New Home Architecture

I am trying to find out more about the particular design and architecture of my new townhouse. It was built about 20 years ago, and has a very distinctive design. There are no other developments like it in our area and I'd like to learn more about how it was developed.

Perhaps the house included a floorplan and/or pamphlet when you bought it?? Sometimes these can reveal quite a bit of good information.
If not, you could go to www.eplans.com . They have lots of search options, and (although I doubt they'd have your house design in particular), you can enter special categories of the style of the home to get a few more results. I'd bet if you find another house on there that looks a lot like your home, you could get some information that would apply to your place as well.
If neither of these ideas help, City Hall may have some information about your house and how it was developed.

Good Luck!

2007-03-25 16:34:09 by cdarrylhughes

www.ParamountConstruction.net World-Class Architectural New Home Design doesn't have to be hard to find, a set of pretty drawings that no one ...

I say Chicago, because Chicago is home to skyscrapers around the world, and so many buildings are modern steel/glass buildings even have really cool shaped ones. And the tallest one in the US is in Chicago. What you think , Chicago or NYC, and why ?

Consider this:
"What is the chief characteristic of the tall office building? It is lofty. It must be tall. The force and power of altitude must be in it, the glory and pride of exaltation must be in it. It must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exaltation that from bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line."

—Louis Sullivan's The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered (1896)

Chicago has, by far and in my opinion, the most beautiful skyline in the US and in the top 3 in the world. The other 2, in my humble opinion are Singapore and Toronto

2010-08-07 10:19:29 by Micah

Price: $55.00

We're trying to find an affordable architect (or someone that know how to draw up plans) to work on our new home project. Real architects just costs so much, can you give me some advice for alternative solutions? I kinda don't want to buy stock plans since we might as well buy a prebuilt home. We're thinking of an architecture student. Well, he has a 4-year degree in architecture design and is starting his masters this coming fall. I know that we will need to find a structural engineer to look at the plan. Please let me know if it's not a good idea to go with the student option. Thanks for your advice. Any suggestions would be really appreciated.

It really depends on how much you expect them to do. If all you are looking if for them to be doing space planning (laying out the floor plans and designing the elevations and stuff) then the student is fine. When I graduated with my 4-year degree in architecture, this is about all i could handle, even though I thought I felt I knew more, or could at least fake my way through it. However, I have worked in the industry for 3 years now in a firm (recently left my job) and looking back I laugh.

There is sooo much more to an architect than most people either realize or want to admit. A "real architect" will work with all the other trades, such as plumbing, electrical, structural, civil, and they will facilitate getting the project through the city, with as little hassle to the client as possible. They will also usually be dealing with the contractor to ensure that the building gets built according to what you are paying for. Many times contractors will either intentionally or unintentionally substitute things in the building that might have a severe negative consequence. The only person who may realize this error is the architect, because they are the ones who specified everything.

Honestly, the only time I would suggest that someone use a student to draw architectural plans in lieu of an architect in new construction is if you were specifically a contractor who was knowledgeable in home construction and were going to build it yourself and knew how it was going to be built, and were merely going to communicate these ideas to the student to translate onto paper in order to submit to the city for approval.

If you really want to go without an architect, then I suggest that you find a residential contractor who does "design/build". They will hopefully get to know what you want and use their knowledge to try to put together the best idea for a home. Usually contractors will have a better grasp in terms of how to design things in order to come out with a cheaper construction cost. This can be hit or miss, depending on their experience, and I would ask to see about examples of past projects and possibly talk to their former clients if you can. Residential contractors should be fairly well able to get through the city approval and either they should be able to do their own drawings (which in my opinion tend to be really poorly drawn, but since they are the ones who are building it, as long as it gets approved by the city, that doesn't matter too much) or they have someone else do them. But I would really be cautious in this route to pick a contractor who does this type of stuff regularly, otherwise you are asking for A LOT of trouble.

Good luck!

2007-07-26 21:23:42 by Velvet Hammer

Price: $24.95

Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Condition: New
ISBN13: 9781561586059

Hello: I am from New England, but have forgotten the name of the structures you see on top of coastline homes there. It is usually surrounded by rails, and sometimes has a bell, or even a small beacon resembling a lighthouse. Their function in literature is to watch for ships sailing home, or just watching the sea. The name is something like... The Captain's Roost, or The Captain's Crow's Nest..etc, etc. Some of these are small additions to the roof, and others totally cover the roof, and are quite spectacular. Does Anyone Know Their True New England Name ?? T.Y. :-)

A widow's walk. Wikipedia says they're also called a roofwalk, but I never heard that word in the decade I lived in New England.

2007-07-05 23:17:52 by Slippery When Wet

I'm trying to do an architectural midterm (take-home) and have pictures of various architectural styles. Where can I find a guide online to new york architecture (with pictures included) so that I may compare them to these?

Wired New York website-
New York Skyscrapers and Architecture forum.

2009-10-24 07:35:10 by dudewheresyourmail