Title 24 Calculations

I submitted the project to the Title-24 Engineer today for review. In California it is a requirement to have energy loads computed for the project in order to minimize it’s impact on regional resources. We use Khalifeh Associates in West L.A. for our projects. Soody and her office are charming to work with and timely in providing us with information about our projects. Soody also is one of the more helpful consultants we’ve worked with and is always happy to explain the outcomes of her calcs. Title-24 Engineers are one of the many consultants that have to be on board for a project in California. When it’s all said and done, getting even the smallest house built requires a team of dedicated professionals to ensure that it complies with current building practices, and codes. For more information on the Title-24 requirements go here.

Soils and Geology Submitted!

Yes, you are seeing it correctly. By 10:31 AM the L.A. Building Department has already seen 600 people before me. By the time I actually got to the counter, six more people had signed up behind me...and that's just for the Grading Division.

Today marks a milestone in the project. This morning I dropped the Soils and Geology report off with the L.A. Grading Department. The current estimated time for reviewing the report is estimated to be...8 weeks. However, the employee at the counter told me that it would probably be much shorter due to a drop off in submittals. We are on schedule to submit the project for plan check on August 1st and should be getting our corrections back in September. We're keeping our fingers crossed that there are no big surprises, but with the Building Department, anything is possible. The Grading Department engineers will review the report and issue "Recommendations". These are actually more like requirements for construction and, despite the title, anything but optional. When we submit our plans for plan check, we will have to submit a set of grading drawings for review that must comply with the recommendations. The whole process is expected to take 8- 10 weeks once we submit all of our drawings for plan check. In the meantime we are finalizing the design development drawings and engineering in preparation for our August 1st deadline.

Progress.

The lull in the project schedule has allowed us to take a breather from the design development drawings and focus on finalizing some of the images and schematic documents. I managed to put together some renderings which show the exterior of the building and discuss the facade relationships on the two primary sides that face Corralitas and the Freeway. The result of the design has been a bit of a paradox in that the majority of openings are on the Freeway-facing side of the project. This was to capture the most views, and take advantage of the morning sun. In order to alleviate the sound issues associated with the freeway, all of the windows of the "quiet" spaces have been reduced in height and begin at shoulder level. This is to allow for privacy without having to add curtains, as well as allow for the addition of built-in storage which should dampen the sound by using the mass of the storage cabinets. The surreal quality of the renderings was inspired by the current David Hockney exhibition showing here in L.A. at LACMA. To see them, click here.

Design Development Begins!

Over the past couple of weeks we've been tweaking the final floor plan so that it could be sent off to the engineer. They are beginning their calculations this week and should be done and ready for our submittal date of August 1st. Technosoils is finalizing their report and we will be submitting it to the Grading Department next week. Once they have approved the report we will then file for a grading permit. Normally, most offices submit their package all at once, but knowing how long the Grading Department usually takes, we are trying to speed things up. There is very little chance they will reject the report, and so it makes sense to get a jump on things.

With the schematic design phase wrapped up and the project in engineering, we are starting the design development set of documents. It is here that material systems get selected and any "kinks" in the design get worked out. I spent last week researching on fixtures and mechanical equipment for the house in order to make sure they would fit into the spaces provided in the design. Over the next couple of weeks we'll be showing off different aspects of the design as they get developed and bring the project closer to the next phase: Construction documents.

Check out the final design here.