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Commercial Timber Frame Architecture

July 25th, 2010

The Rand Soellner Architect firm has been recently asked to consider designing several commercial timber frame projects.  Soellner’s answer is: YES!  Just this last week, Rand Soellner was approached by a large manufacturing company to create a timber framed shop for them.  Also, Soellner was asked to consider a 9 acre retail – commercial – hotel – restaurant – nature development.  Due to client confidentiality, the location cannot be revealed at this time.

The clients want mountain – themed timber frame / post and beam design approaches.  For the timber frame shop, the client has also asked Soellner to create some exterior appearance renovations for the surrounding industrial structures to refresh a 12 acre manufacturing grouping of buildings into a timber-framed themed cohesive public image.

While Rand Soellner’s website is strong on residential architecture, if you look on the right side menus for PROJECT INDEX, then once there, look for Mountain Resort Architects, that will give you some idea of the Soellner firm’s commercial timber capabilities.  Or click here: mountain resort architects .  There is more information about commercially related post and beam design work on the Multi Family Housing selection on that Project Index page.

Also, if you look in the Popular Design Services portion of the right-side menu of the website, click on “Timber Frame Architects.”  That gives some general background on that specialty.  Or click here:  timber frame architects

Rand Soellner has been designing, managing, detailing, specifying and working on post and beam projects for a long time.  He was the architect of record on about half of Jurassic Park in Orlando.  That project had a great deal of large timbers, timber trusses, special post and beam arrangement and special conditions to suit that world-class theme destination.  Click here: recreational architect to see images and read more information about that amazing project.  Project cost was between $50 million to $74 million.

The information being conveyed here is that Soellner designs much more than post and beam houses.  If you are a developer or land owner, or are looking for a commercial timber frame architect to create a special project for you, Soellner may be the architect for whom you are looking.

Or, give Rand Soellner a call: 1-828-269-9046 from just about anywhere in the world.  He would be glad to discuss your project.

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Shear Walls, Anchor Bolts & Hold Downs

July 23rd, 2010

Not a very exciting topic for residential architects to be talking about is probably what you’re thinking.  We agree.  Only, we want our clients to never be excited about these things, because they keep the homes we design safe and sound.  The structural engineer, with whom we always coordinate, works together with us to determine the best locations for shear walls, the anchor bolt spacings and the shear wall hold downs.

What’s the difference between an anchor bolt and a hold down?  An anchor bolt, as defined by the International Residential Code: anchor bolts resist lateral forces that could cause a building to lift or slide off the foundation.  Anchor bolts must have sufficient embedment to resist pullout and must be spaced properly to secure the sill in place.  Washers must be capable of distributing a load across the sill without it cracking or splitting.

We would also add that anchor bolts help resist vertical suction loads as well, such as during heavy winds.  Many of our projects are in mountainous wind zones of between 110 mph to 130 mph.    We would also modify the definition of the washer at the sill plate to primarily distribute a compression load across the wood plate.

Hold downs are essentially the anchor bolt’s big brother and are typically required to be installed adjacent to several studs, typically called a “studpack.”  The hold down is a premanufactured item out of heavy gauge galvanized steel and its anchor bolt rod typically extends down all the way into the footing.  The main purpose of hold downs are to secure the wood stud walls in the structure from dislocation during seismic shaking and wind.

We typically look at our floor plans and evaluate where the structural engineer would likely want to see shear walls.  We normally accomplish this with manufactured wood sheathing panels securely attached to both sides of stud walls that run perpendicular to our “View Walls.”  Because the view walls normally have large amounts of windows and glass, we look for every opportunity to brace these “normal” to their geometry, to strengthen them against horizontal wind and earthquake movement.  According to what the contractors and building officials tell us, our designs normally have more bracing for wind and earthquakes than most home design plans coming through their offices.  This is because we are architects and want it done correctly.

Within the shear walls, we locate the hold downs, near ends and at structural discontinuities like windows and doors, fireplaces and the like.  Therefore, our hold downs brace the already panel-sheathing-braced shear walls, which results in a super-secure arrangement making the houses we design more solid than most in the United States and the world.

