Bear Hill Update

Balance & Order

Just over a year apart these photos show the transformation of the Bear Hill house. Work happens in short stints of a few weeks at a time but it seems like they can finish a tremendous amount of work in not a lot of time. We have stuck to the original plan and over the last few weeks work on the more public face of the house began. The bedroom dormers are done, the roof is finished and they are quickly putting up the bump out.

4 days into the orginal demo

A year later and all new windows

The windows are more about what they do to the interior

Almost unrecognizable from the original photographs, the house now has a strong presence and feels grounded and balanced. exaggerating the trim on the eaves of the roof of a small house helps give it a weightier feel and can look almost cartoonish in drawings but the effect is hard not to notice. What was a house with no character now asserts itself, not to mention all the windows opening up to a nice bucolic view. It is just a shell now but the interior should slowly take shape as funding permits. *girl and I will check out kitchens this weekend while we are IKEA getting little things for our apartment.

Christmas in Pixels

Living in a small apartment and traveling during the holidays leaves little opportunity for a real Christmas tree - especially when your tastes are more modern. So instead, *boy had the wonderful idea of creating an economical, low-maintenence likeness of a tree over our "hearth" (a.k.a. the huge silver radiator). We think it turned out quite nicely.

Its a post-it note pixel tree.



And beneath the tree - Chinese newspaper packages, tied up with string.



Of course *boy had it all planned out for us...



And then we both had the idea for the perfect tree topper. It just needed a little support...



Its a modern angel with wings.

Restoring Balance and Order

About a year ago my parents purchased their neighbors house when they relocated. The original 1860's house was hidden behind tacked on additions and poor maintenance. My parents having purchased their own house about 25 years prior went through a similar exercise of slowly restoring and renovating the house to its current state. While a difficult task, it is something they are familiar with and they see it as a project. The short term goal is to make it an animation studio that will get my dad's work out of their house while the longer term goal is to make a guest house where my brothers (the typographer and the artist) and I (the architect) can come visit without taking over their house. This is where I come in- this is a way for my parents to get some value out of paying for 5 years of architecture school and a chance for me to get experience and built work outside the office. I would say I'm a "contemporary" designer but I believe in being appropriate. That said, the master plan for the house is as follows:

1. Demolition- Tear off poorly build addition and glass sunroom and general demolition to achieve step 2.



2. Generally restore the original structure as much as possible while visually balancing and adding dormers to make the upstairs more functional. this includes straightening the foundation and providing new structure for the second floor, 2 new chimney's, a new roof, replacing most of the windows, new siding, and a screen porch



3. Renovate the interior to update the bathrooms, kitchen, heating, and all the interior finishes.



4. Restore the existing barn



5. Add a new addition in place of the old structure. Note: This is where I am planning my larger design moves including a green roof and a lot of glazing.

Currently the house is in the midst of step 2 with the major structural work done, chimneys built, and now the exterior aesthetic getting a much needed face lift. Originally planned as a much more modest endeavor, the scope and schedule keep accelerating. Here is a before and after of the first real exterior work.

Existing house after first demolition stages

View down from hill at new windows and dormers

Hillside front door with new dormers

Hillside from the road, slightly more finished

Split Personality

I recently went on a tour of the McAllen Building, designed by Office DA, in South Boston. A group of architects from my office were taken to tour this new "green" apartment building and shown around by a real Estate Agent who had no idea what he was getting into. The model unit we were shown was a sloping 2 bedroom unit with an asking price of 1.5M dollars and a direct view of the remnants of the big dig.

The design of this building reminded me of another home of a different kind. Steven Holl's Y House located in the remote Catskill Mountains in New York.
City living has it's benefits but you be the judge: (Y House at left McAllen right)

At $400,000 building price the Y House looks like a bargain. Looking at the latest and greatest in apartment living and actually owning real estate made me think about what I really want. I love the city, the people, and the culture but I also love nature, solitude, and relaxation. I don't believe in a middle ground so for the time being I will live in the city and visit the country and one day, maybe when I want to own or build something it will be the reverse.

All photos from the Mcallen tour were taken by *girl and these are not the best shots.

His

What does this drawing say about me? It might say I live in a 450SF apartment with a bay window and a galley kitchen on the second floor of a larger apartment building; it might also say I am a slightly compulsive architect who measured his new apartment - including the slight angle in the far closet wall - prior to moving in. After that, I drew all my existing furniture and some planned purchases in order to design my new home. I guess it is a little of both.

*girl happens to live one slippery stair and a fire door away in a slightly different 1 bedroom apartment on the opposite side of the building. She gets morning light on her plants outside the kitchen and I get afternoon light cutting across the bay windows. Between the two of us, there have and will be many home projects and countless hours scouring the Internet for home hbrdshry. I'm currently working on my man room and *girl and I are preparing to redo her bedroom (for the second time) for very good reasons. This is just the first of many home-related posts to come. Stay tuned for the very exciting post from *girl: "Oops, I went to Ikea with *boy to help pick chocolate-colored curtains and bought a yellow four-poster bed."