When I moved to the bay area I got involved with the local Habitat affiliate. I quickly discovered that this would be vastly different than my college experience. The need for affordable housing in the Bay Area is much more pronounced, the process of creating affordable housing here is more complex, and accordingly the Habitat affiliate is much larger.

I began my volunteer experience using my background as an architect, providing design services to the organization and volunteering on site when my schedule allowed. Over the years I have become more involved in the organization; as a committee member then a board member, which means less involved on site (swinging a hammer). While I really enjoy swinging a hammer (it’s nice to step out of one’s own element from time to time) I have found that using my professional training and experiences as a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity East Bay has been very meaningful to me.

While being a volunteer at the organizational level has been very rewarding, each year I allow myself to focus on swinging a hammer during Habitat for Humanity East Bay’s Build-A-Thon.  The  build-a-thon is a yearly event that both serves to boost the construction schedule for the organization; this year we will frame seven homes in four days; as well as being one of the affiliates major fund raisers. The event is scheduled on April 16^th through April 19^th. It coincides with earth day to highlight Habitat for Humanity East Bay’s commitment to sustainable building practices.

This year will mark my seventh consecutive build-a-thon. I think what is the most amazing aspect for me personally is that when you show up on the first day there is nothing but a concrete slab, when you leave on the end of the fourth day there are seven houses completely framed. It is an amazing transition that is based on the efforts of volunteers; it is a community event. If you would like to learn more about Habitat for Humanity East Bay, or this year’s Build-A-Thon, please visit  www.habitateb.org/build-a-thon

• we are notoriously socially awkward, and probably too clueless to catch on to the latest trends in hem lengths.
• we are not as well paid as some might think, and keeping a wardrobe current can be pricey – especially when one has high-quality taste.
• It’s a sales job, and every aspect of our presence – from our business card to our eyewear – sends a message to clients about our design sensibilities.  We need to look like a solid investment of their design dollars.

But I think none of these are the real reason.  Deep down inside, I think we’re afraid of looking dated.  Architectural design has been around for millennia, and let’s face it:  some buildings definitely age better than others.  Metallic wallpaper, anyone?  We’ve all seen buildings that look horribly dated, and not in a good way.

And yet this fear of obsolescence is countered by the desire to be “cutting-edge.”  Modern, hip, and a leader in our field.  Here, by the way, is why in fact we keep falling into the trap of designing buildings that age poorly…  Metallic wallpaper was exciting new technology at one point, after all.

Hence, this teeter-tottering between white picket fences, and corrugated metal siding.  On the fashion front, what is analogous to solid wood detailing, something we can all get behind?  Basic black.  “It’s the new black.”

No bold florals or glamorous paisleys, no ruches or ruffles; those will look “SO last week” next week.  On the flip side, no happy yellows or stable plaids either; can’t blend in with the masses -- after all, that doesn’t scream “Design With A Capital D,” does it?  So we’re left with black.  Dependable, timeless, yet still edgy and urban.  We’re trapped.

The ripples of surprise and confusion radiated across the lecture hall!  At the end of the presentation, one of my fellow students was brave enough to ask aloud the question we all were asking ourselves:  “why would an architect hire another architect to design their home?”  Since the fourth grade I had been keeping a folder of all the dream house sketches I could possibly imagine.  Don’t architects by their very nature have a burning desire to create a custom home for themselves?

I have learned that the old saying is true:  the cobbler’s children have no shoes.  As many of my friends are fellow architects, I find that as a rule our homes are all in various stages of disrepair and deconstruction.  Projects started and stopped abound, and we will guide our guests on tours that consist of “and here’s where I’m planning to build a _____,” or “this is where I’m working on turning this into a _____.”  But what have we done?  Well, not as much as we’d like… and unfortunately there’s always more.

