Furman—“It’s always been said that it takes a good client to help produce a good house. If you have a client who’s willing to explore different ideas about the way space can be arranged, is willing to look at different materials, then an architect with the right mindset can certainly design a much better house for the same price or maybe even a cheaper price. The problem is when somebody wants the typical house, or they’re not willing to have a different model or a different relationship of rooms. It’s hard for us to make that any cheaper than they would have gotten out on their own.”
Mulfinger—“But many of the people who buy those want more and that’s all they’re being offered. They don’t have the opportunity to find more because our profession isn’t out everywhere like the builder is. We are available—and the number of residential architects is doubling every two years—but we’re still a pretty tiny little group in the whole set of people serving this industry. I think the one thing that stands out about architects is they really are educated well in both aesthetics and general technological issues. So the question is can we put it to work?”
Furman—“There are quite a few architects in Austin that do design/build. They’re having a great amount of success turning out buildings that are very interesting, at phenomenally cheap prices. Being the builder, they’re able to go directly to a solution that is economical.”
Mulfinger—“The principal advantage is they can shop for product. Once you become a builder, and if you’re also the designer, then you can shop for product until you attain your value.”
Binkley—“I think that’s true. A lot of the enjoyment we had building our house was taking off-the-shelf materials and using them in slightly different ways. What are some more common things we can give uncommon uses to? That’s part of what can we bring to the table with some builders.”
Mulfinger—“Mortgage lenders are another big issue. They can’t read charm in a plan. They can just read, oh, it’s five bedrooms and three baths and it’s 6,422 square feet with four garages. They know how to read that because it’s quantitative. We’ve had success in either a) knowing the mortgage lender, so they know we do different things, or b) making sure the mortgage lender comes out at the end of the product.
“You know, one of the ways we manage the budget is to prioritize. We ask clients, what’s the minimum you absolutely have to have until you’ll say, oh, this isn’t even worth doing? What’s the next level of stuff you’d like to have above that? And then, if you could have the house you always wanted to live in, what are some absolute fantasy ideas you might have? Then we always pluck one of those fantasies and pull it into the base.”
Vanze—“There’s a real need for just making houses kind of, sort of, better. And I think kind of, sort of better lifts the boat. With a limited budget, there’s only so much you can do but you can make it kind of, sort of better.”
