Not long after the building was completed we had a deck party and one of the guests happened to be a firefighter. We explained the ship-ladder situation to her; that the emergency glass must be broken to get the key to open the lock to open the gate to access the ladder. She laughed and said “I wouldn’t do any of that, I’d just climb over the gate.”

This put us at ease about two things. First, it validated our opinion that the entire building code enforced sequence was nonsensical. And second, that our firefighters are rational problem solvers.  (Thanks firefighters!)

What doesn’t provide us peace of mind is that, while minor, this situation is a crystallization of a bigger nonsensical picture; too often the building code requirements contradict common sense. This is harmful on many levels:

    The financial and time implications on our ship-ladder incident were minimal, but scale this logic up a few notches and it gets into real money with serious schedule impacts.

   Contradicting common sense confuses people; homeowners, business owners, and tenants fail to find value in the building code when the requirements don’t add up to something that has a direct relationship to “safeguarding public health and safety”. When people don’t see the value in building codes they tend to favor the loopholes.

    It’s a poor use of people’s time. Most everyone likes doing something useful, something of value. The hard-working individuals at the building department are no different. It must be frustrating to work on building codes that contradict common sense or conflict with other codes.

    It’s producing visual pollution. Our built-environment has become a victim of warning signs and over-designed safety measures.

    Ultimately, it’s not producing a better, safer built-environment. It’s solving granular issues without looking at the whole picture.

Obviously building codes were originally put into place for good reasons: life safety, the health of our built-environment, solving disputes, keeping the peace, and so on. And we wouldn’t want to operate without regulation, but something is amiss with the current state of most building codes –we’ve gone off the rails.

As architects and builders we care immensely about the state of our built-environment and the nature of the building codes that are part of our everyday lives. And while working toward the evolution of a more purposeful building code is an agenda often met with great resistance, it’s precisely the architects and builders who need to lead the charge –it’s in our court. We are the mediators between the public and the building code.

We’ve been scratching our heads a lot on this one and we’ve come up with 5 solutions to make for a better building code. Granted, some of them are bold suggestions requiring major social shifts; but, nonetheless, here’s what we think needs to happen for the building code to become a sensible, purposeful, and respectable document again:

    Soft eyes; jurisdictions need to take the big picture into consideration before implementing building codes that address granular issues. They need to use their “soft eyes” as we like to say.

   Vertical communication; there needs to be more communication between the people writing/enforcing the building codes and the people in the field building/using/designing the built-environment. The code writers need to talk with the fire fighters.

   Lawsuits need to be replaced with conversations (refer to major social shifts above). A quick review of just about any chapter in the building code and it’s painfully evident that a significant amount of the codes were originally written as a response to someone suing someone else over something that could have been resolved through a conversation.

   Fewer building codes and more responsibility. Architects need to take full accountability for their designs. Too many codes are being written to regulate and penalize architects who submit poorly conceived designs or half-baked permit documents. Professionals who are accountable and responsible shouldn’t need a 4.5” thick binder telling them how to design. (Did we mention that some major social shifts are needed to get us out of this conundrum?)

    Less paperwork; the amount of submittals, forms, and documents required to obtain a building permit in most urban areas has become entirely ridiculous. Spending more time on the permit submittal forms than on the architecture itself should be a red flag to architects and building departments alike. It is possible to maintain regulation of the built-environment without nearly this much paperwork.

So there are our top 5 ideas for a more purposeful building code; feel free to add yours. Take ‘em, leave ‘em, counter-offer or laugh at them. Either way, they are more realistic than the notion of fire fighters ever using the key and gate to access our roof.

Cheers from Team BUILD

If you haven’t had the pleasure of staying at one of the four ACE Hotels around the country, we highly recommend booking your next vacation based on the hotel first and the location second. For architects, designers and well, anyone design-conscious, staying at an ACE Hotel is an exploration in fresh ideas and smart implementations. Every time you turn a corner, enter a new room, or decide to hit the gym, you are pleasantly surprised with a dose of innovative design. An important part of the design chemistry is that there’s usually clever signage that gives your day that little boost of happiness.

