g9623 aibd summer09 lr

Back to Basics for

Kitchen Makeovers · The Software Changing the Building Industry

· When Designers Design Their Own Homes

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www.aibd.org

Natural Allies ©

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I’m always on the lookout for new, more sustainable ways to design and build. That’s why I specify EcoBatt™ Insulation from Knauf for my projects.

Knauf EcoBatt Glasswool gives me the same optimal performance as all their insulation, but it’s more sustainable…thanks to its abundant and renewable raw materials, high post-consumer recycled content and ECOSE™ Technology.

Knauf’s revolutionary new ECOSE Technology is a binder with a lower embodied energy. It is based on rapidly renewable bio-based materials—eliminating the non-renewable petroleum-based chemicals such as phenol, formaldehyde and acrylics found in traditional fiber glass insulation.

With my focus on sustainable building, EcoBatt Insulation is the natural fit for my projects.

For more information call (800) 825-4434 ext. 8300

or visit us online at www.knaufinsulation.us

Client/Filename: Knauf 561 Architect_8.375x10.875

Job #: AKFG-00561

Job Name: Hippie Architect Ad

Size/Specs: 8.375" x 10.875"; 4C AD:

Insertion Date: May 2009 CW:

Pub: AIBD - Design Lines Acct. Serv.

/ / /CVR /

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On the CoverWhen this California kitchen was remodeled to include a separate small sink for children at one end, the result was a space that not only functioned better but was also more inclusive of the youngest family members. Photo by Caroline Loisos.

NotesFrom the Executive Director’s Desk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

FeatureBack to Basics for Kitchen Makeovers . . 8 Bathroom Space at a Premium. . . . . . 11

DepartmentsBusiness Track:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Nowhere to Go but Up

Techno-Log: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5A Model of Efficiency

For the Greener Good: . . . . . . . . 12The Path to Becoming Certifiably Green

Fine Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Designer Houses in Progress

CONTENTS

ECO AWARENESS

Design Lines text and cover pages are printed using SFI-certified Anthem paper using soy ink.

• SFI-certifiedproductscomefromNorthAmericanforestsmanagedtorigorousenvironmentalstandards.

• SFIstandardsconservebiodiversityandprotectsoilandwaterquality,aswellaswildlifehabitats.

• SFI forests are audited by independent experts to ensure proper adherence to theSFI standard.

• SFI participants also plant more than 650 million trees eachyear to keep these forests thriving.

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Natural Allies ©

200

9 Kn

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I’m always on the lookout for new, more sustainable ways to design and build. That’s why I specify EcoBatt™ Insulation from Knauf for my projects.

Knauf EcoBatt Glasswool gives me the same optimal performance as all their insulation, but it’s more sustainable…thanks to its abundant and renewable raw materials, high post-consumer recycled content and ECOSE™ Technology.

Knauf’s revolutionary new ECOSE Technology is a binder with a lower embodied energy. It is based on rapidly renewable bio-based materials—eliminating the non-renewable petroleum-based chemicals such as phenol, formaldehyde and acrylics found in traditional fiber glass insulation.

With my focus on sustainable building, EcoBatt Insulation is the natural fit for my projects.

For more information call (800) 825-4434 ext. 8300

or visit us online at www.knaufinsulation.us

Client/Filename: Knauf 561 Architect_8.375x10.875

Job #: AKFG-00561

Job Name: Hippie Architect Ad

Size/Specs: 8.375" x 10.875"; 4C AD:

Insertion Date: May 2009 CW:

Pub: AIBD - Design Lines Acct. Serv.

/ / /CVR /

561 Architect_8.375x10.875.indd 1 4/14/09 2:06:20 PM

2 AIBD DESIGN LINES | SUMMER 2009

From the Executive Director’s Desk

The YGS Group

1808 Colonial Village Lane

Lancaster, PA 17601

717-399-1900 | www.theYGSgroup.com

Senior Vice President, Advertising

Susan Steeley Welter [email protected]

Vice President of Creative Services

Jack Davidson

[email protected]

General Manager

Dana Warfel

[email protected]

Advertising Sales Manager

Jody Cranford

[email protected]

Advertising Sales Representative

Stephanie Bunsick

[email protected]

Editor

Catherine Siskos

[email protected]

Graphic Designer

Nancy Fureman

[email protected]

Marketing Director

Dan Fineberg

[email protected]

Published by

Design Lines is published quarterly by the American Institute of Building Design. Opinions expressed are those of the authors or persons quoted and are not necessarily those of the AIBD.

