By Katherine Salant
In many cases, the first step in turning a dream house into reality is transforming the dream, says architect Carson Looney of Memphis, Tenn., who has been designing houses there for 25 years. In his experience, clients often come to the first meeting with strongly held convictions and images of a house that they have been carrying around in their heads for years. As they describe their needs and lifestyle, however, image and function often diverge. To get a livable house, they will have to jettison some part of the dream, but after years of wanting a house to look a certain way, this can be hard. Many clients are reluctant to accept the idea that having some of their image but not every piece of it will mean a better house, though most quickly acquiesce when Looney shows them alternatives.
For example, in Memphis, a "Gone with the Wind," Tara-style mansion with four columns on the front and a grand, circular staircase are perennial favorites. Many clients want them without realizing the ramifications - a circular stair with true Tara proportions can take up as much as 800 square feet of living area. Looney has found that a smaller stair with a curve and lots of natural light is a close enough approximation for most people. He puts this more modest stair where it works with the other spaces, and not necessarily by the front door. Once clients see the house is more livable with a smaller stair, they willingly abandon the bigger one.
Besides the function versus image issue, Looney says his clients can have conflicting images - they want things that don't fit together aesthetically. They want the flamboyance of Tara on the front, but their sensibilities, which will define the character of the rest of the house, are much more understated. Blending of the two "would be like marrying Cadillac fins to a Mercedes." Some clients want to put the four columns on a one-story house, but "you can't squash the traditional southern house and make it a ranch - that would be like marrying a Cadillac to a VW bug."
The word that comes up again and again in these initial meetings, Looney says, is balance, "a word that should be stamped on your sun glasses." Every choice that is made must balance with all the other choices. If you get too focused on one element like the circular staircase, it becomes the tail wagging the dog and starts to dictate the rest of the house. Likewise, too much focus on the façade can also be detrimental because the interior spaces that you will live in every day will be manipulated to fit behind it. And, he wryly notes, the people who benefit the most from those machinations will be the neighbors. As owners, "what's the joy besides the 15 seconds when you drive by?"
Most of Looney's clients want a house with a historic cast, but he urges them to build one that also "speaks of our time." Insisting on historical authenticity down to the level of hand-made bricks, as some do, is akin to seeing trees and no forest. Or throwing out the baby with the bath water. When historical dictates are followed too closely, he warns, the positive benefits of a modern design approach, which will produce a more livable house, can be lost. Most people equate "modern" with a techno look that they abhor, but Looney explains that what makes a house modern is not the look but how it functions and the high level of natural light inside that today's larger windows and better heating and insulation make possible.
But, Looney adds, it's understandable that so many clients want to use a 200-year-old house as a model rather than a recently constructed "colonial-styled" one that, functionally speaking, is certainly modern. Even to the untutored eye, the older ones look better. The "streamlined colonials" rarely have the correct proportions, scale and detailing that are the hallmark of the colonial period because for more than 50 years, American architecture schools have favored an aesthetic that eschews embellishment and they stopped teaching anything historical. Architects today, who are well versed in historical styling, are, like Looney, self-taught.
The scale, proportion and details that characterize the colonial style and that captivate buyers are not, in fact, hard to build, Looney said. The builder just needs to know what to do. For example, when the top of the front door opening lines up with the top of the windows, and the windows have a vertical proportion, the façade looks more refined. When the foundation is raised so that the level of the first floor is about three to five feet above the ground level, a house looks grander, especially when seen from a distance. In urban areas where the front of a house may be less than 10 feet from the sidewalk, the raised foundation is a necessity because it prevents a person outside from looking directly into private living spaces. With other traditional styles, such as California's and Florida's "Mediterranean" with stucco walls and tile roof, these same principles also apply.
Looney also pointed out that some traditional colonial elements can be updated and serve a new function. For example, when both sides of a dormer window are glass instead of solid wall, the dormer becomes a skylight that fills a two-story entry foyer below with soft reflected light.
When trying to persuade clients who wrap themselves in an historical blanket to loosen up, Looney often cites Thomas Jefferson's Montecello as the model to follow. The thing to emulate, he stresses, is not its look, but its spirit. The Georgian styling is beautifully done but the relevance for homeowners today is its innovative planning and features such as windows positioned to capture views and create cross ventilation and large window openings that fill the space with natural light that make them feel bigger.
While he helps his clients to sort out what their new house will look like and come up with a plan that meets their needs now, Looney also urges them to "look down the road and think about their life in 10 years." If unknowns must be factored in - for example, a couple has no children as yet - the clients have to take the architect's word for what they will need. When children are in the offing, this means a house that is less grand.
Day to day living also bears closer examination than many clients realize when planning their house. Here again Looney says he tries to help them mesh their image with reality. A cavernous master suite with a master bath of palatial proportions sounds good, but if the scheme means 50 or 60 feet from the bed to the toilet, this will be a hassle, especially in the middle of the night. Even the prosaic details like a place for the vacuum cleaner and broom need to be thought out because the once standard broom closet is a rarity in new houses today.
. Questions of a Do It Yourself nature should be submitted to our "