Once again, perhaps this does not sound very glamorous, but if you are sleeping and up gusts a high wind or a little tremor, you should be able to continue sleeping comfortably, knowing that your structural engineer and architect have resolved these issues.

Contact for:  properly braced residential design:

Rand Soellner, AIA/NCARB  1-828- 269-9046
rand@HomeArchitects.com
www.HomeArchitects.com

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Compact Homes That Live Big

July 17th, 2010

Rand Soellner Architect is receiving as many requests for smaller high-quality homes that live big as for larger residences.  Many people want to downsize, or simply pay less during challenging economic times.  Soellner has responded with a series of higher-quality compact houses that have spacious organizations that defy the imagination as to how small or large they are physically.

This is a perceptual art, refined by Soellner over decades; since his days working on his Master’s Degree in Architecture at the University of Florida.  He also has a minor in Environmental Psychology, in which he researched people’s reactions to space.  Soellner also designed projects for one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s main apprentices, Nils Schweizer, FAIA.  Wright was a master of overlapping spaces in residential design.  Soellner learned this while studying the buildings at the Florida Southern campus and designing for one of Wright’s main proteges.

Soellner has created an assemblage of compact plans that are just about unbelievable, in terms of features and rooms, when compared with the square footage.  For instance, he has a Cardinal Camp Cottage series that has a 3-story design with 2 stories over a walkout basement.  It has 5 bedrooms (one an optional den/home-office), and 3 bathrooms.  It is a very compact 2,472 hsf (heated square feet).

That also includes: a recreation room in the walkout basement, a laundry room (yes, with the large washers and dryers of the 21st century), a mechanical space, a pantry closets, walk in closets in bedrooms, ample large door areas facing views and exterior living area porches, a larger than normal gourmet kitchen with a center island AND another bar for pull-up stools, a 48″ wide gas range, dining space on the view, a great room/living area with a fireplace, a foyer, a master suite with its own fireplace, a master bath and master walk-in closet, an optional pop-out luxury master bath, a sleeping porch, an outdoor living room, outdoor dining with summer kitchen, stairs, a front porch, an optional garage (2 car oversize standard), an optional powder room, an optional shop in the garage, an upper loft level with loft/bridge overlooking the great room below, a bathroom for 3 people at once, and double doors to the upper loft bedrooms.   Yes!  All of that in under 2,500 hsf!  Seem impossible?  Soellner himself would have thought so, until he created it.

Be among the first, few lucky homeowners to experience this luxury in such an affordable package.  Just recently, clients visited Soellner to review these schemes with him and were delighted by the affordability, luxury, and functionality offered by these amazingly spacious arrangements.

Soellner has created about 7 main optional arrangements, with scores of options for each plan, to allow people to tailor a custom house for each family. “People are special,” said Soellner, “Everyone is unique and has particular needs, desires, and dreams for their house.  Consequently, each design for each client develops their signature on it.”  The method developed by this custom residential architect is to allow people from all over the USA and the world to come and visit him in his studio, where he will enthusiastically display his designs, discussing the direction that new client might wish to pursue.  Then, when contracted, Soellner creates the scheme appropriate for each client’s wishes.

“Part of the secret to accomplishing these compact houses that live big is to use Wright’s principle of overlapping spaces in open plan arrangements,”  said Soellner, “this is something I studied decades ago and have used in my designs since I was a young designer.”  Soellner explained that his new compact residences still have internal views as long as 34′, a distance not expected within smaller housing.  The secrets as to how this architect accomplishes this is revealed to those new clients who visit him and have one created just for them!

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Home Designs for Me

July 10th, 2010

This is about you looking for home designs and what you find and what you don’t find and what you can do to obtain the home designs that satisfy your needs.

You and Home Designs

You look and look and look but you never find that floor plan that seems to suit your exact needs.  You might have found a style or “look” that appeals to you, but the exact plan just doesn’t seem to exist.  Why?  Because you are unique.

