Dwell magazine is an excellent resource covering modern design and architecture.  From housewares to large condo projects, they cover the full spectrum of housing-related design.  In fact, when my wife and I started planning our remodel we bought stacks of old Dwell magazines from Half Price Books.  The photos we found were invaluable in clarifying our design goals and conveying them to our architect. 

Check out the Dwell – New Homes section of the website for 80+ homes featured in the magazine.

As Dwell is one of the more widely circulated modern design magazines, it’s always nice to see coverage of Austin projects and architects.  This month a project in Cleburne, TX, designed by Austin’s MJ Neal is featured:

 Read the Full Story: Dwell - Lone Star   (via Statesman.com Design Notebook)

Of course, several other Austin architects have also been featured in Dwell:

Rick Black Architect – Academy Addition - Dwell – Double Time

Amy Dempsey – Santa Rosa - Dwell – A Lot for a Little

I wasn’t able to find this one on the Dwell website, but I know I’ve seen Cottam Hargrave’s Ranch House in the magazine:

I’m sure I missed a few, and this is a just small representation of the talent we have in our town – and a nice primer for next month’s AIA tour.

I have posted a few times regarding the McMansion ordinance:

• McMansion Ordinance Tweaks Possible
• All McMansion topics

The Austin Contrarian blog has better covered the topic: Austin Contrarian – McMansion

I am currently remodeling my own home which is within the ring, so I have personal experience in dealing with the ordinance.  It didn’t really affect our design, however it did add extra time and expense to the permitting process.

Many people disagree as to the effectiveness of these new rules.  I maintain that without a clear statement of the goals of the ordinance, we can’t really measure its success.

However, we can examine the consequences of these rule changes.  For example, some say the McMansion ordinance makes it more difficult to build a duplex.  We could evaluate if duplex construction permit applications have decreased, or if duplex sized lots have decreased in price.  Etc…

In the category of “unintended consequences”, one question I have discussed with friends, architects, builders, and neighbors –

Does the McMansion ordinance motivate developers to max-out their projects?

I’d love to see the data to support an answer.  In the meantime, Austin Contrarian has a great example of what this could look like:

Check out his post for details on how this property meets McMansion requirements.

Solar panels are growing in popularity in Austin as we have many sunny days as well as significant rebates from Austin Energy.

This question often comes up when I visit homes with buyers.  “Does this home have good potential for solar power generation?”  Obviously there are several factors:

1. Roof size, angle, and orientation
2. Roof shading from nearby trees and structures
3. Deed restrictions
4. Available rebates

Items 2 – 4 can be quickly determined.  However, calculating the solar power generation potential is a bit more complicated as it depends on the area, angle, and orientation of the roof (Item #1 above).  Of course the path of the sun changes through the year, which should also be taken into account for proper estimation. 

Sounds like a fun exercise right?  Well, if you’d rather avoid the calculation there is a handy website that will take care of it for you.  Check it out: www.roofray.com

With this website all you have to do is find the home on Google Maps and draw the area where the solar panel array would be installed.  You then set the orientation and angle and Roofray does the rest.  Here is an example:

With this information the website can calculate your monthly power generation:

As well as generate a cost-benefit analysis based on your average utility bill and the utility rates for your area.  Here is the break even calculation from my sample report (unfortunately they don’t include our rebate program):

If you’re considering solar, check it out!

Here’s another great resource for Austinites:

Sanctuary is a new shop in the Westlake area that has a great mix of gifts, art, and accessories, many of which are made by local artists.  My friend Hanna opened the store about a month ago and has done an amazing job of getting the word out through fun open-house parties.  Sanctuary will host another party this Wednesday (8/6/08):

Summer Beauty Party at Sanctuary – August 6, 2008

Summer is at its peak! Bring your girlfriends and cool off at Sanctuary with refreshing cocktails and sweet cupcakes from Polkadots Cupcake Factory!

You can try on all the fabulous lip colors from Rae Cosmetics and beautiful new designs from Laura Elizabeth Jewelry.

DATE: Wednesday August 6th

TIME: 6-9 pm

LOCATION: 3663 Bee Caves Road 4d, Westlake Hills, Texas 78746

Here is their website with full details: Sanctuary Home.Bath.Garden – Events

Here is a map:

View Larger Map

Attention Austin artists, architects, designers, creative’s, and Sketchup jockeys – Dwell and Sketchup are holding a little competition:

Design Your Dwelling Competition

Here is their description:

What does it mean to feel at home in the modern world? Dwell & Google SketchUp challenge you to explore what this means to you in the "Design Your Dwelling" design competition featuring Google SketchUp software.