The American Institute of Building Design 7059 Blair Road NW, Suite 201 Washington, DC 20012 Tel: 800.366.AIBD Fax: 202.249.2473 [email protected] www.aibd.org

Executive Director Steve Mickley [email protected]

Design Lines Editorial Board

Chairperson Dan Sater

Members Amanda Hancock-Skiles David Harris David Pillsbury Jim Madsen Tim Bricker Viki Wooster Wendi Munsey Bob Morales

AIBD Executive Committee

President Salvatore “Sam” Liberti, CPBD

External Vice President Dan F Sater II, CPBD

Secretary/Treasurer Viki Wooster, CPBD

Central District Director Alan Kent, CPBD

Eastern District Director Paul R. Cole, CPBD

Immediate Past President Gordon N. Hoehle, CPBD

SUM

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09

Prospering in an Online Networking AgeRecently, I attended a breakfast hosted by the American Society of Association Executives, which cited online social networking among organizations as a trend that is here to stay. Mike Morris, editor-in-chief of Professional Remodeler magazine, also sees the use of social networking tools like YouTube on the rise. I mention these two observations because creative uses of e-media may play a bigger role in the prosperity of AIBD and its members than we realize.

These are difficult times for designers, as the findings of our latest economic survey reveal (see “Nowhere to Go but Up,” page 3), but one figure especially stands out: 51% of AIBD members who participated in the survey tell us that all of their new contracts in 2009 came from referrals or, to put it another way, networking. Many designers are attracting clients online by improving their websites or participating in a variety of social networking sites.

Networking online makes a lot of sense because we know that the Internet is where many clients go to find a stock house plan or a designer for their remodeling or custom home project. To raise the profile of our members online, AIBD is in the process of designing a consumer section for its website, where potential clients could be linked with AIBD members. As for you Twitterers, you can follow AIBD at www.Twitter.com/AIBD_national or me personally at www.Twitter.com/stevemickley.

Prosperity for AIBD and its members is really a two-way street. Just as we can help you attract clients online, you can help refer potential new members to us. Over the past nine months, 66% of new members named other AIBD members as their sponsors. Even though many of those new recruits were initially contacted through national marketing efforts, it took the personal connection and follow-up from AIBD members locally to turn their inquiries into full-fledged memberships. In addition, we plan to kick off a year-long membership drive at the 2009 annual convention in Portland, Ore., July 8-11.

I am encouraged that the networking efforts of our members individually and our organization as a whole will pay dividends because we are positioning ourselves perfectly for when the economy improves…and it always does. h

Steve Mickley AIBD Executive Director

www.aibd.org | An official publication of the American Institute of Building Design 3

Business Track

Remember the Pet Rock? A hugely successful product, if you want to call it that, invented by a construction worker in southern California. His company was appropriately named Rock Bottom Productions. When you called their offices, the perky receptionist answered the phone, “Hello, you have reached Rock Bottom!”

Too bad the pundits, as of press time, weren’t ready to say that about the economy’s housing sector, and as the results of our latest membership survey reveal, many designers would agree. A year ago, the AIBD national office surveyed the membership about the effect the economy was having on their businesses. This year, I asked the same questions again along with some new ones to discover how members are attracting clients, and 198 people responded, 18% more than last year. The results indicate, that while we haven’t hit the proverbial brick wall, there is a sliver of hope. Even Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke sees signs that the economy’s decline has slowed down and is more optimistic that the recession could end as early as this year. Most striking are the findings that the marketing methods used by many AIBD members for decades are still the most effective way to generate business now.

First, the FiguresLike last year, there are pockets of activity but also places where the numbers are grim. Nationally, 14% of the membership saw an increase in the number of new contracts during the first quarter of this year compared to the previous quarter; about 15% said sales stayed roughly the same; 58% got fewer new projects and 12% haven’t received a new commission for at least three months.

Broken down by region, the Midwest continues to be the hardest hit, with 76% of its members reporting they had fewer contracts during the first quarter and an alarming 17% reporting no contracts whatsoever. But R. L. Pfotenhauer in Toledo, Ohio, is optimistic and writes, “I am 68 years old. This is not my first rodeo; patience, grasshopper!” Designers are also in survival mode in the West, where 73% had fewer contracts during the

first quarter and 8% had none at all. In the South and Northeast, the numbers reporting fewer contracts are 72% and 57%, respectively.

The Northeast still leads the nation for getting new contracts but not nearly as strongly as before. This year, 18% of the region’s members reported seeing an increase in contracts during the first quarter compared to 43% who said so a year ago. “Business this year is about as bad as I can remember it in the last 40 years,” says AIBD Connecticut Society president Thomas Schmelter. “Housing starts in New England are down almost 50% from last year, and that was already a very bad year.”