A floor plan is the graphic layout of one particular client’s desired lifestyle and response to their specific property’s characteristics.   Let’s say that again: any and ALL of the floor plans you are reviewing on the Internet were conceived for other people, not you.

This means that the layouts you see in the existing floor plans suit the people who paid the architect to create that house design for them.  You are looking for free, aren’t you?  Floor plans and architectural design is a very complex activity, created by skilled professionals carefully listening to the dreams and functional requirements of clients who pay them to create a design that satisfies their programmatic needs and responds appropriately to their property as well.

So, you spend weeks, then months online in your leisure time, hoping against hope that you will find a floor plan that works for you and your site.  Well … here you are, still at it after months and months or possibly years later and you still haven’t found that perfect plan, have you?  You won’t.  Why?  Once again: because you are special.  So are the people who paid that architect who created those plans for them.  But you just want to take plans you find online and use them, right?  Just because they are posted on the Internet does not mean that they are free.

There is the U.S. Copyright Act, which is very real.  It protects the work of musicians, composers, singers, architects, artists, photographers, and others who create a work of intellectual property.  Common law copyright protects any work of intellectual property automatically.  However, many architects also indicate a “(C) Copyright 2010 Rand Soellner, All Rights Reserved Worldwide” notation by their designs so that you and others know that it is copyright protected.  Penalties for unauthorized use can amount to $200,000 or more.  It is not worth it to attempt to use an architect’s work without their permission and payment for their work.

It is far easier, cheaper, better, and more ethical to contact the architect whose work you like and pay them to create a floor plan and a house design just for you that suits your every need.

And let’s think about how valuable your time is.  How many hours, weeks, months,or years have you spent trying to find something “for free” that suits your needs?  Think about how much you earn at your job per hour.  Multiply that rate times the amount of time you may have spent looking for “the perfect plan” online.  You will probably be shocked to see that you have spent tens of thousands of dollars of your leisure time looking for something that does not exist.  That’s not free.  Your time is valuable.  Wouldn’t you rather do something more enjoyable with your time?

So instead, why don’t you try this:
1.  Do look on line for designs whose appearance you like.
2.  Contact that architect.
3.  If they seem like interested, responsive professionals, arrange to meet with them.
4.  When you meet with them, review the floor plans for the house whose style you liked, and talk with the architect how those plans might be modified to suit your needs.
OR: consider starting a design for your lifestyle and your site from scratch.
5.  After you have contracted the architect whom you wish to work with, have them meet you at your property and walk it together, taking special note of desired views and other situations that can affect placement of your residential design.
6.  Proceed, with the considered opinions of your architect.

A house architect has likely spent decades designing custom residential designs for people similar to you.  He/she has the skills necessary to turn your words and dreams into functional three-dimensional reality at your site.  Even if you think you have found a plan that works for you before finding your architect, you may discover that there are things about it that will cost you much more for the construction or that may not be very pleasant, than if you had allowed your architect to adjust arrangements to best suit your specific needs and your site’s characteristics.  In other words: listen to your architect.  Their advice is valuable and helpful.

If you are going to be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars (or possibly more) for the construction of your dream house, don’t you deserve to have it designed to suit your personal wishes, needs, and land?  Do yourself a big favor and hire your own architect who you are paying to listen to you to make a custom residence design to make you happy.

Home designs for me contact:

Rand Soellner HOME ARCHITECTS TM
1-828-269-9046
rand@HomeArchitects.com

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Now is the Time to Design and Build Your Home

July 1st, 2010

When people are moving through history, they seldom understand the significance of any specific period of days, weeks, or months.  Just more days, right?   However, it is a huge advantage to you if you have studied the trends and read what knowledgeable entities have to say.  This can allow you to take advantage of the present situation and not have to say to yourself later:  “If  I’d only known, I would have ___________.”

Entities to know and listen to today are Harvard University, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Warren Buffett. In particular, what these entities have to say with respect to the United States housing economy is important to us all here in the USA.

