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Perry Cofield AIA
Design Ways & Means Architects
Arlington VA
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Eric's designing "Custom Speculative Houses" is sadly an oxymoron at present. Builders are not really customers- they are often merchant partners-in-crime. Why a crime? Because so many builders limit themselves to the post-war vision of suburbia. I have life-long admiration for the pre-war (World War II) mid-town suburbs of so many US cities- Atlanta, Jacksonville, San Antonio, Louisville, Richmond, New Orleans, you name it. Some cities, like Charlotte and Coral Gables have Truly Sustainable Communities derived from master planning with firm-but-flexible development standards practiced over time. Little problem maintaining property values here!
In this Old America, homes of different sizes and styles continue to exist cheek by jowl. Owner incomes vary. Appraisals are based more on the intrinsic value of the home. Service retail exists nearby. In some cases, tear-downs, due to the increasing aggregate value of their locales, pose a threat to stability- but not declining values. Because old suburbs are now a form of urbanism.
The state of homebuilding is that we have not taken advantage of computers that could easily replicate the variety, eclecticism, serendipity and varied materials of older neighborhoods. After all, the variety of goods we can order over the internet is staggering, is it not? We are a nation of parcelmen and lorries. Now Google-earth various locales: why are new development parcels so devoid of zest? It is little exaggeration to state that builders continue their fallback to 5-over 4 and a door with a 2-3 car garage loaded to the side. What kind of urbanism is that?
If Eric could produce homes that offer the kind of variety suggested here, more power to him. Maybe he is doing it already. The next step would be to raise the density within subsequent communities he works in- from 4 to maybe 8 DU/acre. Allow garage apartments for the young. Allow some duplexes, even 6-plex apartment buildings. Find a walkable retail core somewhere in this varied mix. Build narrow-lot passive solar models. Instead of boredom, variety! At which point the architect has become far more than the permit drawing guy- he is building communities.
You may say I'm a dreamer; hope I'm not the only one. While growing up in a bland early 60's development, my world-view benefited from schooling in a catchment area with everything from a trailer park to old-guard waterfront mansions. Having taught some third graders recently, I can tell you their concept of urbanism is their neighborhood strip center with a Best Buy and a Trader Joes! Ultimately, the concern is public health. Does the zeitgeist of subdivisions- this conformity that makes some young people seem weirder than they really are- contribute to young white males going off their rockers? Note ironically how the gun and vehicular populations have extrapolated in parallel tandem here since the 70's. Make of it what you will- but the development that raised me hasn't physically improved in 50 years- just has more cars littering the yards.
I do not pretend to have a lot of answers. Maybe these points blame the wrong people. But surely what NAHB espouses- that 95% of America still wants a single family house- is quite dated. But dated mostly by what are presented as current and relevant models for this ever-desirable building type. Their surveys obsess over faucets- not site planning. In this regard they seem what scientists refer to as "not even wrong". In closing, is it really a good idea to segregate custom architects from merchant architects? Perhaps some just bore more than they realize! Better close now, lest you include me.