of the issues the house seemed to have at the time of the initial tour have been remedied.)
I’ll be scanning the remainder of my photos from the first tour this evening, and hopefully will get around to cropping, cleaning up, and posting those here soon!
In doing a little research today I came across an interesting article in the Washington Post about Architects, and their fees. Being in the field of Architecture I have a pretty good idea of what most Architects cost, and where my firm lies within that spectrum… but there is one consistent theme I have found: Most clients don’t know what to expect for fees, and they don’t understand how we determine our fees.
If you shop around, you will find that the standard percentage fee varies from firm to firm, as do the standard services offered. In the Washington area, the standard fee can be anywhere from 8 to 18 percent of construction cost.
There is a lot more in the article which gives a good, albeit brief, look at what Architect’s do, and what we cost.
There are hints on TMH about an “October Tour.” I attended George’s tour in May, as well as the one just recently in August. Of course I plan on attending this tour as well. Also I’m planning on getting a look at Terminal 2 as soon as physically possible, and will definitely be checking out Raleigh Wide Open 3.
As if all this cool Architecture stuff wasn’t enough, there is stuff going on here at the house as well. With Julie’s help I was able to insulate the storage room (future pantry) today. Next on the list for the pantry is to rework the exterior door so that it no longer opens, and build the floor. Also, Julie starts her fall semester tomorrow which will be the beginning of her heavier presence within the schools, and followed by her full time student teaching in the spring.
Also, on an archival note, we came across the photos I took of the Dwell NextHouse tour a while back… Since this tour was much older I won’t attempt to cover it as part of my NewRaleigh contributions, however, I do think I’ll do a brief post here about it as well as a bit of cherry-picking of my favorite photos. So that should be coming up here in the next couple weeks as well.
Triangle Modernist Houses has teamed up with area Realtors to bring yet another recent piece of Modernist Residential Architecture to the public, and I have again worked with the folks over at NewRaleigh to put together an article complete with 60 photographs attempting to capture the essence of the McCowan residence. The article can be found here.
I have also uploaded all the photos here, for your enjoyment and comment. The tour was a wonderful experience, and it’s something I hope TMH keeps doing. These brief tours have provided me a unique opportunity to write about architecture, and I’d like to take it further though I’m not sure how just yet. Being taught by several very talented architects who are also writers while at NC State’s College of Design may be a factor in my enjoyment of writing about Architecture. In fact, on my shelf I have 3 books by 2 of my old professors that I refer to quite regularly for inspiration and clarity at different points in the design process.
As a bonus, Saturday was the first time in recent memory that I met multiple new people in a non-work setting in quite some time…. It was also the first time I’ve had an opportunity to eat at Elmo’s Diner since I left BuildSense! (For the record, I highly recommend the Cinnamon-Apple and Cream Cheese stuffed French Toast if you go. They do serve breakfast anytime.)
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