So, when is the best time would be to have your dream house designed and built.  The answer: right now.  Why?  Because the new residential construction market has been at a virtual standstill for the last couple of years.  This is what needed to happen, because America had been building 2 million new houses a year when it really only needed 1.2 million per year.  That means that about 800,000 of the new residences a year built during the last 2 to 3 years was an ‘over-supply’, beyond what the normal demand could absorb.  Kind of unbalanced, wasn’t it?

Much of this oversupply of new housing was from ambitious investors, trying to ride the residential price bubble and make a substantial profit.  Unfortunately, when the oversupply of new houses began to just sit there on the market, unsold, it took other ambitious investors too long to understand the big picture of what was wrong and why they really should not have built at that time for strictly investment purposes.

So what has been happening during these skimpy construction years, beginning around 2008 and continuing through 2010?  According to Warren Buffett, people are gradually buying the oversupply of houses, at bargain discount prices.  This is an obvious consequence of the oversupply.  So, while America’s housing market waits, this oversupply is being consumed by bargain hunting buyers.  The big question is: When will the oversupply be sufficiently absorbed to allow people to return to normal housing design and construction?

All of the sources indicated above have reported, in one form or another, that the 3rd quarter of 2010 will show the first increase in housing spending since the end of 2008, and that the 4th quarter will show even greater housing spending.  Mr. Buffett said in his February 2010 letter to his shareholders that the current housing situation “should largely be behind us by this time next year.”  Which means that his information and research tells him that by February 2011, the housing market should be back to normal.

We all know that things of this magnitude do not happen over night, so Harvard’s statistical forecast about the 3rd and 4th quarter upturns in housing in 2010 make perfect sense.  Understanding this, what can any of us do with this information to benefit our circumstances?  Especially if we have been waiting on the fence, ready to have our new dream house designed and built?

Well, it appears that right now would be a prudent time to engage your residential architect to prepare the design for your proposed new house, then have your contractor price it and then begin construction as soon as possible.  Why?  Because when the housing market has fully recovered, what do you suppose will happen to prices?  Right: they will increase.  They are at record lows right now.  If you want to take advantage of the current low prices, it would seem to make sense to put your design and construction on a fast track, before correcting market conditions erase the current economic advantage that you presently enjoy.

The time has come to design and to build.



Contact information for design and building of your proposed new dream house:
Rand Soellner HOME ARCHITECTS TM
rand@HomeArchitects.com
1-828-269-9046
For custom residential designs Anywhere throughout the USA, Canada, and the World.

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Oklahoma Timber Frame Architecture

June 25th, 2010

Rand Soellner Architect is a popular choice for people looking for timber frame architects for their proposed homes in  locations across the USA.  Some of these people want this timeless architecture for their dream retirement houses, or for a new family compound estate village, or if they are down-sizing and want a more modest residence.

oklahoma timber frame architecture

Rand Soellner’s work can be authentic or conventional + hybrid timber features, as you wish and as your construction budget permits.  He will help you get what you want for your next house in Oklahoma, or wherever you happen to be located.

Timber Frame Architecture in Oklahoma

Why are we talking about Oklahoma timber frame architecture?  Because some of Soellner’s clients are there and others have made inquires.  Broken Bow, Eufaula, Oklahoma City, and other towns and counties have been very interested in Soellner’s work in timber frames.

Please let us know if we may be of service to you.  We also service Arkansas, Texas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana and other parts of the USA, no matter where your land happens to be found.

Rand was having lunch recently with a provider of timber frame trusses, beams, and posts.  The manufacturer’s representative made an interesting comment about when people might decide to have their dream home designed and built.  The representative became philosophical and commented that “None of us are going to live forever.”  His point was the sooner someone gets started having their wonderful residence designed, the sooner they can get it built, move in, and start enjoying life there the way they have always wanted.  And they can do so for a longer period of time if they don’t keep putting it off.

oklahoma timber frame architecture

Prioritize what is important to you in life. It just might be your next dream house.