There are still more new contracts for remodeling projects and additions than for new custom houses or stock home plans. Of the survey’s respondents, nearly 20% reported an increase in the number of remodeling contracts compared to 15% who saw increased demand for custom home designs. Once again, the Northeast posted the best results, with 33% of the region’s membership reporting new contracts for remodeling or additions. Sales of stock home plans, however, continue to decline nationally, with 65% of those designers having absolutely no sales in the

Nowhere to Go but UpAs designers around the country report slow sales, an old marketing strategy resurfaces with a new twist

By Steve Mickley

Many new contracts are for remodeling projects or additions.


Business Track

first three months of this year. The region hit the worst is the West, where 83% of the members said they had not sold a stock plan in the first quarter.

Show Me the MoneyWhen asked how their clients obtained financing for projects, 39% of the respondents said their clients paid cash, borrowed against equity or had private loans. A third reported that some projects were bank-financed in addition to large down payments of 20% or more. Almost 8% of respondents reported having projects on hold because they were awaiting a lender’s approval, and 37% said they don’t poll their clients about financing. David DiSpirito in Gloucester, Va., has found a nice niche and writes: “Most of my clients are retirees or are in a financial position where financing is not a problem.”

The most disturbing news coming from the residential design industry is the reduced number of advance sales. Only 4% of members nationally reported having enough work for at least the next six months compared to 13% who had that much work lined up last year. An alarming 68% stated they currently had less than one month’s work sold in advance, a figure that has more than doubled in the past 12 months. As a result, many design firms have laid off employees. “I am down from a very busy office with a staff of eight to working alone,” writes Andy Cosgrove in Cincinnati, Ohio. “Currently, I know as many unemployed designers as I do employed ones.”

Three Words: Network, Network, NetworkDespite these bleak reports, there are design contracts getting signed, so how are designers attracting clients? Even though slightly more than half of respondents said they had changed their marketing techniques in the past twelve months, those efforts didn’t yield better results compared to designers who kept their marketing strategy the same. In both groups, 15% said they saw an increase in business. That may be because both groups relied heavily on the same tried-and-true method for attracting clients: word-of-mouth referrals, which accounted for 51% of the respondents’ contracts. As a distant second, 17% used direct marketing and calling contacts to generate business while 16% attributed their new contracts to websites, 8% to print advertising and 2% to job site signs. Jennifer Pippin, a designer in Sherrills Ford, N.C., gives talks on green building design to attract new clients.

Some designers are getting word-of-mouth referrals using a new twist: technology. Designer Everett Pollard in Sunapee, N.H., doesn’t wait for former clients to pass his name on but instead uses buzz marketing. The catchy phrase means getting referrals by having other people talk about your work, usually online. Pollard generates buzz about his business by plugging his design firm’s website on blogs, social networks like Facebook and YouTube, press releases and electronic newsletters. He credits the idea to two books: Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba and Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff by Mark Hughes.

In addition, Pollard’s firm raises its profile by performing volunteer community services such as helping to build a pedestrian bridge and welcome center, serving on local planning boards and staying active in community organizations. Other potential marketing opportunities include competing in award programs and participating in your local chapters of the National Association of Home Builders, the International Code Council and the National Association of the Remodeling Industry. Lastly, Pollard recommends having your projects professionally photographed. “It is a must for your office wall, award submissions, website, brochures and press releases,” he says. h

Some designers use buzz marketing on social networks like Facebook to drum up clients


Techno-Log

Designers are adaptive. We adapt to different clients, sites and builders as well as fluctuating economic conditions, market trends and climates. Most of all, as part of the design and construction of any home, we must keep pace with the steady stream of changes that multiple parties often bombard us with over a project’s duration.

Increasingly, the way to keep track of all those changes is to use building information modeling software. BIM produces a three-dimensional digital representation of a building from design to construction and beyond. The software is set up so that everyone involved in the project—designers, architects, engineers, building officials and contractors—can share real-time data and test the design by building or remodeling it in the virtual world first. As a result, trouble spots are identified long before the building breaks ground, and better decisions can be made for maintaining or improving the structure over its lifetime. The software is considered so efficient that a 2008 survey by McGraw Hill Construction found that more than 50% of building professionals use BIM for many of their projects, with architects the heaviest users. That number is expected to grow and include many designers over time.

Tools for Every Project StageFor design firms of any size, the software has the potential to reshape every facet of their business because there are BIM tools for a variety of purposes. Designers can adopt the software in stages, learning as many of the tools as they can manage while still remaining

productive. If the learning curve gets too steep as deadlines near, the designer can switch back to more familiar tools.