As far as design ideas go, simple little signs like these might be the most bang for design buck that we’ve ever experienced. For the cost of some rub-on letters, a designer can create instant happiness. It’s hard to ignore the trouble that some interiors go to (and exteriors for that matter) trying to evoke the joy that could have just as easily been achieved from a sentence or two. It’s witty, attenuated and quite modern, really.

We’re big fans of scrappy solutions, cost-effective design ideas, and getting out of the established design ruts; and these simple little (and nearly free) signs grabbed our attention from the moment we entered an ACE Hotel. Today’s post is a gallery celebrating what we consider to be a brilliant design strategy.

Cheers and see you at the ACE –we’ll be the ones at the bar tipping back Manhattans.

[Image Credit: futagami-imono.co.jp]

1. Accessorizable.  An array of sculptural, yet functional, artifacts can be found among the pages of the Japanese shop Futagami. Trivets and bottle openers never looked so good just sitting there.  The Good Flock out of Portland creates biodegradable goods and a variety of Apple accessories for the detail- and life-cycle-oriented.  Both can also be found at Seattle’s newest design boutique: O B J E C T .

[Image Credit: flickr.com/sahafoto]

2. Chronological :: Independent design outfits like Seattle-based Free Time Industries have deviated from the traditional grid calendar model to develop the 2012 Naturalist Almanac based on Mayan Calendar. Arranged radially, and designed to be rotated 90 degrees each season, it’s an alluring piece of graphic art, dense with seasonal and celestial information to navigate through the new year. Mounting hardware included. Find it online, or at O B J E C T. For more day markers with a design bend, mining Etsy for gems like the Modern Chair Calendar requires little more than a few modernist keywords.

[Image Credit: muji.us]

2. Durable. Here in the Northwest, we’re constantly thinking about, talking about, and dealing with the weather. A temperate climate with unpredictable weather patterns means we’re outside often, but might need that extra layer of protection whether it’s a scarf, umbrella, or gloves. We’re fond of  Pare Umbrella’s line for its stylish utility venturing beyond basic black.  Additional travel and outerwear accessories are abundant on MUJI USA’s online shop, like the smartly designed Touchscreen Gloves.  Though retail shops stateside are only in New York City, we’re thankful the internet can bridge the gap until a brick-and-mortar shop lands in Seattle.

[Image Credit: modernistcuisine.com]

3. Inspirational. Design films along the lines of  Visual Acoustics and the latest Build Book Report offer fodder for endless inspiration. For the modern food lover: the five-volume Modernist Cuisine hasn’t likely slipped under anyone’s radar, and equally unlikely to have slipped onto anyone’s bookshelf  without significant fanfare. For a slightly more lightweight stocking stuffer, check local bookshops like Seattle’s Book Larder for books and events for the modern cook in your life.

[Image Credit: skilletstreetfood.com]

4. Edible. Beyond the standby edible gifts ranging from fruit baskets to meat and cheese assortments, the options for consumable gifts has expanded to include items for the discerning palate, design and otherwise. The now ubiquitous Skillet bacon spread now consists of a whole suite of jarred spreads and sauces. Gourmet food shops along the lines of picnic: a food+wine boutique can often provide a customized edible gift packages. And for the natural sweet tooth, Jonboy Caramels is a go-to for hand-crafted, well-packaged caramels with seasonal flavors. Available at various Farmers Markets and at their online shop.

[Image Credit: etsy.com/shop/tickerfinch]

5. Subscribable. For the art and literature lover, new or renewed subscriptions to a favorite museum like the Seattle Art Museum (a timely gift for the Gaugin enthusiast) or a lecture series package through Seattle Arts & Lectures is both easy and thoughtful. Not to mention, there’s no clutter involved. Limited edition periodicals in the vein of Filter Literary Journal will sate any bookish type with a soft-spot for the handmade. And for a regular dose of design-heavy creative inspiration with a local voice, each issue of Arcade Magazine provides just that. And better yet, they’ve extended their subscription promotion until 12/02/11. See their Facebook page for details.

[Image Credit: etsy.com/shop/thepikestreetpress]

6. Postable. Regardless of what you might have heard, corresponding via good old fashioned snail mail is nowhere near over. Paper goods and letterpress are well and alive, with limitless options at local shops in every city. The Pike Street Press on Seattle’s waterfront offers customized letterpress services as well as a gallery of prints for sale and a retail shop. Paper Hammer is another favorite letterpress retailer as is Paperhaus for structured paper goods.