Why do you keep putting it off?  There are many convenient things to blame: the economy, your nephew’s graduation, wanting to earn an arbitrary amount of money before proceeding with your dream house.  Sure, any of these reasons seem valid at the time.  However, in the grand scheme of your lifetime, getting what you really want to make you happier then you have ever been before really should become a priority, shouldn’t it?  The payback to you is in how many years to get to enjoy your dream residence.   Every year you put it off means another year you won’t be able to enjoy it.  That is irretrievable.   Only you can adjust things in your life to allow you to proceed with the best house of your life.

That’s where Rand Soellner HOME ARCHITECTS TM come into the situation.  They can help you program, design, and assist in administering the construction of your special home.

tags: oklahoma timber frame architecture, post and beam, custom, mountain, castle, mansion, small, cottage, green, log, arts and crafts, rustic, oklahoma, texas, eufaula, city, searcy, fort smith, charlotte, cashiers, hendersonville, atlanta, chicago, greeville, las vegas, hilton head, denver, aspen, telluride, whistler, vancouver, new york, rocky.

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Why Hire a House Architect? 10 Reasons

June 19th, 2010

One main reason to hire a house architect is: you will receive a better design and ultimately a better house because of having that better design.

What constitutes “better design?”  Well, how about these considerations:

1.  A FLOOR PLAN THAT WAS CAREFULLY CONCEIVED TO PARALLEL YOUR DESIRED LIFESTYLE: The spaces you want, the arrangement of them and their size and features for your maximum convenience, comfort, and functionality.

2.  VIEWS: Real architects carefully plan their clients’ homes to take advantage of the special views on that acreage that they bought for their dream home.   If you have ever seen a home that ignored its site’s views, you will understand.  Such inattention to spectacular views borders on the criminal, from the perspective of a talented residential architect.  No self-respecting architect would ignore the wonderful vistas that you have on your land.  Your architect wants you to enjoy the views that charmed you enough to buy the land, through the windows and porches built to house you and your family.

3.  ENERGY CONSERVATION / HEALTHIER HOME: Real architects are sensitive to energy efficiency and will design your residence with higher quality air-conditioning equipment, higher R-values for your insulation, better windows and doors, better roofing, Energy Star appliances and hot water heaters, and other features relating to the path of the sun and winds around your house, resulting in less expenditures from you to your utility companies.  This helps your pocketbook over decades.  Now that’s a real lasting value that increases your comfort and lowers your monthly bills, attributable to your hiring an architect to design your house.  Real architects are also knowledgeable and sensitive to products and systems that are healthier for your family.  For instance, specifying construction materials with little to no off-gassing of vapors that could have effects on your breathing or other life functions.  Also, specifying air-conditioning systems with cleaner air machinery so that your children and other family members breathe cleaner air.

4.  DURABILITY: Architects typically want you and your residence to have good quality components that will last a long time.  Quality and durability are part of an architect’s training.

5. VALUE ENGINEERING: Some architects, like Rand Soellner HOME ARCHITECTS TM regularly build Value Engineering into every residence and other projects they create.  This results in their clients receiving the highest quality for just about everything, at the least cost.  It entails a rigorous examination of nearly every aspect of your project in terms of range of cost versus features and benefits.  Nothing is taken for granted, and you are the one that makes the choices as to what you wish to pay for in your house.

6.  LOGICAL & PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS & ADVICE TO YOU, RESULTING IN MAJOR COST SAVINGS: Most real architects seriously consider client wishes and then report to their clients the pros and cons of various options.  You make the choice; it’s your house but your architect will provide you with wise counsel as to what makes sense and what does not.  This advice can save you from wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars on something that you may have thought was insignificant, but which your architect understands in greater depth.