On the flip side, when a cousin (non-architect) had a housewarming party, she took me on a tour and described the recent several weekends of rigorous work projects.  Hanging pictures, putting in a landscape, adding shelves… everything was now in its place.  “We’re done,” she said.  Done?  DONE?  How could anyone ever possibly be DONE with home?  It was a foreign concept to me.

Mr. Prince answered the student’s question by pointing out that in any project, there are mistakes, shortcomings, and of course that pesky 20-20 hindsight vision.  His client, like all architects, couldn’t walk through a space without being confronted by all those mistakes, all that potential, without seeing how it “could have been better.”  So who wants to be surrounded by all of their own shortcomings in their own home?  At home, his client wanted to be able to turn that all off.

At the end of the day, wouldn’t it be nice to leave work at work?  But it is possible when work is more than just a job, it’s an obsession?  In the end, I think I don’t WANT to design my own home, but I NEED to.  It’s a compulsion.  Maybe someday I will overcome this madness, as did Mr. Prince’s client, but I can’t imagine getting there today. 

Fortunately, the office next door has the most helpful IT manager I’ve ever met, and he took pity on me.  It wasn’t the first time, and it likely won’t be the last.

All I can say is this:  always be friendly to those who know more about computers than you do!  I am forever in debt to this kind gentleman, but nevertheless, repairs left me for two days without my most critical business tool.  Up until this point, I don’t know if I had realized how utterly dependent I am upon this glorious machine.  What happened to the days when all an architect needed was a pencil?  And what will we do when our international (or interstellar) enemies use an electromagnetic pulse to disable all of our electronics?   I shudder to think.

The week was ending and I was woefully behind on my current project by the time “my precious” was back in full working order.  Luckily the deadline wasn’t until Monday, and this meant I could play catch up over the weekend.  Unluckily, this meant I could play catch up over the weekend…

My client was willing to work with me in the face of this utter calamity, and made herself available during the downtime to answer my string of last-minute questions.  (What color did you want the trims to be?  What do you think of this solution for lighting the skylight?)  The product was finished to her satisfaction, and that week we visited the building department together with positive results.  And let me tell you, after that, I made two more backups of my computer’s hard drive.

Now I need to send a thank-you gift to my IT savior.  Any ideas?

I read an interesting article last week which suggested that high voltage charging stations could make the future of electric cars much more viable. The premise is that long charging times have been one of the many hurdles to the mass production of electric cars. The idea of 480 volt charging stations certainly raises some safety concerns, and there is always a question of how much energy goes into creating the electricity in the first place; but the idea seems to have merit.

I have always been skeptical of hybrid vehicles that average 40 miles to the gallon or less; so I am optimistic of the high voltage charging stations. But, this also got me thinking about fuel efficiency on the whole.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that new vehicles sold in the US averaged 23.1 miles per gallon in 1980 and 24.7 in 2004.  A 1984 Ford Escort is listed as 35mpg city and 47 highway where a 2010 Prius is listed as 51mpg city and 48 highway.  I’d like to think that over a 26 year period we would have seen a much better improvement than this!  It’s hard to look at just the numbers, though; certainly the features, comfort level, power, safety and amenities have all vastly improved in that time span...  So, what does the average consumer want? More comfort features or better fuel efficiency? I wonder why we can’t have both?

Some time ago I was shopping at the local home improvement center (nope, I am not going to name names) for some red paint for a project I was working on. Being very inspired by the modernist art movement, I was looking for primary red. Standing in front of a wall of color samples, I must have looked something like a deer caught in headlights. The sheer amount of color samples is simply overwhelming, and to some extent amazing. Anyway, looking bewildered in a home improvement store is one way to get a sales associate to help you, and sure enough I was approached by someone who was indeed trying to be helpful when they asked if they could help me find anything. I said yes, I would like red paint, to which the (trying to be) helpful associate responded “what color red?”  I found this question to be a bit odd, you see I always assumed that red was a color, so I responded that I simply wanted red, period. Again I was asked “yes, but what color red?” I am pretty sure at this point I went into some diatribe about red as a primary color, nothing more, and nothing less. The long and short of it is that at the home improvement center there is no such paint with the label “red”. In our efforts to give ourselves more choices, better selections, more options to keep up with our busy lives we have overcomplicated our world to the extent that red no longer exists. Simple is not always a bad thing…..