[Image Credit: nambe.com]

7. Illuminable.  Though we now live in an age where nearly everyone we know is wired, connected, online, or plugged in, no amount of gadgetry can replace the classic wax and wick. The options for candle-holders  have migrated beyond mere ornament toward objects of beauty. The  Nambé Illume Menorah and the Spin Table Candelabra caught our eye as a sharp and successful elevation of the traditional into modern classics.

[Image Credit: flickr.com/sahafoto]

8. Sustainable. For the green thumb in your life, there’s the inventive Garden Bon Bons box of non-edible garden truffles. Technically speaking. These compostable seed bombs are shaped like candy and packaged in groupings like Slow Drinks and Herbal Teas for eventual eating and drinking…after the plants have grown. For those with a penchant for lower maintenance plant life,  the recycled glass terrariums like those found at Butter Home strike a clean balance between the natural and the controlled, injecting an accent of green into indoor spaces. Find plants to be housed within at your nearest local greenery purveyor like The Palm Room.

[Image Credit: flickr.com/sahafoto]

10. Adornable. Keeping things simple, PERHACS uses magnetic forces to create a clean, interesting necklaces with infinite possibilities. For additional sharp designs in jewelry with a bend towards bold geometries and statements of color, check out the Iacoli  & McCallister collection. Also available at O B J E C T.

Like any good design, these lists are intended as a timeless resource. And we know we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s out there. Share in the comments the hidden gems you’ve discovered.

Cheers,

Team BUILD

We’re city people here at BUILD. We live in the city, we work in the city, and we play in the city. This lifestyle is a choice and we appreciate everything that an urban environment has to offer, both good and bad. The amenities offered by an urban environment, like coffee shops, restaurants and book stores, become necessities for us city dwellers. The coffee shop is our living room <ahem, you’re in my seat> and the book store is our library <what, I have to pay for this?>. Leaving the car at home and bumping into friends on the sidewalk is a part of our daily culture and it makes for an extraordinary quality of life. There’s also the graffiti, the noise and the inevitable shenanigans that accompany urban life –and we take these in stride. We realize that diversity means that not everything is catering to us. It’s precisely this diversity or “pluralism” (if you want to get academic) that makes urbanism so rich with new experiences and ideas.

This concept of pluralism means that everyone is invited to the party; the mom-n-pop shops as well as the big box stores; the mega-coffee chain as well as the independent café; the Chinese restaurant with the numbered menu <#34, hold the MSG> as well as the one-off artisan bistro –and everything in between. It’s this variety in scale, character and ethnicity that makes for a rich “urban fabric” (yes, you will receive college credit for reading this post). From the granular neighborhoods to the large downtown retailers, it all adds up to create one cohesive, productive and engaging environment. The little guys need the big guys and vice versa. When it’s a healthy balance, everybody wins.

Lately, though, we’re noticing a dangerous evolution. The big guys are becoming so large and dominating that they’re endangering the smaller, more diverse shops. The big guys are effectively wiping out the urbanism and (in our opinion) negatively impacting the health of cities. As convenient as it has become, the online shopping so heavily encouraged by the big guys is depleting the city of pedestrian commerce and replacing it with enormous warehouses located in industrial parks that you’ll never see <can I get some help on aisle 97B?>.

For instance, here in Seattle we’ve watched Amazon.com grow into an extremely successful model, maybe too successful, as the existence of smaller bookshops all over town is being threatened. Other cities are already watching the extinction of important smaller shops, like Chicago’s now closed Prairie Avenue Books (previously the most treasured architectural bookstore in the U.S.) This is just one slice of the overall situation, of course, but it tends to split people into two camps; those who desire or rely on diverse urban environments and those who don’t. For those who don’t, no problem –happy lawn mowing and internet shopping to you. However, those of us in the urbanism camp have an important decision to make; do we feel strongly enough about the quality of our cities to financially invest in them? And if so, we need to vote with our money. Aligning our spending with our values supports urbanism and reinforces a high quality of life. If you buy your design books from a mega-online retailer, then shops like Peter Miller Books on 1st avenue here in Seattle will disappear –it’s that simple. Yes, the books at smaller shops tend to be more expensive  –primarily because they’re paying downtown rent and offering that urban experience that you enjoy so much. It requires a different thinking cap; you’re not just buying a book, you’re investing in the city and the experiences around you.