7.  CONTROL: Your architect puts you in control of your new home.  Not your builder, not your designer, not your Realtor.  You.  And that’s where you want the control.  You are going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars (or even more, if a normal sized residence) and you should feel confident and be the one making the decisions that impact your costs and features that you will enjoy for decades to come.  Your architect has no particular axe to grind on your project, particularly an older, well-seasoned architect who has the experience to have “done it all,” and not have any agenda other that to make you happy with the house you want.  Your architect will help you understand what others on your project are doing and how your money is being spent.  They  will help you start out in control and stay in control, throughout the entire process.  Now that is worth having your architect involved from start of design to completion of construction.

8.  SENSE OF ACCOMPLISHING SOMETHING WORTHWHILE AND SPECIAL: An architect elevates a mere house into the art of becoming “your home.”  Your architect makes sure that it incorporates all of your wishes including your functional and aesthetic preferences, and perhaps some of the architect’s particular style as well, which is probably one of the reasons you engaged him or her in the first place: you liked how their projects looked.  Architecture is the combination of Art and Technology.

9.  A HOME THAT LOOKS GOOD AND WORKS WELL/TRAINING: Your architect will make sure that your home looks good and works well.  That is part of their training and their “religion.”  Those abilities are part of what helped them excel and graduate from a major accredited university, typically with honors, and helped them pass a multiple-day grueling in-person exam to become licensed.  It is also what allowed them to obtain years of internship with other experience architects looking over their shoulders, critiquing their every move.

10.  LICENSURE/ PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS: Your residential architects must be licensed in at least one state in the United States in order to even call themselves architects.  Mere “residential designers” have no requirements whatsover and have absolutely no oversight from any official agency watching what they are doing for or to you.  Real Architects have to take CEUs (Continuing Education Units) each year in order to remain licensed, continually updating their knowledge about architecture in the world of today.  The states in which they are licensed monitor their activities.  Architects, like Rand Soellner, that also belong to organizations like the AIA (American Institute of Architects) and the NCARB (National Council of Architectural Registration Boards), have additional requirements further polishing their abilities and credentials and subjecting themselves to even greater scrutiny and higher professional standards.  That is the sort of professional you want designing the very thing in which you and your family live, isn’t it?

Why hire a house architect source of information:

Rand Soellner Architect: 1-828-269-9046
http://www.HomeArchitects.com

tags: why hire a house architect, cashiers, north carolina, greenville, asheville, timber frame, log home, custom, cottage, mountain, luxury, green, healthy, oklahoma, las vegas, chicago, atlanta, hendersonville, rosman, charlotte, orlando, newnan, fresno, canada, denver, telluride, aspen, colorado, rocky.

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Timeless Custom Home Designs

June 17th, 2010

Once in awhile, clients ask Rand Soellner what “timeless custom home designs” means.   Rand’s definition of timeless is: “not of any particular period, era or style, but  rather a quality house design that evokes a feeling that it could have been designed and built a century ago or a century in the future.”

Today’s conveniences are provided within the timeless designs in each custom home.

Of course, Soellner houses have all of today’s comforts and conveniences: the latest appliances, the most efficient and energy-efficient heating and air-conditioning systems, built-in whole-house vacuum systems, double-pane glass, the latest communications systems, and many other features that provide convenience to their proud owners.

The idea behind Soellner’s timeless aesthetic is really to include features that their clients have come to know and expect from them, while avoiding the temptation to use trendy stylistic “popular” elements that may seem appealing today, but in a few short months appear dated and obviously from a given bygone era.  For instance, doesn’t everyone know what decade “avocado green” and “harvest gold” came from?  (Hint: 1960′s, early 70′s).  No self-respecting owner would be caught with such a palette in their kitchens today.  While designers in that era were immersed in that rather camp and kitschy trend, those that yielded to that stylistic influence suffered the fate of being called passe only a few years later, which forced their hapless clients to have to update their houses or appear outdated.

Rand Soellner Architect doesn’t believe that his clients should have to update anything within just a few short years, because their designers wanted to conform to some current stylistic “trend.”   Soellner believes it is better to have evolved his own palette of timeless features that are just about impossible to date as belonging to any particular decade or even century.  True design quality endures and stands the test of time.

