Many urban planners and sustainability theorists have been saying the suburbs and exurbs will become the slums as people are returning to the cities. Atlanta is the poster child of white flight and urban sprawl. We have been the heavy weight champion of the longest commute time in the US for many years. The housing crash had a much more devastating effect on suburb/ exurb property values, as the majority of foreclosures happened out there, not in the inner city. People are sick of the 3 hour commutes and unstable property values, so they're moving back to the city.
Like most cities, Atlanta has a huge stock of in town neighborhoods that are anywhere from 50-100 years old with a lot of tired old houses. Many of these structures have serious problems from structural damage due to age, termites, rot, and hidden fire damage to dated layouts that can't accommodate the needs of today. Residential designers lack the creativity and structural knowledge to get the most out of these old houses. Although there are many builders who simply knock down these old homes indiscriminately to build new, there are many who like renovating at spec or by commission of a homeowner. There are many opportunities for Architects in the inner city areas across the country to apply their knowledge and creativity to solving the problem of breathing new life into these old neighborhoods.
The builders and homeowners I work with always look at Renovating first, Repurposing next (saving most of the foundation and floor system+50% of the walls while completely changing the old house), and lastly, when the old building is "totaled", we Replace and build new. The 3 R's of in town construction. 90% of my work comes either directly or indirectly through builders and real estate agents. I highly recommend finding a quality home renovator in an inner city area near you. If you can find an area with a good school district, you will find good renovators. They will bring you the work! Trust me, there are many quality builders that need a creative, knowledgeable Architect to come up with designs to renovate these old houses either at spec or for a homeowner. If you can give them the designs that sell well, you will be golden. This is a design problem like any other and if your designs sell faster and for more, you will be deemed valuable, literally, not figuratively. Aesthetic value and sentimental value are nice, but if we want to be in demand, we need to prove that we can provide real dollar value to the builders. We can end the stereotype we've created that Architects over design houses and make the construction cost higher than what the house can sell for. When you renovate, each house is a new problem. You can't cookie cut this type of housing design. There's no internet catalog to browse. This is one area where we are needed! What are you waiting for? Renovate houses!
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Eric Rawlings AIA
Owner
Rawlings Design, Inc.
Decatur GA
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-02-2013 18:50
From: Lee Calisti
Subject: Client Perspective
There is a somewhat parallel discussion going on in the SPP Knowledge Community. A point that is rarely made with respect to residential clients and residential project opportunities is doing work for people who want a renovation, addition or some design to an EXISTING structure. This whole discussion of architects doing new construction is more irrelevant than the wealth of opportunities to address this market. Sean is starting to hit on it as is Eric, but where are the others?
I'm not looking for 100% agreement with respect to full services or limited services or whatever. That's your choice. However, why is there rarely a discussion about existing structures? How many people will build a new house? A super small percentage. However, everybody else lives in an existing house that needs some change.
There is far more drama in changing an existing structure and people are far more impressed when we pull it off.
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Lee Calisti AIA
Principal
lee CALISTI architecture+design
Greensburg PA
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