So, needless to say, supporting urbanism is pretty darn important to us and we’re going to wrap up today’s post by putting our money where our mouth is with a $100 gift certificate to Peter Miller Books in Seattle (our favorite design book store). You don’t need to live in Seattle to use it; we can send it to whatever part of the world that you call home and you can visit the shop or phone in your order. Here are the deets:

WHAT: The BUILD LLC Support Urbanism Giveaway
WHEN: Starting October 18th
WHO: Anybody that’s got a twitter account or is willing to start one
HOW: Hop onto our twitter feed and retweet any of our tweets containing the hashtag title #supporturbanism. We’ll be randomly selecting a winner from the retweets and we’ll get some Peter Miller spending power in your hands.
WHY: Because Urbanism Matters
DOES $100 ACTUALLY COVER THE COST OF AN ARCHITECTURE BOOK: We’re not sure, but we’ll let the winner sort that one out.

Cheers from team BUILD

There’s a new addition to the BUILD family and he might be our most challenging client yet. As any of you with kids know, going from a design conscious household to a design conscious household with a baby, tests out the modernist in the best of us. Because when it comes to industrial design for the wee ones, there’s an avalanche of cheap, poorly designed, aesthetically irritating, easily available, publicly accepted baby crap saturating every corner of the market. Outfitting your home for a little one AND sticking to your aesthetic sensibilities takes time, energy and budget priority. While changing a diaper with one eye open at 3am on a screaming infant, do you really care whether your changing table aligns with your philosophy of design? If you’re design conscious you do. You’re the type who spends more time in the MOMA gift shop than the museum itself, you’ll wait in line in the pouring rain for an hour to see Objectified, and you always keep the most recent issue of DWR on hand. You understand that the things you buy are not only a reflection of your aesthetic beliefs, but each and every purchase registers a vote on how you think the world should look and work. You can’t turn it off, even when it comes to baby stuff.

So we thought we’d post a range of well designed household items to satisfy the little person in addition to keeping mom and dad in tune with their visual standards. Don’t worry, we’re not going all baby on you, we’re not going to make a habit of baby stuff posts. There’s plenty of blogs already doing a much better job of covering products for the design savvy tot. It’s just that, when we’re changing a diaper with one eye open at 3am on a screaming infant, we tend to think about this stuff. And we like to share. So here goes.

Bloom Fresco highchair
The highchair may be the most visually prominent baby item in the entire household –even more so than the baby. You’re going to be staring at this thing ALL THE TIME. This is a good place to spend some dough and get a rocket of a highchair. The Bloom Fresco justifies its cost in that it can convert to a bassinet and accommodate the full age range of kiddos.

Custom built co-sleeper by SPD
We searched far and wide for a co-sleeper but everything on the market could be described with the same terms we might use to describe a full diaper. So we put pen to paper and spent some time down at our SPD cabinet shop until we came up with this little solution which stores bedding supplies below as the little one slumbers above –all within arms reach of momma.

Bloom Coco Stylewood Baby Bouncer
The true test of baby stuff is whether it looks good even without the kiddo. The Coco Stylewood Baby Bouncer looks so good you’ll wish it came in an adult size. It’s one slick lounger.

phil & tedsmetoo – Portable Highchair
Functional, minimal, packable and structurally sound. It’s also a great prop to explain the finer points of cantilevers to your dinner guests.

BOB Sport Utility Stroller
Just because it’s not made for the home, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider its impact on your household. While strollers, joggers and buggies are intended for everywhere but inside your pad, you’ll end up with one of these in your visual plane more often than you might think. Make sure it looks good. The Bob Sport Utility Stroller is a smart looking piece of equipment; it’s got some sculptural quality to it and, parked just right in the corner, it can blend in with your Eames Lounger and Noguchi coffee table.

Summer Contour Changing Pad
While it takes a bit more planning, we highly recommend the contour pad and bathroom cabinet combo. 36” extra inches of countertop space in the bathroom allows mom and dad to eighty-six the full changing table and gain back valuable real estate in the home. It keeps the visuals simple and is highly effective. A variety of covers from Carter’s cool it up.