As a design tool, most BIM programs work by creating one three-dimensional model that is used to generate floor plans, elevations and schedules. As a result, the effects of a single design change—for instance, substituting a picture window with a casement window—can be assessed instantly not only on two-dimensional drawings like the elevation and floor plan but in a three-dimensional virtual tour that clients can take of the room with the new window.

The software also simplifies the documentation of that window so that designers might never again run afoul of Murphy’s Law of Building in which the contractor always looks for more detailed information on the one page of the drawings that the designer forgot to change. With

A Model of EfficiencyBuilding information modeling is changing the design business for the better

By Adrian Tait

Three-dimensional modeling helped designers see how sunlight would move across this house, which will be built using modified shipping containers.

Adr

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Tait

It’s not hard to imagine a day when

homeowners with a malfunctioning

furnace pull up the owner’s manual

from the database and use BIM to

identify the problem and make repairs.


Techno-Log

BIM, the designer doesn’t have to spend time checking that a change is shown on all the drawings. Altering the window’s design on one of the drawings automatically changes it for all of them.

Because the software acts as a project database, all sorts of information including construction costs, thermal performance, manufacturer specifications, building materials and maintenance schedules are at a designer’s fingertips. That means BIM can enhance the services designers provide their clients and streamline the design process. Along with typical construction documents, designers can use the software to extract additional information about finishes, architectural details or energy efficiency. Built-in data about the amount and type of building materials required for

To speed up the design process, clients can tour the house virtually to see how different finishes, materials or architectural features will look as well as compare their costs. A

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the design make it easier to calculate costs and give accurate estimates without having to manually count items or enter data on a spreadsheet. So if a window style is changed, designers and their clients can evaluate the effects on the bottom line instantly by factoring in potential energy savings to overall construction costs.

Eventually, BIM has the potential to affect users who aren’t even building professionals. It isn’t hard to imagine a day, for instance, when homeowners with a malfunctioning furnace pull up the owner’s manual from the database and use BIM to identify the problem and make repairs. The software could even help save lives by enabling firefighters to locate hydrants and entrances of a burning house before arriving on the scene.

The Software in ActionMy own firm, GreenMan Studios, specializes in affordable green design and used BIM recently to design a three-bedroom contemporary mountain home using modified shipping containers known as intermodal steel building units. The house will be built according to the American National Standards Institute’s new guidelines for green building.

Because the standards are new, BIM helped keep everyone on the team clear about how to design the house so that it would meet the institute’s requirements for certification. Early on, the three-dimensional modeling showed us how sunlight will move across the building, penetrate interior spaces and overheat unprotected window areas, a problem we were able to address straight away thanks to the software. Later, we used BIM to track and evaluate multiple bids from subcontractors and suppliers to keep the project on budget. When I met with my client, the three-dimensional model helped us resolve design changes in one meeting, a process that ordinarily takes weeks. As for my client, she was thrilled to walk through the virtual house and see how her new green home will look when it is built. h

Adrian Tait owns GreenMan Studios, a green design firm in Boone, N.C., and recently passed his LEED AP exam. He is currently at work designing carbon neutral homes using BIM.


The worst housing market since the Great Depression has an upside for designers: Homeowners are more inclined to stay put and improve what they already have. Often, that means updating an old kitchen to make it more attractive and functional.

Even in these tough times, homeowners are amply rewarded for those efforts. A 2008 study by Remodeling magazine found that homeowners were able to recoup 76% of the cost (about $56,600 on average) of a major kitchen renovation and 71% of an upscale kitchen makeover that cost nearly $111,000 on average to redo.

Despite those returns, many consumers are scaling back their remodeling plans, but they’re looking for ways to cut costs without sacrificing “the bones of the kitchen, which remain the same,” says AIBD designer Jim Madsen of Design Classics in Turlock, Calif., who is also certified by the National Kitchen & Bath Association. That skeleton typically consists of a more open floor plan with better lighting, multiple work zones and a kitchen island that keeps children and guests out of the way. Homeowners, though, are rethinking high-end appliances and countertops and whenever possible prefer to work within the kitchen’s existing footprint rather than pursue costly structural changes. Because the recession

Above right: This kid-friendly kitchen has a separate sink for children and an island that keeps them out of harm’s way.

Right: When the kitchen expanded outward eight feet, the sink, which never moved, went from an outside wall to an island with countertops made of closely fitted tiles, an affordable alternative to granite.