Most people define their home as a place where they feel comfortable and secure. But what does that actually look like? What would make it personal to you? Is it scale, materials, sustainability, environment? Only you know for sure. Entry period is July 3-August 31, 2008.

Check out this website for competition details: Design Your Dwelling

Grand Prize Details

Besides the pride and prestige of winning, the grand prize sounds like a lot of fun:

On September 12th the competition winner will be flown to San Francisco, California to join Dwell editors for lunch at the Dwell offices in San Francisco, tour the "site" of their Dwell home, and take the Dwell/AIA architecture home tours in San Francisco. In addition, a physical 3D model of their winning home will be created and displayed in the Dwell headquarters and then gifted to the winner. Airfare will be provided by Google SketchUp and two nights accommodation in San Francisco will be provided by Dwell.

Sketchup Resources

There are several powerful 3d design tools in the marketplace.  Sketchup stands out because it is not only capable of rendering complex and detailed spaces, but it is also very easy to learn.  There are many online resources to help you get started.  Here are a couple:

• 3D Basecamp 2008 Presentations
• Google Sketchup Tutorials

Feel free to add others in the comments.  Let me know if you enter the contest and I’ll post your work here.  Good luck!

This is the third post about my modern remodel in Austin, Texas. Click here for all ‘My Remodel’ posts.

As I covered in the Home Search post, we considered our remodeling options when we purchased our home.  We found a small home on a big-enough lot and began to plan our project.

Starting Point

The original home sits towards the front of a long, narrow city-size lot with homes on either side.  There are several medium sized trees on the property and one large Elm on the North property line, all of which shade the rear of the house (West) from the afternoon sun.  Here’s a top view of my rough model (North is up):

While the existing garage was moments away from collapse, the house was structurally sound.  We wanted to re-use as much of it as possible.  Here is the floorplan:

You can see that the home was originally a 3 bedroom 1 bath with a small living room and kitchen.  We think the rear addition was a closed-in back-porch that was completed in the 1970’s or 1980’s.  It wasn’t well built, and had several structural issues. 

Here are some photos of the original house:

Design Goals – Fashion and Function

With a long and narrow lot, an existing house, and several good sized trees, we knew our remodel/addition design would be challenging.  We did our best to keep our program simple and to stay open to our architect’s ideas.  Here is a list of our ‘functional’ criteria:

• Open and connected common areas (living, dining, kitchen …)
• Strong connection to the outdoors (lots of glass, outdoor living)
• Energy efficient design (minimize solar heat gain, maximize breeze …)
• Main floor master and guest bedrooms
• Secluded office (I like quiet, my wife likes to hide my mess, win-win)
• Option for separate studio and workshop

As for fashion, our tastes lean towards Modern and MCM architecture/design, however we also wanted our home to relate to the design elements of our neighborhood (mostly Craftsman and some Victorian).  An interesting challenge, so we left this up to our architect :).  Lets see how we did before this post gets any longer.

Read the rest of this entry »

I work with many people who are looking for what I call a ‘property with potential.’  This is a house or a duplex that may not fully meet their needs today, but has the potential to be made into their dream home.  Of course, some assembly is required :).

One such client is now going through the design process on their dream home.  Last year we found their perfect ‘property with potential’ – a large lot near downtown with a livable but dilapidated house.

They are working on the design with Cottam Hargrave, and would love some input from others who are interested in design and modern architecture.  They are very open to feedback and would appreciate your thoughts and constructive criticism.

Design Feedback Contest

They have received some great feedback via posting on ModernAustin, however I’m hoping to get a few more useful opinions for them.  In fact, I’ll sweeten the deal by offering a $25 gift certificate to Amazon.com to the best comment, as selected by my clients.

If my readers don’t participate I’m open to awarding the prize to one of Ben’s commenter’s, but I hope I don’t have to do that!  Share your thoughts and you could earn Amazon spending money (my favorite kind).

Here are a few thumbnails of the design, but please see Ben’s Flickr set for the full-size drawings.  Email me if you have trouble viewing the design files.

Here is another link to Ben’s Flickr set of the design.  Add your constructive comment below and you can win a $25 Amazon.com gift certificate. I will accept entries until July 15, at midnight.

Update: The winner is…

Thanks to those who provided input on the design. See below for my clients’ thoughts. They appreciated all of the detailed input and suggested I offer the prize to SRC. So congratulations SRC! The check is in the mail.