Oeuf Classic Toddler Bed
Simple, clean and modern. That’s all we’re asking for.

Ikea POÄNG birch Rocking chair
You’d think that the proverbial rocking chair would offer up limitless options of clean, simple design, right? Wrong. For reasons as clear as diaper gravy, there are very few good looking rocking chairs on the market –Ikea actually makes one of the better models. It functions perfectly well without being over-designed.

Molly Moon Parker Pillow
Children are, inevitably, accompanied by pillows most of the time. And because the pillows wind up everywhere in the house, they might as well look good. At best, they should be the sort of pillows that look so cool they don’t need to accompany children, at worst they shouldn’t make your mod living room look like a daycare. Our favorite at the moment is the Molly Moon’s Parker Pillow.

Toys
Modernism isn’t just a look, it’s a philosophy. And if you’re going to enroll your little one in the tenets of forward-thinking-ness, the toys have to function as well as look good. For durable, non-plasticky, non-battery toys try Plan Toys for their solid wood construction and Froebel toys for their logistical skill building. When they’re scattered around the living room, at least you’ll look like a smart parent.

Let us know of your favorite baby stuff for the design conscious.
Cheers from team BUILD

Lately, building departments all over the United States have been adopting more stringent energy codes. Which is great, we’re all about intentional design and creating a more sustainable built-environment. The City of Seattle recently approved the new Washington State Energy Code which includes an important requirement that affects most residential projects. Here’s an excerpt from Section 505.1 of the WSEC regarding interior lighting for single-family residential projects:

…a minimum of 50 percent of all luminaries shall be high efficacy luminaries.

What this means is that half of the lights in a new home now need to be fluorescent lights. This is a pretty significant change for one reason in particular: aesthetics. To us, the quality of light from a fluorescent bulb has never matched the quality of light from an incandescent or halogen bulb; and while that may not be a big deal in a garage, it’s a very big deal at the bathroom vanity, the kitchen and the living room. In the past, fluorescent bulbs have been known to produce a cold, blue-ish light uncomplimentary to skin tones, which look better under a warmer, redder light. Replace the lights in your living room with traditional fluorescent tubes and your once cozy lounge will look like a meat locker.

Without a doubt, fluorescent bulbs are far more energy efficient than incandescent or halogen bulbs; but our focus here is on the quality of light. Ever since architecture school, we’ve been hearing that fluorescent bulbs are available in warmer tones –intended to match the light quality of incandescent/halogen bulbs and thereby making fluorescent bulbs or CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) a desirable substitute. We’re always reading claims about fluorescent bulbs matching or exceeding the quality of light produced by incandescent/halogen bulbs. Great! Sign us up! But here’s the dealio –for reasons that are unclear to us, we’ve never personally experienced any of these rival fluorescent bulbs. Having been in the architecture and construction business for decades now, this seems a bit odd to us. It may very well be our own fault; maybe we’ve failed to do our homework in this area, perhaps we haven’t seized the right opportunities in lighting design, or maybe we’ve been sustainably delinquent. Who knows, but we’re not going to let this go on another decade. So without further ado, we’re officially launching <drum roll please> THE FLUORESCENT LIGHTING CHALLENGE; AN INVITATION TO THE CFL SHOW-DOWN.

We’re inviting any and all lighting manufacturers, lighting suppliers, lighting reps, lighting designers, architects, lighting geeks and homeowners alike to submit their fluorescent bulbs directly to the BUILD LLC World Headquarters for a hands-on, comparative quality test. We’ll be replacing the incandescent bulbs in our own homes with the submitted fluorescent bulbs for a period of one week, at which point we’ll post the results. We’re not going to be analyzing the data or crunching the numbers, we already know that fluorescents kick some serious fanny in that department. This show-down is all about the quality and experience of light. The evaluation period may include (but not be limited to) the following questions:

Did we stop cooking at home because we’re tired of eating blue food?
Am I no longer attracted to my significant other?
Do we hang out in a meat locker each evening?

In all seriousness, any bulbs that meet, exceed, or even come close to the quality of our current incandescent and halogen bulbs will be promoted on the BUILDblog and we’ll give a nice healthy shout-out to the companies that produce them.