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is altering the way people shop, storage space is changing to include supplies bought in bulk. Mostly, homeowners want to resolve the existing kitchen’s most vexing constraints with clever innovative approaches tailored for their family’s needs.

Tailor-Made SolutionsA creative individualized approach was critical in two remodeling projects where the sink’s placement was pivotal to the design. When Caroline Loisos was asked to update a 1960s kitchen for her clients last year, the problem wasn’t a lack of space but the need to reconfigure it. With three young children and two full-time jobs outside the home, “the clients wanted a kitchen where the kids could be part of the activity but stay out of harm’s way,” says Loisos of Loisos Design in Encinitas, Calif.

So Loisos designed a U-shaped kitchen and added a long central island as a protective barrier. To the left of the upside-down U was the kitchen’s main work zone with a sink for the adults to use, and to the right was a clear path to a small kid-size sink where the children could wash their hands, rinse fruit or get a drink. They could also help their parents by fetching ingredients from the fridge fitted into a wall of cabinets on the children’s side of the island. The result was a kitchen that functioned better and was also more inclusive of the youngest family members.

For one of Madsen’s clients, the sink was the problem not the solution. Because of the septic tank’s location, moving the sink was prohibitively expensive, so Madsen designed the kitchen’s expansion around it—literally. Even though the outside wall where the kitchen sink once was had moved about eight feet to expand the space,

Back to Basics for Kitchen MakeoversIn hard times, high-end kitchens are giving way to clever, cost-cutting designs

By Catherine Siskos


the sink stayed put. “It just went from the wall to an island,” says Madsen. The T-shaped workspace was not ideal because it placed the sink in the path of foot traffic from adjoining rooms. Because his clients had no children, Madsen could make the design work by allowing extra room for people to get by.

Masters of IllusionSometimes, the most cost-effective kitchen renovations require fooling the eye. For instance, when the clients with the T-shaped kitchen winced at the cost of granite counters, Madsen substituted 12-by-12-inch tiles set closely together with no grout lines to give the impression of granite slab. Increasingly, cost-conscious consumers are considering other materials, he says. “I’ve had clients willing to look at laminate, with Corian the lowest they’re willing to go.” Even laminate manufacturers are stepping up to meet the demand by introducing counters with edge detail or that can incorporate an under-mounted sink, an option that the material didn’t permit before.

Because poor natural lighting is a frequent complaint of homeowners wanting to remodel, designers are also finding subtle ways to brighten kitchens. Loisos uses fewer cabinets above the counters on walls with windows to allow as much daylight to penetrate the room. Madsen

sometimes introduces a tube skylight to flood the space with natural light, a strategy that works well for small kitchens with no floor above them or room to grow. The plexiglass skylight is connected to a metal cylinder, which resembles a heating duct, and sends outside light down the tube’s reflective lining to the space below. “Oftentimes, you can bend the tubes to get around a truss or attic, and they’ll go quite a distance,” says Madsen.

Some homeowners are also reconsidering high-end professional appliances like Viking and Sub Zero in favor of new lower-priced professional lines from manufacturers like Kenmore and Kitchen-Aid. Madsen reports that many clients are also selecting standard 30-inch-deep fridges instead of the pricey but shallower cabinet-depth size. To maintain the look of fitted appliances, he brings out the adjacent cabinetry so that the deeper fridge looks built-in.

The Costco EffectAs more homeowners buy supplies in bulk to save money, the nature of kitchen storage is changing, but walk-in pantries aren’t always possible in older kitchens, where space is usually at a premium. Instead, “we’re doing a lot of built-in pantry cabinets that give you more storage but take up less floor space,” says Marc O’Grady, a designer and project manager with Grossmuellers Design Consultants in Washington, D.C. These floor-to-ceiling pantry cabinets can take up an entire wall and even be in another room. For one of O’Grady’s clients, that wall of cupboards was just off the kitchen in a hallway to the dining room and served as an appliance garage, housing a variety of kitchen gadgets and gizmos that the owners didn’t want crowding counters in their spacious remodeled kitchen.

Storage is so important that Loisos spends a great deal of time determining her client’s cooking habits and the amount of shopping they regularly do before sketching her designs, which include detailed descriptions of the contents for drawers, shelves and cupboards. Even before we ordered the cabinets, “we knew where the oils and cereals would go and where the Ziploc bags and Handi-Wraps would go,” she says. “That way homeowners know exactly what to do with their cabinets.” h

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Because his clients were self-proclaimed chefs who liked to entertain, designer Marc O’Grady created a kitchen fit for a restaurant with two dishwashers and a Viking stove, but increasingly, many clients are sacrificing expensive appliances.


