Architecturally, it was a very utilitarian time.  Homes were built to be inexpensive and available for the G.I.’s to purchase and live in.  Places like California and the west exploded with the influx of people who wished to put the hell of war behind them and focus on the dream they had fought so hard to preserve.  Beauty and aesthetics were not as important as good spaces and family-friendly floor plans.  The ranch became the most in-vogue style of plan and entire communities filled up with easy to build, inexpensive comfortable homes.  The backyard became the retreat of most people, the place within their own property that allowed them to throw the baseball, bar-b-que and relax in the tranquility of America.

The Space Race started about the same time, and the frontiers of it captured the imagination of an entire generation of people.  Trends architecturally began to incorporate the ideas of technology and space into the everyday aesthetic.  At the same time Television was making its impression on the culture, and the most popular of the shows were westerns.  Shows about good versus evil; Hop-along Cassidy and Black Bart were the characters of the day, and it all contributed to a great mix of the American ideal wrapped into a style.

Architects have long lamented the stagnation of this time period.  Frowning on the utilitarianism of it all, the over-simplified view of America and the naïve look at a country that they considered flawed.  But if you can look past the snobbery of the intellectuals, what you will see is one of the styles I consider the most uniquely American.  I look at what was produced in this time and see a value that I am proud to include in my heritage.  Here was a group of people, set on preserving a way of life that were coming home to make a world that their children could live in without that threat.  If you had been in the hills of the Ardennes, would it really have mattered to you if your home was perfectly styled, or would you have felt a thankfulness that transcended the luxury of choice?

We are starting a new division of our company: Osage Homes.  It is intended to capture that very essence once again.  We live in troubled times, and it appears to me the rumblings of a people are changing their values.  We have lived in a time previous to this, where all that mattered was the luxury of choice.  Is there truly a significant difference between Macy’s and Kohl’s besides the timing and price of the products they carry?  When you have the luxury of choice…maybe.  When the world begins to once again look troubled, choice is seen for what it is, and pragmatism begins to dominate.

I still firmly believe that home ownership is a dream that most Americans would hope to embrace.  Unfortunately, the downhill slide of a crashing housing market has made that dream unattainable for many.  Our price ranges have been askew and we have, as an industry, only been able to provide to the wealthiest of people.  I don’t believe that was the dream those men and women risked everything for.  I don’t think they looked out and saw an America where only the elite and select could be privileged enough to fulfill the dreams they were striving for.

We are going back to that mid-century time and idea to provide homes for people that are within reach of a modest income.  We are working to find a way to provide homes at prices that haven’t been available for 15 years in our area.  It’s kind of a fun challenge and I think will be a great reward at the end of the day.  My staff and trades are catching the vision of truly unique homes at affordable prices, and we are beginning to get excited around here about this potential.

We named it Osage Homes as a tribute to that time.  When Television’s best shows were Westerns,  Davey Crockett showed us the frontier every Tuesday night, and Americans settled into a hopeful tranquility, raising their families and living out the dream they sacrificed so much to attain.

We are moving our Model at Side Hill to this new house we just completed.  I have to say it really is exceptionally executed.  We have built this home several times now and feel like we are finally dialing in on what makes this house so compelling.  This home was themed around Bamboo.  When my children were little we did an Adventureland Theme in their nursery.  We have been hauling around several bundles of bamboo and finally decided to use them in one of our houses.  There are some great videos on our YouTube Channel  ( http://www.youtube.com/user/JamestownBuilders ) that show how we utilized this bamboo in art pieces and throughout the home.

This weekend The Group Inc. is sponsoring a New Homes Showcase and the homes in Side Hill are featured in the event.  We thought that moving our model would really help showcase some of the fantastic things we are doing in our home creations.  I hope that if you have the chance, you can come out and see what we are creating.  Its a pretty special place.  If you are looking for a Fort Collins new home, this has to be on your list!

Home building has been about many things in the course of its history.  It ranges from the practical way of survival in the early Jamestown Colony to the opulent statements of position built in late nineteenth century America.  They have been simple places of practicality, where families were raised and lives were shaped to outright commodities, exchanged for wealth and fortune.  Regardless of its history, home building is in its nature a creative enterprise, devised by the wit of mankind for its betterment.  There have been countless books written about the subject:  How-to manuals about transforming the home into what is hidden within its skeleton, decorative idea books for making the home more of what it could be, floor plans about modern living and ideas about what the home should be in this new culture we find ourselves in.