Here are the specifications for the (4) incandescent/halogen bulbs in question:

1. A 60W 120V Incandescent bulb in a Thomas SL875 wall sconce at the master bathroom.

2. A 100W 120V Incandescent bulb in a George Nelson Criss-Cross Saucer Ceiling Pendant at the dining room.

3. A PAR30 50W Halogen in a Lightolier ceiling mount recessed can light at the living room.

4. A PAR20 Halogen in a Juno T12W Trac-Master track light in the den.

There it is. Got a great fluorescent bulb? Send it on in to the address below and stay tuned. And cheers from team BUILD.

BUILD LLC
5611 University Way NE #100B
Seattle WA 98105

On our last trip to New York City we caught up with our friends at Manifold Architecture Studio in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood. MAS is a forward thinking studio that covers the gamut of design; from conceptual thinking through analytical diagramming, visual imagery, architectural drawings, all the way to built form. Most impressive is how well their design process translates into the final product; the rigor of their investigations and clarity of the diagrams have a clear and necessary relationship with the built work. Today’s post gives some props to the MAS team, we think you’ll enjoy their work.

[All images courtesy of Manifold Architecture Studio]

We love sinking our teeth into a good set of diagrams and MAS has done an exceptional job of generating presentation caliber diagrams for most of their projects.

The M01 house is a particularly clear example of how the architecture process works at MAS, starting with a series of diagrams that shows the reasoning behind the geometrical moves. The diagrams translate into three-dimensional relationships followed by skin studies, interior ergonomic analysis and technical section cuts through the structure. The end product is rational, modern and inspiring. MAS has gone as far to think through the distribution of the prototype and the design is available on Hometta.

The Hirschkron/Camacho Apartment is a particularly sharp remodel that brings warm modernism to a historic building. Once again, the ergonomics and use of space in the built form are a result of clear, useful diagrams and studies.

The Park Place project takes a surgical approach to the remodel of an existing brownstone, creating strategies for retaining original elements of the architecture.

A more detailed look at the MAS diagramming reveals analysis of material, methods and product transportation strategies; the design process is actually informed by realistic transportation constraints. Not only does the diagramming process help communicate the design intent, but it also helps the architect through complicated issues like deployment of pre-fabricated living units.

The last project we’d like to highlight from MAS is currently in the design phase. The project creates inspiring testing pods for a new vehicle design and because of the clear method of visualization, it’s easy to see what the finished product will look like.

We’re big fans of Manifold Architecture Studio; they maintain a thorough design process from start to finish and each step communicates the thinking in a comprehensive and inspiring way. Their finished work is purposeful and looks confidently to the future, while the process uses clarity and reason. Keep your eyes on MAS, you’re going to see some exciting work come out of this studio; in the meantime we recommend heading on over to their site and taking a look at more of their work.

Cheers from team BUILD

Conventionally, specs are prepared in black and white 12 point Times New Roman font on page after tedious eight-and-a-half by eleven page. For a typical residential project there can be hundreds of dreary pages, for a decent size commercial or institutional project, thousands of monotonous pages. A typical spec package for an entire building has enough tiresome bulk to make Ayn Rand’s complete anthology seem like a bedtime story. So while a spec package contains all the useful DNA of a project, it really doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter because nobody reads them; the architects on a project don’t read them, the general contractor doesn’t read them, we’re not even convinced that the spec writers read them. For anyone who claims they read them, we’d assert that type of reading is actually called “skimming”, and that they’re “skimming” only bits anyway.

In a nutshell, specs are a nightmare.

Here’s a typical excerpt that relates to steel framed walls:

Load-Bearing Wall Installation:  Install continuous top and bottom tracks sized to match studs.  Align tracks accurately and securely anchor at corners and ends.  Squarely seat studs against webs of top and bottom tracks.  Space studs as indicated, set plumb, align, and fasten both flanges of studs to top and bottom tracks.”

Snoozer. This information is common knowledge to a builder; the information here serves no purpose other than to cover someone’s arse.

And another on anchor bolts:

Anchor Bolts:  ASTM F 1554, Grade  36, threaded carbon-steel hex-headed, bolts and carbon-steel nuts; and flat, hardened-steel washers; zinc coated by hot-dip process according to ASTM A 153/A 153M, Class C or mechanically deposition according to ASTM B 695, Class 50.