Some of the cost-cutting features in kitchens have yet to reach master bathrooms, which continue to borrow lavish design elements from other parts of the house. Crown moldings and tray ceilings deep enough to allow for a chandelier are just some of the ways designer builder George VanDusen of Phoenix Construction in Orangevale, Calif., transforms ho-hum master bathrooms into grand elegant spaces. As with kitchens, remodeled bathrooms today are brighter with multiple levels of light, including canned, task and mood lighting. “We like to drop the crown molding and put lighting behind it so that it reflects onto the recessed ceilings,” says VanDusen.

Full-length glass shower doors are another way to let in more light, with some walk-in showers deep enough to forfeit doors altogether. More controversial is whether to eliminate a tub to create space for larger showers and vanities. Although Jeff Doyle, a designer with Kaufman Homes in Salem, Ore, promotes that solution, many of his clients aren’t ready to jettison their bathtubs, but one client came up with an inventive compromise: a Japanese soaking tub. Although the tub only takes up four square feet of floor space, its depth allows the bather to soak in water up to the neck while seated.

Master bathrooms are also becoming more segmented with a separate water closet for the toilet. “We try to make them about four feet wide so people don’t feel like they’re trapped in this little room,” says Doyle. Where possible, he’ll add a small window or use only a half wall as a partition so that the space is private but not claustrophobic.

Doyle’s clients with the soaking tub enlarged the bathroom by eight feet to allow for more built-in cabinets, but they are the exception. “Most of the work we do is within the original footprint, just rearranging or updating the fixtures,” he says. One way those fixtures are getting updated is with a vanity that resembles furniture, an old-fashioned look inspired by country-style kitchens with unfitted cabinetry. The vanities do away with toe kicks and sit up off the floor on legs. Sometimes, they really are furniture, just dressers with the tops cut out to make room for a double sink. VanDusen even constructed one vanity for a client so that it matched the detailed woodwork of her grandmother’s antique armoire in the master bedroom, proof that eventually everything old becomes new again. h

Bathroom Space at a Premium

This four-foot-deep Japanese soaking tub takes up less space than a conventional bathtub, freeing up room for additional storage and a larger shower.

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Bathroom vanities are made to look like furniture by eliminating toe kicks and sitting up off the floor on legs instead.

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For the Greener Good

Whether you believe green building is a passing fad or a growing trend, one thing is clear: Designers with green credentials can expand the range of projects they are able to do. The difficulty is determining which accreditation is worth pursuing.

While the two leading standard bearers—the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and the National Association of Home Builders—both offer worthwhile green certification programs for building professionals, there are subtle differences of emphasis in the curriculum and requirements. For instance, designers who don’t like hitting the books may prefer the NAHB program, which requires fewer continuing education credits. On the other hand, for designers who like learning from the comforts of home or work, only the LEED program offers the option of taking classes online. The two programs are described in more detail below.

LEED The U.S. Green Building Council oversees LEED and has certified more than 100,000 building professionals since the accreditation program began in 2001. Last

year, the Green Building Certification Institute took over administering the credentialing requirements and recently restructured the program to offer a three-part series of graduated credentials—green associate, accredited professional and fellow. Courses are offered through workshops and online seminars.

While green associates develop a general overview of green building practices, the accredited professional or AP credential offers the option of specializing in one of five new areas, including a home specialty beginning this summer. That specialty teaches professionals about designing and building healthful, comfortable homes that create less waste while conserving energy, water and other natural resources. Additional new areas of specialty include operations and maintenance, high-rise building design and construction for commercial and residential projects, interior design and construction and, starting next year, neighborhood development.

To become LEED certified, designers must pass a two-part exam covering the green associate criteria as well as an AP specialty. There are no prerequisites for taking the exam, but candidates should have experience with green building and familiarity with LEED standards. Study guides are available through the Green Building Certification Institute (www.GBCI.org). After passing the exam, designers must take 30 hours of continuing education credits every two years to maintain certification. Although members of the U.S. Green Building Council (www.usgbc.org) are eligible for discounts, nonmembers can expect to pay $600 in application, exam and maintenance fees versus $450 for nonmembers to be certified for the first two years. The requirements and curriculum for the highest level—that of fellow—are still being determined.

NAHBLast year, as part of an overall effort to promote green building, NAHB unveiled its own program for certifying green building professionals, including designers. Offered through NAHB’s University of Housing, the program

The Path to Becoming Certifiably GreenThe differences between two programs offering green building credentials are weighed

By Heather Attardo

Designers must pass an exam to become LEED or NAHB certified.