For our firm, this represents little change.  Most of our projects have been subject to special green regulations for the past decade.  Local jurisdictions and public/private funding usually require these measures already – reduced water use, recycled-content carpets, and efficient energy use have been par for the course.  Alameda County Waste Management created the green standards which eventually became the statewide GreenPoint Rated program, and cities like Oakland have always asked recipients of city funding to follow this checklist.

We’re excited to witness California’s adoption of the greenest building standards in the US, and look forward to seeing sustainability become business-as-usual in the construction marketplace.

Gary and I, as the founding principals of Struthers Dias Architects, have a very unique and cooperative relationship.  Having worked together now for about 8 years, we know each other pretty well.  We have tremendous respect for one another’s talents – but we’re also good friends.  We would have to be, to have survived the process of getting this company off the ground in such a weak economy.  But survive we have.  In fact, all signs point to 2010 being a year of exciting growth for SDA.

Some people mistakenly assume we’re a married couple because of our excellent rapport.  Many folks have concerns about working with a husband-wife team: that there would be outside drama and distraction in the workplace.  Some clients have gone so far as to express relief upon learning that we DO in fact have our own spouses and families to return to at the end of each day.  (This article suggests that husband-and-wife teams are frequently unbalanced and one-sided.)  Actually, we offer our clients the best of both worlds – two equally talented and attentive principals focused on high levels of customer service. 

As members of a team, Gary brings fierce dedication to the table and I counter that with a practical, problem-solving approach.  I connect with people and groups on a personal level, and understand how the spaces need to function to fit their special dynamic.  Gary has a straightforward vision of how the materials and elements can fit together simply and cleanly.  We believe our clients deserve the best we both can offer, and so we choose to work in a collaborative fashion.  One of us may be the day-to-day project manager on a given project, but the other is the overseeing principal in charge, offering design input and quality enhancement throughout.  Being business associates means that we are able to be honest and uncompromised in making the best decisions possible.

Starting a business can be a lonely enterprise – making the switch from spending every day surrounded by a crew of compatriots, to eating that sandwich alone day after day.  It would not be as much fun without a partner – for bouncing ideas around, for motivation and cheerleading, and companionship.  But the bottom line of our partnership is this:  each project is simply better when we both have input.  As the Edge (from the band U2) puts it, we’re “greater than the sum of the parts.”  Gary and I have a synergy together, and our clients benefit from that – which is why we make it a policy to both be involved on every job.

This gem of a quote came from my business partner last week, in the middle of a fairly important project interview. It got quite a laugh, including from myself; however it was a very serious point that she was making. Her point was this: at the end of a project (and this really doesn’t matter if we are talking about a very small scale single family renovation project or a very large scale multi-family housing project) few people walk away with a remembrance of the design process. What sticks out in their memory is the construction process.

It makes a fair amount of sense; design happens in an office, at a desk, often on a computer. It’s a process that few people see in great detail; it is largely intangible. Construction happens.  It happens at your home or possibly on a new plot of land -- but regardless of where it happens, it is very tangible. A quality construction project relies heavily on a good contractor; again this applies to all scales of projects. But it also relies on a good design by an architect who understands the process of not only the design side, but what needs to be well-communicated to the contractor so they can do their job (and do it well).

Too many times, architects and contractors are seen as adversaries with different goals, objectives, and priorities. The most successful projects are the ones in which everyone is working as a team to achieve common goals and objectives.  The owner can help set this tone by selecting the architect and contractor early, and based on qualifications – not based on the lowest bid (which immediately sows the seeds of competitiveness and blame).  Creating a sense of “teamwork” from the very beginning is crucial if there is to be “teamwork” at the end as well.