15 Minutes of this and you’ll want to gouge your eyes out with a #2 pencil. Multiply that by 500 pages and a career change is inevitable, or severe abuse of ________ (fill in your favorite vice here).

Which brings up the folks that write these things. Spec writers are professional architects whose job it is to write specifications; at a larger firm, that’s all they do all day, five days a week. It’s never been determined whether spec writers were born dull and subsequently write superbly boring specs, or if years of writing specs makes them dull. It’s a chicken and egg conundrum that modern science simply hasn’t taken on yet. In our experience, spec writers are not only fun-suckers, but they also spend a great deal of their day being grumpy. We know this from our time working at a large corporate firm, whose name shall remain… well NBBJ. The spec writers were always holed away in the basement, probably because nobody wanted them pooping all over their great story about what they did last weekend. The only reason for a young optimistic architect to venture down to the basement and visit the spec writers was self-flagellation. So there they were, in the basement writing specs all day. No daylight and no office talk around the water cooler –probably because they knew they’d just poop all over each other’s stories. But we digress, where were we? Ah yes, specs are boring and nobody reads them.

To us it doesn’t make any sense to generate something that no one will ever read. Producing a document simply to CYA (cover your ass) isn’t a very effective use of resources either –we’d rather just solve the problem before finger pointing becomes an issue. So for residential projects and small commercial projects we’ve been using a different system over the years; and after 10 years of designing and building, it works. Here’s our system:

1. Get the critical information on the drawings; this includes materials, structural sizes, and connections. When the information doesn’t fit on the drawing, it’s typically an indication to us that the design is too complicated.

2. 3-Dimensional drawings communicate volumes more than words on paper. When needed, break out of the 2D protocols and explain the design assembly in axon. The drawing below explains the assembly of a simple cabinet box. It would take a small book to accurately describe this assembly with only words.

3. Spreadsheets are easier to read than specifications. For details like finishes, we like to make a simple and straight-forward spreadsheet that becomes part of the construction documents. A spreadsheet matrix like the one below allows the builder to compare and reference the finishes from one part of the structure to another with ease.

4. Collect specifications as cut-sheets and organize them into a binder. The binder is organized with the same system as Suites and Master Spec. The photos, graphics and diagrams common with most cut-sheets make the information much easier to sort through and get answers from. Avery makes numbered dividers that can be used with a 3 ring binder (we like to use recycled binders from ReBinder). A well organized binder also makes a good reference for the next project.

5. Work closely with the general contractor – schedule regular site visits to answer questions and work through issues.  Be available to review shop drawings for things that are more complicated and need to be communicated back from a fabricator to the Architect and Builder (which by the way, spec writing doesn’t alleviate the need for shop drawings further supporting our case here). This might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many architects simply drop off drawings (or specs) on a job site and expect the GC to “figure it out”. We like to refer to architects like this as “kid’s playing”.

There it is. If it sounds useful, use it. If you find holes in our system, call them out. If you’ve got a better system, share it. A rising tide raises all boats.

Cheers from team BUILD.

Very recently, two condominium flats opened up in our Park Modern project. They’re great flats and, in reaching out to our community about their availability, we started to think about why we like living in the Park Modern so much. It got us scratching our heads about housing types and city living; how different types of architecture really can improve the quality of life. As architects, it’s refreshing to see a correlation between good design and healthy lifestyles.

So given what big fans we are of density, forward-thinking design and urban living, we often find ourselves enrolling others in not only the housing type, but also the accompanying lifestyle qualities. Today’s post is a simple and straight-forward roster of our favorite characteristics of modern, urban condo living.

Land grab. Even a small condo building can fit 8 or 10 homes onto the same lot size that would typically be consumed by a single family home. Smaller footprints create a healthy density to cities, making it easier to walk to amenities. It also saves more land for parks, public spaces and nature. Well designed buildings use land as if it were finite.

Shoes are more fun to buy than tires. When you live an urban lifestyle you spend more time walking on sidewalks filled with interesting people rather than sitting in your lonely car on the parking lot that we refer to as I-5.

[Photo by BUILD LLC]

Location, location, ovation. Urban dwellings are typically a walk away from your favorite cafés, watering holes and shoe stores. Spending more time at the places you enjoy is a great way to honor your time.