They constantly update their features, appliances, insulation, glass, doors, windows, roofing, siding, foundations and other elements to insure that clients receive some of the best technology available for their residences today.  However, the timeless artistic features used cannot be attributed to any precise “trend.”

Many of Soellner’s clients inform him that they never intend to sell their house that he is designing for them and that they intend to live out the rest of their days there.  This makes it even more important to arrive at a timeless design aesthetic that can last.  That’s another reason Soellner also specifies materials that should last, like special tiles and grouts in which mold and mildew cannot grow.  This is just one example of the rigorous functional attributes of this timeless design philosophy.

Soellner also uses special roofing underlayment that is much more substantial than the tar paper typically used by others.  Soellner’s specified underlayment is much thicker and more elastic and long-lasting and seals around the thousands of penetrations made while your builder is attaching shingles and other exposed roofing materials to your roof.  The added price to your construction cost is minimal, but the impact on avoiding leaks is lifelong.  Now that’s a wonderful timeless feature to have in a house in which you intend to spend the rest of your life.  So, it is not all just about aesthetics, although a substantial portion of the timeless approach does have to do with how your residence appears.  After all, that is one of the reasons clients come to him: for the special “look” of his designs.  Most clients find it beneficial to discover that beneath the appearance lies solid, dependable technologies at work for them that are durable as well.

If you believe that trendy designs are not for you, and you want a residence designed for you that stands the test of time, decade after decade, you may wish to consider contacting the Soellner firm.

Contact for timeless custom designs:

Rand Soellner Architect
rand@homearchitects.com
1-828-269-9046

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Please Let Us Help You with Your House Project

June 4th, 2010

It’s what we do: design houses.  We also create modification drawings and specifications for house renovations and remodeling.  Once in a while we get a call from someone asking about us building their residence.  Rand Soellner is an architect.  That means: we mainly design, not build.  Our specialty happens to be the design of houses.

Contractors build.  An architect designs the project, drawing and specifying the layout and materials the builder is supposed to use when constructing your residence.  That’s the general way of things in the architectural and construction world.  We have teamed with contractors often in the past, to create Design-Build teams in which a closely-knit group of both design and construction professionals work together to meet our mutual client’s objectives.

We are here, ready to help you with your residential design needs, however you would like to engage us.  Sometime clients feel that the modest nature of their project is not something that we would consider.  That is not correct.  We will work on just about any project, anywhere, whether it is a new residence of a large size, medium, or small.  We also design additions, which are generally part of a remodeling, being accomplished to an existing residence.

We enjoy what we do and are eager to help you wherever your project may be located.  That’s another issue we try to explain.  Because we are housing design specialists, we have a broader area in which we work : the world, all of the United States, North America, or wherever you are.  That’s right.  We are interested in your house design project anywhere in the world.

We design small cottages in the woods, as guest quarters, or as your new down-sized house.  We also create medium-sized suburban houses in conventional neighborhoods, when clients just can’t seem to find what they want from any other source.  They come to us and we help them by creating a design that is a better fit for their functional and aesthetic objectives.  We also custom-craft large estate houses, family villages and even castles, if that is what you want.  And don’t forget the revisions and renovations to all of those; we do it all.

We know that you might think that perhaps you should look to your local designers or another architect in your town.  If you really like their design work, fine, do that.  However, if you believe that your local pool of talent can mimic what we do overnight; that may not happen to your satisfaction, unless they have been doing it for decades.  Especially if quality residential design is not what they have been doing most of their lives like Rand Soellner Architect.  It pays to hire the specialist, who will do the best job for you.  Would you hire a doctor who specializes in wrist surgeries to handle a respiratory problem?  Of course not.  Sometimes you might have to go a farther distance to find just the right professional to handle your situation.  I suppose you could call us the “house doctors.”  That’s why we work all over the USA.

Please give us a call or e-mail and let’s talk about it.

