3030 House - hvac, elec, plumbing all under way

This weekend more photos from the owner of the Cabin John EcoSteel 3030 House arrived in my in-box. The house is really shaping up, although most of this is piping, ducts, wires all destined to be hidden but a needed step to completion. Some goodies though like handrails are under way.

The owner is installing this work with as much care as he has built the envelope. Ductwork has been placed precisely to nestle it in between the flanges of the steel beams. Plumbing is laid out carefully behind the coming finish work.You will see a carriage for a wall hung toilet - a nice touch more often used in commercial bathrooms here in the states. There are also additional exterior shots where the owner has upped the ante by customizing the standard EcoSteel details for a more minimalist and less industrial look. Photo browser of the most recent pictures after the jump.

Cabin John 3030 House Flickr set

Coming soon: Modern House Day Tour + Symposium 2009

Modernism Moves Forward is the theme of the '09 MHD, which is being held May 2 in New Canaan, CT. 5 speakers will discuss, from the point of view of their respective disciplines, how Modern homes are being modified to accommodate the requirements of their 21st-century owners. The Symposium + Tour offer an opportunity to hear from foremost experts on modern architecture and design, meet the homeowners, designers and architects themselves, and participate in an in-depth guided tour of some of New Canaan's fine examples of Modern architecture.

The symposium speakers are:

• William D. Earls, AIA, author of The Harvard Five in New Canaan will moderate
• Bassam/Fellows, design team who integrate architecture, interiors and furniture of their own design, recently featured in the New York Times Magazine
• Toshiko Mori, AIA, architect and former dean of Harvard School of Architecture
• David Prutting, insightful builder of modern homes in New Canaan
• Linnaea Tillett, lighting designer and faculty member at Parsons and Columbia

The program begins at the New Canaan Country School. Breakfast will be served before the seminar starts at 10:00am. House tours will follow the seminar. Attendees will be driven to each house via private tour vans, escorted by an architect or historian of the Modern Movement who will be available to answer questions. Among the homes to be visited will be homes designed by Marcel Breuer, Victor Christ-Janer, Gates and Ford, Alan Goldberg, and John Johansen.

The first Modern House Tour in 1949 attracted more than 3000 visitors. The 2004 and 2007 Tours were sold out. Space is limited to only 200 attendees, and tickets are $250 per person which gets you breakfast, the symposium, the exhibit, lunch, a cocktail reception and transportation from the New Canaan Country School to all tour houses. Symposium only (no tour) tickets are $50.

Note: If you are arriving by train, the symposium location is about 5 miles away and you'll need to take a taxi from the train station.

The '09 MHD Tour + Symposium will benefit The New Canaan Historical Society’s preservation program. – GF

New Plat House build in Texas revealed!

We were very happy to receive an email from a customer that ordered their prints in 2007. We have not heard from them since and then suddenly out of the blue we were looking at photos of their completed Plat House.

The first thing I noticed was that they have finished their house with stucco. This is the first time I've seen a Plat House clad with stucco and I'm very pleased with how the design stands up to this variation. It looks great and the stucco is a good match for the Texas landscape their house sits in. Second thing I noticed is that they've built very close to the plans. there are some changes to the windows - a few were dropped, but overall the roof overhangs, the deck on the view side of the house, the extension of the porch roof past the ends of the house, are all done as designed and are some of the distinct characteristics of the design. Third, the owners have created their own garage with a design that works really well with the house. The Owners served as their own General Contractors, and did all of the general construction work from the slab up. The husband is a cabinet maker and all of the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room cabinets were made in his own shop.

The owners have been so kind to send us many photos. We have about 50 photos of the house as it is today, complete but not yet occupied. They have also shared over 100 photos of the house under construction - the most comprehensive set of construction photos we've ever received from a customer. The best part to me is the framing sequence. Here you can really see how simply the house goes together. If you find yourself trying to convince a builder that the house is not hard to build these photos can go a long way to that end. What follows are two slide shows, the first of the finished house, and the second of the construction photos.

You can also find all the photos in its own Texas Plat House Flickr set.

rain screen cladding - XHouse1

I am beginning to work on the cladding design for the XHouse now, and I've decided to design and detail it for rain screen cladding.

There are two reasons I've decided to go this way. First of all this kind of "slatted" wood cladding has become very popular for modern houses and I must say that I like the look as well. Second, I've seen a lot of this being done in ways that I feel are technically incorrect, with either the wrong membrane behind the cladding, or with closed joints and improper venting of the back space of the cladding system. By incorporating this into the XHouse1 I am going to build a detail set for a good installation that can be reused on future plan sets.

In the meantime I need to dress the model with the proper look for the illustrations in the Design Prints. I'm playing with two textures right now. One with a rough and weathered wood grain, and a second with a very smooth and finished wood.

Asking Price Drops for Alice Ball House

Philip Johnson's Alice Ball House, on New Canaan's Oenoke Ridge Road, is now not only for sale, it's ON sale. The owner has reduced the asking price to $2.895 million, down from $3.5 million -- an 18 percent cut. More details are here. -- ta

progress image - XHouse1

X House model is coming along, and I'm pondering what to make the illustrations look like for this new collection.

For Sale

Judging from the real estate notices I keep getting, this doesn't seem like the most propitious time to sell a mid-century modern house in New Canaan. On the other hand, if you're a buyer maybe you can get a (relative) bargain.

John Johansen's Bridge House (shown at left; asking $5 million), Philip Johnson's Alice Ball House (asking $3.5 million), the house Victor Christ-Janer's designed for himself on Frogtown Road (asking a shade under $3.5 million), and a house designed by Taylor Gates ($1.9 million) are among those still on the market. And if you want to live in a 1966 modern/contemporary on the same road as the Bridge House, there's one listed for $1.375 million, down from the original asking price of $1.425 million.

Skip Ploss, by the way, reports that Cristina Ross, who owns the Alice Ball house, "has all of the permits needed to build the second home she wants to build on the site while still preserving the Ball House." - ta

Virginia Plat House is finished and occupied

Some up to date photos of the Plat House built in Virginia appeared in our in-box this week.

The current group of photos are all posted at our Flickr set for the Virginia Plat House.

Swiss Buildings and Bridges, Old, Traditional and Modern

The train we take to Zurich on our way home from our February idyll in the Alps passes some terrific old and typically Alpine villages and buildings, and even though we've made the journey each year since 2005, we can't not take more photos.

The train is never very crowded and the big, clean windows open.



















The stations are small and the train stops on demand -- like being on a city bus, you have to ring a bell to get it to stop for you. In the third picture here you can see an ancient fort or castle atop the hill.























The fourth shot is of a typical station and then we snapped a picture of the town as we were leaving the station. Klosters is a well-known winter sports destination -- every time we pass through it seems to be snowing, as it was this year.









But in Klosters you suddenly come upon the beautifullt modern Sunniberg Bridge.

We've written before about the juxtaposition of the ancient and modern in Switzerland, and this is a terrific example, particularly because when viewed from the train it comes as such a surprise. - ta