Transportation Authority. When you can’t walk somewhere there’s usually great public transportation that allows you to take light rail to the airport or a bus to the soccer game. In addition to the convenience, it’s also nice to have a few beers at the game and let the bus driver be the designated driver for the evening.

[Photo by Art Grice]

Less (work) is more (play). There’s just less “stuff” to take care of and the maintenance responsibilities of the building can be shared amongst homeowners. A good solid condo building uses low maintenance materials like steel siding that never needs to be painted and repainted… and repainted again.

Death by weed whacker. We don’t enjoy spending our weekends (or our money) tending to manicured lawns. We like to do other stuff, like taking walks to Green Lake, throwing dinner parties and traveling.

[Photo by Chase Jarvis]

Safety in numbers. There are more eyes on the street and there’s more people coming and going with a community of residents. In a smaller condo building, where everyone knows each other, there are more people looking out for one another.

Social Security. In a building like the Park Modern, there’s always something going on; dinner parties, back deck BBQs or just hanging out in the sun with your friends at the coffee shop. It’s easier to be social and, in a modern urban community, there’s a good chance of having like-minded people around you.

[Photo by BUILD LLC]

Green-schmeen. All the solar paneled, recycled, gray water tanks in the world aren’t as environmentally sustainable as simply living with less. Well designed, modern condominiums tend to use less square footage; less square footage means that it took less material to build it and less is required to fill it.

Con-sumption. Design-conscious, forward-thinking, urban dwellers tend to have a deliberate attitude about consuming. We buy a few nice things that last for the rest of our lives, we take care of them and then we pass them onto the next generation.

[Photo by Chase Jarvis]

Cheers from BUILD

Here in the rainy Pacific Northwest, the entrance to a home is a good indication of an architect’s design ability. How the architecture keeps the drizzle off your head while you search for your keys or wait for your host, says quite a bit about how the house was designed and how well it works. As important as entry canopies are, they are all too often overlooked and become stick-on details at the tail-end of the design process. This is unfortunate, as the entry canopy has a functional purpose and, at the same time, must integrate with the design of the home. It would seem that a well considered entry encapsulates everything about good design.

[Benson Lake Cabin by BUILD LLC]

Good design takes into account the weather of the region and placement of the structure on the site. Good design accommodates the lifestyle of the inhabitants without becoming a loud design feature. Good design doesn’t allow you to get soaked while you wait for the door to open.

For today’s post we’re breaking down the entry canopy into 8 species, each with a couple of or favorite examples. Hit that comments button and share your favorite canopy concepts out there…

CANTILEVERED CANOPIES
East Columbia Street Residence in Seattle by E. Cobb Architects, photo by Paul Warchol

Schulman Residence in Brentwood California by Steven Ehrlich Architects, photo by Tom Bonner

Portage Bay Residence in Seattle by Olson Sundberg, photo by Ben Benschneider

Davidson Residence in Magnolia Washington by BUILD LLC, photo by BUILD LLC

HANGING TENSION CANOPIES
A House in the Garden in Kromeriz Czech Republic by Archteam, photo by Ester Havlova,

FREE-STANDING CANOPIES
Villa Mairea in Normarkku Finland by Alvar Aalto, photo by Per Nagel

Woodway Residence in Washington by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, photos by Nic Lehoux

Innis Arden Residence near Seattle by BUILD LLC, photo by BUILD LLC

LIGHTWEIGHT TENSILE CANOPIES
House in Celaya, Mexico by Grupo LBC

ROOF EXTENSIONS
Leschi Residence in Seattle by E. Cobb Architects, photo by Paul Warchol

Fauntleroy II in Seattle by George Suyama, photo by Lara Swimmer

HOUSE EXTENSIONS
Misonou House in Hiroshima, Japan by Suppose Design Office, photo by Nacasa & Partners Inc.

ALCOVES
Innfeld House in Schwarzenberger Austria by Dietrich + Untertrifaller Architekten

MAXmin House in Damascus Pennsylvania by Smith-Miller + Hawkinson Architects, photo by Paul Warchol

Bainbridge Island Residence near Seattle by BUILD LLC, photo by Art Grice

VESTIBULES
Saltwater Residence in New South Wales, Australia by Gabriel Poole, photo by Eric Victor