Design Continues

Left to Right: Partial upper floor plan showing HVAC shaft in upper right corner. Revised design on the right shows duct in center, adjacent to stairwell.

Well, things are still on schedule, but we ran into a bit of a problem this week. The design that I was going to post came back from the engineer with a minor coordination issue. I had provided a shaft for the mechanical ductwork from the start of the schematic and somehow it had gotten squeezed to the point where it no longer lined up. Olivier, the draftsman at CTW Engineers picked it up during the drafting phase and forwarded it to our office for review. It took a couple of days of re-design, but now we have a “final” schematic design that’s ready to go back to the engineer. I’ll post the design next week. While it is in engineering, we’ll be working on the kitchen design, which right now needs some work, as well as the master bathroom. The engineers are hoping to have the rough structural plan ready for review by the middle of next week. Once we review and resolve any major coordination problems, they will begin their calculations and start the process of finalizing the building structure.

Final Design and Coordination

So this week started out with some calls to the original surveyor on the project. The property came with a survey and a soils report (a savings of about $5,000), but verifying these documents is critical. Since I know the soils engineer, I confirmed with him that the project was buildable and then authorized an addendum to the report. The survey company, after some harassment, is sending a "wet stamped" copy of the project. This is necessary in case the building department asks for it. Usually they don't, but with hillside projects it comes up from time to time. It is important when you are starting a new project to at least be aware of the lot perameters. You can do this by going to the local tax accessors web site or office and asking for a "tract map". Having your lot information (tax id, address, etc...) is also helpful.

In any case here we are after about 8-10 weeks of schematic design and we have a building design! For a diagram showing the way the design developed formally, check here.

In other news I spoke with the structural engineers office this morning and they are in the beginning phases of engineering. There is still no word on when the drawings will be ready, but we are hoping to submit for permit in late July.

During the rest of the week, we'll be working on tweaking the details, such as the kitchen layout, bathrooms, etc... Once we have a set of preliminary structural drawings back from the engineer, we'll begin to finalize the Design Development package. I'll post more images of the finished design during the week.

So Rewind back to the Fall of 2005. I was looking for another lot to build on and my Realitor, Joseph Treves of Sothebys sent me a group of listings in the Echo Park area. While most of the lots in Echo Park are either built out, un-buildable, or over-priced. I managed to find an 8,300 square foot lot that had a gorgeous view of the Lincoln Heights neighborhood and on clear days views of the San Gabriel Mountains. As a bonus the lot was on a Cul-de-Sac, thus giving a feeling of exclusivity.

After a failed negotiation, we finally managed to secure the lot in November of 2006 (about two years to the day I bought my own lot in Silver lake). After doing a weeks worth of “due-diligence” with the City I felt comfortable enough to reason that the lot was buildable, despite it’s being perched on a hillside.

The property, while commanding sweeping views and being in a quiet neighborhood has two major problems.

1) It’s on about a 45 degree slope. This means that building on it will require extensive engineering and friction piles (deep holes bored in the ground with an auger and then filled with concrete and rebar (steel)). Luckily, as part of the research prior to escrow I was able to find an existing soils report from an engineer I know and respect. Getting a soils report and a survey prior to close of escrow on a hillside lot is critical. Without them, you are playing Russian roulette. However, even with them the Los Angeles Dept. of Grading has to approve the report. If you buy a lot with an approved report, you are almost “golden”. These however, are rare, and usually mean that the previous owner ran out of money on the project or encountered some unforeseen difficulties in construction.

2) The top of the lot is about 85 vertical feet and 300 horizontal feet from the Glendale (or the 2) Freeway. This element poses a huge problem with regards to both the acoustical and aesthetic properties of the project. No one wants to live next to a Freeway. On the brighter side, the Freeway is below the lot, so if you are looking at the view, you never know it’s there.

From the close of escrow to last week I’ve been hammering out various designs here in the studio that range from a square doughnut (by far everyone’s favorite, but the most expensive) to the current scheme which balances the forces of economics with the desire beauty (or to quote Vitruvius “Commodity, firmness, and delight”). The trick now is to see how it fairs in engineering. I met with the engineering firm CTW Engineers abut the project in the Spring. Christian Williamson who is the principal, and I have been working together since 2002 when we were both getting our companies started. I like Christian because he and his employees are young, knowledgeable, and willing to listen to your arguments. I also have gotten a pretty good structural education from them and have become well-versed at knowing the limitations of Type V (wood) construction. The problem with a lot of architects is that they try to design wood structures as they would a steel one. This poses a huge number of problems- especially here in Southern California where we have these little events known as “earthquakes”.

We are currently wrapping up the renderings for the schematic design package this week and I should be posting the scheme online next week through our website.

Blog Launch

So today marks the launch of the Urban Operations Project Blog. The purpose of this blog is to document the a residential project I am currently working on in Los Angeles from start to completion. After working with Taalman Koch Architecture on their iT House Blog, I thought it might be interesting to carry on the experiment, albeit from an even earlier perspective. While the iT House Blog focuses on the construction of the first iT House, this blog is an attempt to give transparency to the process from design to the occupancy of a project. It is my hope that by reading the entries, visitors will better understand the sometimes cloudy processes that are involved in the design and erection of a piece of residential architecture.

To kick off the first entry, I am listening to the plotter in my studio whir away at the first check set for the project. We are due to submit the final schematic package to CTW Engineers- the structural engineers on the project. It is their estimate that the package should be ready for plan-check sometime in late July. Technosoils, the Geological consultant on the project is revising their report (commissioned by the previous owner) and we should be submitting it to the Los Angeles Department of Grading for review in a couple of weeks.

Do you feel like you've missed a step?

Well, to confess the blog is not exactly starting at the VERY beginning. To explain more, I bought a piece of land last November in the LA neighborhood of Echo Park. The lot is about 8500 square feet with a slope of about 1/1 (45 degrees). Lots like this one are not uncommon in the hilly areas of Los Angeles, and looking at land like this gives most people the jitters when they think about building on them (myself included). Having had some design-build experience before with my own house, as well as the iT House with TK, I opted to try to do it again. The project is the first one for my studio Urban Operations which is my solo-practice I started after the closing of my partnership with LEVEL design studio. I've gone through several schemes over the past 10 weeks (not including late night sketches last Winter on cocktail napkins at the neighborhood bar). While working without a client may seem attractive,I've found it poses a major problem: A lack of design guidelines.

Certainly, since this project is "Spec development" it would seem easy enough, right? Make a box, then sell aforementioned box to a consumer, and bathe in the cash from the sale. However, with so much visual junk already in the LA architectural landscape, I thought it might be nice to try and make a positive contribution. It's also an attempt to "kick-start" my new office and try and attract clients who are interested in contemporary design, as well as a chance to let architecture change their lives. It's also an opportunity to continue some of the design ideas I initiated in my own house.

In any case, stay tuned over the next couple of days for a review of what's been going on with the design of the project, and what will be coming up over the next few months. For those interested in contacting the office, our Website is still in the production phase but should be up and running in July.