For the Greener Good

emphasizes economics by focusing on building homes with reduced energy costs or implementing green building practices that won’t drive up the price of construction. Additional topics include improving indoor air quality as well as remodeling using green building objectives.

To earn NAHB’s designation of certified green professional, designers must acquire 24 hours of specified training, including a two-day course on green building and a one-day class in business management for building professionals. In addition, designers must pass an exam, which is given at the end of each class, and have at least two years of industry experience. The business management course requirement is waived for building professionals who have another current NAHB professional designation, such as graduate master builder or certified graduate remodeler. Twelve hours of continuing education are required every three years to maintain certification. NAHB plans to introduce a

designation for master’s certified professional next year, but it would only be available to builders and remodelers.

Like the LEED program, NAHB also gives discounts to members so that the total cost of the two required courses plus graduation fees is $735 for members and $935 for nonmembers when the classes are taken at national NAHB events. But workshops are also offered around the country through local homebuilder associations where the course fees can vary sharply. For instance, the same required class on green building costs $225 for nonmembers in Grand Rapids, Mich., versus $625 for nonmembers in Clyde, N.C. No classes are offered online. For a complete list of courses, including their dates and fees, visit www.nahb.org/courses. h

Heather Attardo is a designer with 3 Trees Design & Drafting in Castle Rock, Colo., and plans to enroll in the LEED certification program.


Fine Design

Like the proverbial kid in a candy store, designers who design their own homes get to indulge their appetite for architecture in ways they never fully can with their clients. In fact, when it comes to their own homes, designers are remodeling addicts. They keep tinkering with the design long after the house has been built and well past the point that most people would have been perfectly happy with the result. Some designers even refine their dream home by selling the old house and building a new one—multiple times.

This tendency for serial remodeling comes from a designer’s constant exposure to new building products, materials and ideas. Designers’ homes are also a visible testament to their abilities, a kind of billboard for their business. Some designers’ houses even do double duty as model homes for clients to look at. What follows are profiles of three houses that designers created for themselves and their families. The houses, which were all

designed in the past decade, vary in style—from a green-constructed bachelor’s cabin to a lodge-inspired lake house to a Mediterranean-style luxury home—and range dramatically in size from less than 1,000 to about 7,000 square feet. Not surprisingly, the designers’ own homes are often extensions of themselves, reflecting not just their professional skills but also their individual ideals, tastes and interests.

The Only Cabin with Space for an RVThere are condominium apartments bigger than David Fisse’s green-constructed home in Ashland, Ore. Just 960 square feet, the one-bedroom cabin plus loft sits on a wooded eight acres and was constructed in 2002. An open kitchen and living area with 20-foot-high ceilings and Douglas fir wood floors make the place seem airy and cozy at the same time, and no square inch of space is wasted. The house has no hallways, and along one wall are built-in shelves and a library ladder to access the loft.

The house reflects Fisse’s environmental consciousness as well as his passion for restoring Victorian-era houses. The two interests dovetail nicely; his Ashland home has balloon framing, a 19th-century style of construction that has been rediscovered today for its efficient use of building materials. Other green features include concrete fiber siding, recycled windows and doors and a passive solar design that has the majority of the home’s windows facing south. A cupola with powered windows acts as a cooling tower, while a wood stove and radiant floors supply heat on chilly days.

But the piece de resistance may just be the garage, where the mechanically minded Fisse often spends time. Radiant-heated floors ensure that Fisse gets into a car with warm seats on even the chilliest mornings, and the garage’s ingenious design includes doors directly opposite one another for vehicles to exit onto the circular driveway without ever reversing. Alongside the garage, which is tucked under the house, is a long narrow carport with hookups and space for an RV that Fisse never got around to buying.

Designer Houses in ProgressThe houses designers create for themselves have a way of evolving over time

By Catherine Siskos

Above: This one-bedroom house plus loft has a covered space next to the garage to accommodate an RV. Left: Only 960 square feet, the house has no staircase; instead, the loft is reached using a library ladder.

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Fine Design

Recently, however, Fisse put up the cabin for sale because he’s moving into a second home that he also designed. The new three-story house, which was built on the same hillside as the cabin, offers similar views and a lot more space, with one other added bonus. It’s Victorian.

A Timber-Framed HavenEverett Pollard likes to say that the homes he designs for himself always have an important client: his wife Robin. The couple live in a 4,500-square-foot, lodge-inspired timber frame home in Sunapee, N.H., that Everett designed and built about 10 years ago.

Harbor Haven—so named because it’s tucked away from the hubbub of nearby Lake Sunapee—is the third house that the Pollards have designed for their own use, though it’s a far cry from the combination saltbox and Cape Cod they first built 30 years ago.