Re-historic living is a new way of thinking about life in the home.  Yet as Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun” and therefore the ideas encapsulated in the Re-Historic Life are timeless.  Re-Historic isn’t a catch phrase for a style or a type of home.  The Re-Historic life is about how a life is lived within the walls and amorphous lines of a home and property.  Re-Historic living was a dream my wife and I looked for in our first home and is something I try to leave with every home our company builds.  It is about the quality of space, the comfort of living, the ease in which a home functions, and is a call back to a time in housing between simple survival and over-glorified statements of self.

It isn’t a decorating idea or a prescriptive definition of how or who lives there.  Re-Historic living is about making the home…entirely yours.

There are four guiding principles I use when I design our houses.  They are not profound nor are they easy to quantify but they guide the process we use to create unique, timeless homes for the people who live there.

Simplicity

Re-Historic living is simple.  There aren’t segregated spaces for everything that happens in a house. Many rooms function in multiple ways.  Everything is turned towards making life simpler.  The rationality is that with less complex living comes more time for things that enrich a life.  (Friends, Family, Fido)  We look to create spaces with easy storage, and lots of it.  We look to create simple places to clean.  (No three story spaces that require a mechanical lift to change a light bulb)  We use low-maintenance materials for landscaping and exteriors so that the home will always appear timeless, and not require every spare moment to attend to the home.  We look for cozy corners for simpler things; books, music, play.  It’s at the heart of great living to be simple.  Our world is overly complex, and requires energies that most don’t have to offer

Family

Re-Historic living makes the home center around a family’s ability to interact and grow within the home.  Needs change over time, but hopefully if a home is well designed as the family changes the home can be adapted to suit the new lifestyle that a family is growing into.  Just because a circumstance changes, doesn’t mean that the entire home should have to be discarded.  We work to design spaces that can easily flex as family needs flex.  A playroom can easily become a tech niche as time goes by.  It is better in my opinion to think about the short term needs that can be adapted into long-term spaces.  Design for the last decade has been about the segmentation of short-term activity:  media rooms, computer rooms, sewing rooms, separate playrooms in rooms for children.  All of this to me lends itself to the disconnect of a family.  The Re-Historic lifestyle asks people to reassess this thought.  If a place is flexible and can adapt, is the need there to separate the people in the house, or can the space lend itself to interaction and betterment for the entire family?

Innovation

Building has always been described as box creating.  It was put to me once in a consultation of another builder when I asked him to think outside the box, his answer was, “I build boxes for a living”.  Homebuilding has become one of the slowest industries to innovate in the last 30 years.  It has become an industry fixated on the code of a home and not the betterment of living.  Homebuilders find ways to focus all of their energy on making a house “work” instead of focusing their energy on how a home can “work” for those living in it.  Homebuilders get distracted by R Values in insulation, and Aqua Pex plumbing.  All of which are good innovative products, but which serve the same purpose they always have.  Plumbing is plumbing and insulation is insulation.  Providing value to a homeowner in the way a house lives and functions is a far better use of energy than fixating on old ideas.  Re-Historic building is about figuring new ways out to save money for the customer.  Provide them the highest value for the hard earned money they are investing.  In the thirties in the United States, home building companies such as Aladdin Bungalows and Sears Roebuck found a way to innovate home building.  They designed kits that could be shipped to anywhere in the country so that resourceful Americans all around the fruited plain could live in a quality space at the highest value possible.  Instead of lamenting the depression, those companies found a way to innovate what they were doing and provide the customers with the best possible product.  It’s high time that builders found a way to do the same in this era.  Always relying on “what’s always been done” will continue to drag the industry in a downward trajectory.  Its high time to turn that kind of thinking on its ear and put as a value in homebuilding: innovation.

