Project Description
2008 RADA
Single-Family Production / Detached / Grand
The judges marveled at the craftsmanship of the Crabapple model at Hidden Creek, a community of 12 modern houses in Omaha, Neb. “It’s interesting that we’re talking about craft relating to production technologies,” mused one.
Architect Randy Brown, FAIA, is one of the project’s developers. He and his staff built the 3,000-square-foot house themselves, placing 10-foot-by-20-foot modules atop a poured-in-place concrete foundation. “With the modules, we can grow the house if we want to, and the garage can be adapted,” Brown explains.
Crabapple includes eco-friendly features such as native landscaping, compact fluorescent lighting, and insulated glass windows. Red-painted fiber-cement boards clad its exterior, and bamboo and polished concrete floors reflect natural light throughout the interiors.
Brown left the wood ceiling beams exposed in some areas, adding warmth to the space. He also took great pains to open the house to the nature preserve directly behind it, using an aluminum storefront window system to achieve unbroken views to the outdoors.
One judge compared Crabapple and the rest of Hidden Creek to the mid-century Eichler developments built in California: “Forty to 50 years from now, people will proudly say, ‘I live in one of those,’ the way they do with an Eichler house.”