May 2008 Table of Contents

Although I leave the decision making on awards to our independent jury of architects, I have to admit I always have a few personal favorites among their choices. One project in particular our judges singled out continues to resonate for me. Read more

Our residential architect Design Awards program has grown stronger in quality and quantity every year. We started out nine years ago with a respectable 300 entries, and the number has climbed steadily ever since—until this year, when it made a big leap up. Read more

building information modeling is poised to bundle a fragmented design and construction process. Read more

Model-based design is the biggest change to hit the building industry since CAD, and it means adapting not only to a new technology but also a new way of thinking and working. John Schippers teaches a class on building information modeling (BIM) and provided these tips. Read more

residential architect's Project of the Year exhibits a startling originality that elevated it above the rest of the winners. “There's stuff in here I've never seen before,” marveled a judge, and the other jurors agreed. Read more

The clients' memories of their Catskills cabin inspired the design of this summer compound. Eric Haesloop, AIA, and Mary Griffin, FAIA, took their idea several steps further, reinventing the log cabin vernacular with a main house and guest cabins that evo Read more

This Chicago custom home wowed the judges with its strong sense of place and its sensitive relationship to the urban streetscape. “It really seems like Chicago to me,” said one. Read more

Bartholomew Voorsanger, FAIA, says this 200-acre site in Snowmass, Colo., is “easily one of the most spectacular I've worked on.” Read more

When Randy Brown, FAIA, bought a 10-acre property and old house in the farm country of Omaha, Neb., he intended it to be a laboratory for experiments in how to design something so connected to the land that it looks both natural and manmade, and in how to Read more

Asked to design a home around a client's art collection, Elliott + Associates Architects also made the outdoors a dominant and ever-changing part of the installation. The team accomplished it with a long, linear house that seems to push up from the ground Read more

This retirement house in rural Arkansas is unlike anything you'll see in Florida or Arizona, but for the homeowners it makes perfect sense. “They had a strong appreciation for what we do,” says principal in charge Dan Rockhill, “and felt they could live w Read more

“Green! So many projects are serious, and this one is fun,” enthused a judge. He was referring to the strangely clad cube that rises up on the edge of a wide canyon. Read more

The design of this house nestled between pond and marsh is all about controlling views. The site looks remote, but the hitherto “unbuildable” lot is actually wedged into a cluster of homes ringing a communal pond. Read more

Fred Stelle, AIA, has boldly done what few architects dare to do—he's designed a house that plays second fiddle to its Long Island, N.Y., waterfront site. A lovely duet ensues. Read more

A recent renovation of this 1980s house only highlighted its remaining architectural flaws. For phase two, the owners envisioned a bolder entryway, a larger living room, and a better connection to the backyard pool. Read more

The opportunity to purchase side-by-side apartments on the top floor of a Chinatown building allowed these clients to build the light-filled loft they really wanted. Although a structural partition between the two units had to stay, Höweler + Yoon Archite Read more

Faced with a square concrete warehouse and only one wall of north-facing windows, Anne Fougeron, AIA, worked magic by adding a grasshopperlike penthouse bedroom that alights on the building's surface, opening the entire loft to the sun. Read more

Those lucky enough to possess a vacation residence often become emotionally attached to it. But for Paul and Jeannine Weeks, who own this 1950s A-frame on a Tennessee lake, the connection goes even further: Paul's late father, architect Felder Weeks, desi Read more

Edward M. Baum, FAIA, says the design for this prototype duplex housing is a creative solution to the 50-foot-by-150-foot infill sites common in Dallas, and he's optimistic it can be adapted to other cities. Read more

Designed by The Miller|Hull Partnership, with Studio Dwell serving as local architect, this project references Chicago's much-admired early modern steel buildings. Read more

To hear Office dA's Nader Tehrani tell it, it's a small miracle that the Macallen condo building in Boston's South End became a reality. “It was built under the most difficult circumstances,” says Tehrani, whose firm acted as design architect on the proje Read more

These townhouses contribute vibrancy to a mixed neighborhood of light-industrial structures and multifamily residential buildings of the clay tile-and-stucco variety. Our judges praised the project's “remarkable color” and “beautiful elevations”; one note Read more

Architects Robert Rogers, FAIA, and Jonathan Marvel, AIA, set an ambitious goal when designing this 14-unit townhouse project in Brooklyn, N.Y. Read more

The Case Study Houses of the mid-20th century continue to serve as architectural touchstones, even in settings utterly unlike their original sun-drenched sites. In Milwaukee, they've helped inspire a series of moderately priced infill houses designed by B Read more

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. Read more

Sometimes limitations can produce poetic results. Take Del Norte, Colo., affordable senior housing community Casas de Rio Grande, where Ron Faleide, AIA, used budget constraints as a framework for the building's clever floor plan. Read more

After scrutinizing 26th Street, a judge offered the highest praise an architect of low-income housing could hope to hear: “It's one of the best projects we've seen, period, and the fact that it's affordable is amazing.” Read more

So many urban loft conversions all but obliterate the building's sense of history. This one celebrates it as a ruin, rough edges and all. Read more

Machado and Silvetti Associates + Gould Evans, LLC, Boston. The judges loved the shocks of color that distinguish the three courtyards at this campus housing complex in Tempe, Ariz. Read more

The young owners of this house wanted a flexible and hip building within a modest footprint and budget. Dan Rockhill willingly took on the challenge. Read more

Given a raw space of exposed masonry and timber framing, John Hubert, AIA, decided to leave well enough alone—mostly. The space—in the former and aptly named Triangle Theater—was challenging in its shape but possessed 11-foot ceilings and abundant natural Read more

Desai/Chia's build-out of this “cavernous space with no light in the back” introduces both light and logic with permeable partition walls. Read more

Iceland natives Erla Dögg Ingjaldsdóttir, AIA, Assoc. IIDA, and Tryggvi Thorsteinsson, Assoc. AIA, used their country's green heritage and love of new materials to transform their 1950s home into this 2,400-square-foot gem. Read more

The site for this northern California house begins in a meadow and continues up a wooded hill. To engage both of these aspects, architect Mark L. Donohue, AIA, divided the copper mesh-covered home into three stepped pavilions that torque to take in variou Read more

"Poetic and transformative” is how the jury described this bathroom. The 8-foot-by-8-foot cube elevates the discussion of what this necessary room should and can be, they said. Read more

When his client asked for an outdoor bed for this Lake Michigan weekend house, David Hanawalt's first thought was moldy sheets. Read more

The site for this northern California house begins in a meadow and continues up a wooded hill. To engage both of these aspects, architect Mark L. Donohue, AIA, divided the copper mesh-covered home into three stepped pavilions that torque to take in variou Read more

Jury members knew the moment they laid eyes on this renovation of a 1929 Tudor-style estate that its update was especially sensitive and skillful. Read more

The global spread of good design starts to show itself first in the house, said a juror for our ninth annual residential architect Design Awards. Judging by our collection of winners this year, our future buildings will not disappoint. Read more