Theme

Finally, the most important part of Re-Historic living is thematic design.  Design centers and product makers all around the world chase after the last great interior selection that is available.  In other words, trends are at the top of the list for producers and suppliers.  The outcome of that in homebuilding today is that homes are no longer timeless.  You can tell when a home was made simply by the decorative vents that adorn the gable above the garage; octagon- eighties, circle – nineties, scabbed on corbel for the gable – two thousands.  Thematic design turns that idea on its ear and instead of chasing trends, chases an execution from curb to curtain.   What does the home say from the street?  How about at the front door?  What is your first impression as you look at the kitchen, bathrooms, and bedrooms?  Does the home remain consistent all the way through?  Most builders ask a designer to “pick a package” for the interior of the home.  Has the builder thought about what the home is saying to the buyer?  Or is he busy wondering about how Aqua Pex pipe is going to perform in the new IRC code?  The result is either budget driven or trend driven.  Both of those are terrible outcomes for the home and leave the prospective homeowner discouraged or reconciling a compromise.  Thematic design asks questions all through the process.  Is it Craftsman, Mission, Mid-Century, Modern, Usonian?  What historically was a part of each of those ideas?  By asking those questions and sticking through with a theme, the choices become limited yet gratifying.  Being on budget is much easier if your choices are limited.  Would you have found glass tile in a craftsman home?  Not likely so you can discard that choice and find something that fits within the theme and a budget.  Thematic design also changes the thought on who the home is being built for.  I cannot begin to count the number of times people shop and work on designing a home for the next people who are going to live in the home.  People will limit choices that they would love to make because they worry that the next person who will buy the house will hate it.  What kind of horrid misery would that be?  Sacrificing your own home to the God of Re-Sale.  If you make choices you love, what does it matter what the next person thinks of it.  If you design to a theme, and the choice you love fits within that theme, then the likelihood of someone hating one specific choice is significantly diminished.

This is a freeing way of thinking about home building.  Designing spaces for people with the intention of it being a home where life and the pursuit of happiness takes place is a sacred honor.  It is humbling to think that within the walls of a home, life and interaction will happen, with that space contributing to the overall betterment of living, marriages, children, grandchildren, and countless other aspects that will be memory making events, shaping a family and people for generations.

In a departure from my usual commentary on housing and architecture I thought the blog would be well served to enjoy a little levity and discussion about the national pastime.

I must admit I am a little late in my life to the love of baseball.  I have several friends to thank for my introduction.  Some are longsuffering Cubs fans, while others are Massachusetts’s imports that bravely left for the frontier that begins just outside of Lexington to locate to Colorado.  Most notably however I must thank my Masters Educated climbing buddy who turned me on to the foul ball.

Prior to this introduction, watching baseball to me was always like watching people read at the library.  Not enough action, not enough smash up violence to captivate me.  Baseball to me was like the dying parts of our culture.  Post-modernity had swept the antiquated game into the druthers of the sports netherworld.  Who cared about baseball?  It was a game that had a golden era, but had slid past that era into a sport that looked like a crabby old man.  Too slow, too different, too bland to spend a day watching.  Nine innings to me may as well have been a long weekend worth of time.  I had no context for baseball.  Growing up in Wyoming and Colorado the nearest baseball team for us to follow regularly were the Cubs.  No offense to that diseased group of people, but who would want to suffer along with that hapless team?

Reluctantly I decided to attend a game with my friend and his Masters Degree.  I told him forthright that I would be happy to attend because it would give me the chance to get a well-deserved rest.  Graciously he took my comment in stride and we attended a game at Coors field.

Something changed in me the moment I walked into the ballpark.   The smell of the fresh cut grass, the crisp air and shimmering red dirt; I softened to this idea of Baseball.

“Beer and a Brat?”

“Certainly” I agreed.  After all I thought, who wouldn’t enjoy a fine German pilsner style beer and some salty meat.

Taking our seats I was mesmerized by the pageantry.  The Star Spangled Banner, the colorful flags, the luminous scoreboard.  This was the image of America I had always hoped for.  Thousands of people setting time aside to be with their families and to take in a slow paced game.  It was one giant picnic!  There was something here that I had been missing all of my life.

Then the game started.  Within moments I realized that the rules of this game were about nuance and subtlety.  The batter had hit two foul balls to start the inning off.  Two strikes read the scoreboard.  Logic would follow that one more hit like that and he would be back to grace the pine from which he came.  Mysteriously something happened that I was not expecting.  The pitcher, trying to be crafty started to pitch to spots.  My friend pointed out that he would rather work for a called strike than let the batter remain at the plate.

“Why is this?” I wondered out loud. I surmised that another foul would retire the batter regardless. Two more pitches followed, each trying to nibble the outside corner of the plate.  Two pitches failed to solicit the Umpire’s eye and the count was two balls and two strikes.  Then it happened…another foul ball.  But much to my amazement, the batter stayed in the box, awaiting the next pitch and the count on the board remained the same, two balls, two strikes.  Again the pitch came; again the ball was fouled away.  Two balls, two strikes. I questioned my friend, as to why the count was not changing?