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Mid 2010 New Home Market Recovering

May 30th, 2010

Sales of new single-family houses in April 2010 showed a 47.8% increase above the April 2009 estimate.

This positive news is per a May 26, 2010 U.S. Census Bureau report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, authored by Erica Filipek and/or Stephen Cooper, Manufacturing and Construction Division.

According to the Census Bureau’s statistics, this represents a 14.8% increase in sales above the revised March annual projected rate of 439,000 up to 504,000 adjusted annual projected sales.  The figures in either the HUD reports or in the NAHB (National Association of Home Builders) reports need to be looked at carefully, especially the footnotes.

One might be inclined to think that the numbers show month to month sales, when much of the data is reflecting estimate Annual sales.  Still, this is cause for celebration for America’s housing economy.

3 Documented, Reliable Sources of Information for the Mid 2010 New Home Market Recovery in America:

1.  This is consistent with Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies projection from about a month ago, which indicated that the housing market will be heating up during the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2010, for the first time in a couple of years, indicative of a trend upwards.

2.  This is further supported by billionaire Warren Buffett‘s February 2010 estimate, that by “this time next year,” the current housing problems “should largely be behind us.”   Buffett was referring to the over-supply of new houses built and for sale on the market in February of 2010, and his opinion that during the rest of 2010, these residences would be purchased by bargain hunters.  It appears that this is underway, and when this task is accomplished, America can once again resume building new houses and be back on track for a normal housing economy.

3.  And now, the HUD/U.S. Census Bureau‘s data indicates an emerging recovery in sales of new houses.

HUD further indicates that these numbers represent a supply of only 5.0 months of new single family houses at the current rate of consumption.  This stands in stark contrast to the devastating 12.1 months of supply at January 2009, which meant that builders of new houses could stand around a year or more, waiting for their newly built residences to sell back.  As a result of the January 2009 over supply, and the over supply that existed for at least a year (pre-Jan. 2008) prior to that, America’s new housing construction came to a virtual standstill, contributing to the severe retraction of the U.S. housing economy, along with other factors.

If one examines this latest report from HUD, you can see that the Month’s Supply of new single family houses has been steadily declining since January 2009.  Here is an excerpt from the table, starting from January 2009, leading up to April 2010:

12.1    Jan 2009
10.6
10.7
10.6  April 2009
9.5
8.5
7.9
7.8
8.0   Jan 2010
8.2
6.2
5.0  April 2010

So what this means is that the glut of new residences sitting, waiting forlornly to be bought, due to over-building is gradually being consumed because the supply of them is gradually deceasing.

If there is any validity in statistical trends, then it appears that America’s free market system is in the process of repairing itself, at least in the new housing market.  It has been painful and will continue to be the case, for many people.  It appears that the end may be in sight, however, and that is a good thing.

Rand Soellner Architect has proposed a Housing Supply Warning System to the current administration, that would alert residential builders, investors, state and local governmental agencies, like local building departments, of trends in the U.S. residential economy, particularly related to the Supply of homes versus Demand.  In situations where the Demand exceeds Supply (a good thing for our economy), the proposed warning system (sort of like the Homeland Security green, yellow, and red) would be green.  This would mean: things look okay, proceed.  Yellow would mean: there appears to be a trend emerging in which the level of Supply is at or possibly beginning to exceed demand, which means that your newly built house might sit on the market for a 2 to 4 months before selling.  Red would mean: Stop!  Do not build this single family house right now, unless you personally intend to live in it. The Demand is far less than current Supply, which means that if you intend to sell this investment, it could be on the market for a year or more.  Unfortunately, this Housing Economy Warning System does not exist right now.  We are all left to inform ourselves and this website attempts to provide some level of information in that regard.

For people planning on having a new house designed and built, RIGHT NOW, TODAY may be the very best time to begin.  You may never enjoy such historically low prices for land, building materials and construction labor.

If you are considering starting your project soon, please review your options, then if you feel that Rand Soellner Architect might be the right designer of your next new house, please give us a call at: 828-269-9046.

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