With each house, the Pollards have learned things that helped them design the next home better. For instance, Harbor Haven offers multiple ways of getting to the main rooms, including access around the kitchen, pantry and

bar at the house’s center. “We liked that feature in the last house so much that we wanted it in this one,” says Robin, who along with Everett likes to entertain guests frequently. Their home also serves as a model for clients to see different finishes and materials.

While the smooth-flowing layout owes much to Robin’s sensibilities, the house’s rustic grandeur is all Everett. A designer who started out as a carpenter, Everett loves wood, so when he began sketching Harbor Haven, it was the great lodges of the Adirondacks that inspired him, even though he had never designed anything like them before. The lodge influence is visible throughout the house’s large windows, open spaces and exposed wood beams and ceilings. The gallery especially is a marvel of intersecting framework all along its telescopic view of adjoining rooms. The timber framing throughout the house didn’t come cheap; it raised construction costs 30%. “I totally blew the budget, and my wife aided and abetted me in every way possible,” says Everett.

The Pollards, though, aren’t content resting on their laurels because they continue to refine, redo and reshape parts of the house. The master bathroom, which they felt was too plain, was remodeled around teal glass accent tiles that Robin found at a local fair. After touring Nappa Valley wineries four years ago, Everett annexed space

Right: The award-winning addition over the garage serves as a cozy hideaway ideal for watching winter snowstorms at Harbor Haven. Below: An admirer of the great lodges of the Adirondacks, designer Everett Pollard created a timber-framed house in a lodge style that is a marvel of exposed beams and framework.

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Fine Design

from his workshop to create a wine cellar, which he built right down to the room’s 500 wooden slots for bottles. But the couple’s piece de resistance was an award-winning upstairs hideaway, added over the garage several years ago and used as a private living room. “In winter, we turn on the outside lights to see the snowstorm coming down through the picture window,” says Everett. Is there anything else about the house he would change? “I would love to have a second chance to do the lower walkout level and open it up more to the outdoors,” he replies. There may be more remodeling in the Pollards’ future.

Las Vegas Comes to IdahoThe first thing visitors notice when they enter Michael Heinz’s Mediterranean-style home in Meridien, Idaho, is the circular staircase. The scrolled iron railing begins its sweeping curve along the second-floor gallery, which protrudes in a semicircle, and then winds its way down to a pinwheel-patterned floor nestled in the stairwell. The

floor and the staircase are much less elaborate versions of those Heinz has seen at the Monte Carlo resort and casino in Las Vegas. But even scaled down and simplified, the pinwheel with the staircase wrapped around it didn’t look complete, so Heinz added a dome directly overhead. “It took the attention from the detail of the floor on up to the ceiling,” he says.

Built in 2007, the house is the latest version of a floor plan that Heinz first drew 25 years ago. Since then, he has varied, enlarged and perfected it over hundreds of homes designed in different styles for clients and his own family in three states. “I just liked the flow and the arrangement of the entry,” he says. The original design called for just 1,800 square feet of living space, but with each version the houses grew before maxing out at his home’s current size of 7,000 square feet. This latest version has fewer rooms—four bedrooms and two home offices—that Heinz made larger, along with a game room and a laundry room big enough to dance in. Other changes to the floor plan include an exercise room that migrated from another level to just off the master bedroom suite.

But the most significant change involves the circular staircase, which left a cozy enclosed space below that was perfect for a playroom. In addition to kid-size doorways, the walls have a castle-themed mural complete with a friendly green dragon. The playroom gets a thumbs up from Heinz’s toughest clients: his grandkids. h

Above:The pinwheel-patterned floor and curving staircase were inspired by more elaborate versions that the designer first saw in a Las Vegas casino. Right: This Mediterranean house, home to designer Michael Heinz, has a floor plan he first drew 25 years ago and has been tinkering with ever since.

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Change your frame of reference.

© 2008 Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc. SFSPEC08

Moment frames have long been considered the expensive option when small wall sections and open fl oor plans make shearwalls unworkable. Simpson Strong-Tie is going to challenge that perception with the new Strong Frame™ Ordinary Moment Frame. Now you can choose from 196 engineered frames, in sizes up to 16 feet wide and 19 feet tall, instead of spending hours designing your own. Engineered anchorage solutions round out the package to provide a complete moment frame solution. And since the Strong Frame uses fi eld-bolted connections, it is easier and faster for contractors to handle and install. Now there is a cost-effective moment frame solution for residential, light commercial and multi-family applications: Simpson Strong-Tie® Strong Frame.

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