“Those are the rules”

“You mean to tell me that he could stand there all day and foul off pitch after pitch and not have to sit down?”

“That’s how the rules work.”

Ball three.

A full count.  Something had happened in the last several pitches.  What was the batters disadvantage had suddenly become his advantage.  The longer he stayed there and swung away at foul balls, the more the pitcher had to pitch.  It was a mental transformation that was palpable on the pitchers face.  You could see it wearing the pitcher down.  Pitch after pitch the batter would slap a ball foul and out of play.  The pitcher would gather himself again and try to get the ball past the bat.  He was in a tight spot.  One more pitch to the outside of the strike zone and he would give up a base on balls.  One pitch straight down the middle and the pitcher may end up giving up a run on hits.  Oh the dilemma.

How delicious this was; a game that the same written rule could be adverse to both players within moments of one another.  I was sold.

Call me old fashioned, but I love to listen to the game now on the radio.  The imagery that the announcers describe is just how I remembered my trip to the ballpark.  There is this wonderful slice of Vintage America right before my ears whenever I listen that I have fallen in love with.

I am a sucker for nostalgia.  I have tried to recapture that in my business building homes and in my personal life.  There are many moments I have baseball to thank for my desire for a simpler time. I also have baseball to thank for showing me that life doesn’t have to be a blazing race full of action and smash-em-up.  Take me out to the ballgame; take me out to the park!

http://www.youtube.com/user/JamestownBuilders#p/u/11/K_3NDL1kjPI

Click on this link and watch the arcadia .mov

Going to try this Video style this week.  Anne Marks is one of our superintendents and this post is walking through the Arcadia.  Its an amazing house and is nearing completion.  It is modeled after the Usonian architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright and I really feel strongly that this home has captured the spirit of that aesthetic but has made some interesting compromises given the lot constraints and given that it has to fit within the context of a neighborhood.  Enjoy!!!

My favorite place in the entire world when I was a kid was my grandparents home.  It was a two-bedroom bungalow that my grandpa had built in downtown Fort Collins new home.  It was behind perhaps the most historic home in all of town, and while it was modest, it had a compelling charm that felt comforting and very secure.  A visit to Grandmas was about all that it provided.  Love and care from family, but also a space that was conducive to conversation and exploration.  There were unique spaces and fantastic corners that as a child became my own special places to make memories.  Grandmas didn’t have a room for everything.  It didn’t separate us from her and Grandpa. In fact just the opposite occurred.  Spaces were flexible and assigned a multitude of tasks.  The table where we had breakfast magically transformed into the theater that evening where we watched Super Eight Kodak movies about our family and the swashbuckling adventures we had experienced the summer before in their back yard.

Somewhere along the way, we as a people became convinced that having segmentation in our lives would provide more satiation.  Instead of multi functioning places, we began to design homes that encouraged separation: rooms for movies, places for sewing, a room and a bath for every child.  The designs compartmentalized our interactions.

There is a sense that now having lived that way as a culture something is missing. We have found as many ways as possible to avoid a personal interaction.  From text messaging to television, life in human context appears to be passé.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of our business in the last year has been the construction and design of our Re-historic homes in Old Town Fort Collins.  We all have loved working down there because there is something unique about the old neighborhoods.  It reminds me, every time that I am there, how much I loved going to my grandparents home in Old Town.  It truly was the place where human interaction was at its height.  We had the opportunity to build a home on the corner of Maple and Wood, and I thought it was only appropriate to name it after my Grandpa who’s home and life I cherished.

May 6th is a fundraiser for the Fort Collins Symphony.  Tickets are $15 a person or $25 a couple and all proceeds from the ticket sales will go to the Symphony.  Fish is catering, wine and beer will be served and is included in the ticket prices.  If you are interested in attending and seeing this amazing home please contact us.  It is a legacy property in Fort Collins.

Contact Val Scheffer at 970-226-1500 for Tickets

The Fingerprint of Architecture

I spent a week recently in the Caribbean visiting several islands and indulging myself in the gluttony of food, drink and sun.  Our first stop was Puerto Rico and Old San Juan.  My wife and traveling companions spent a day wandering around the old city immersed in its charming architecture and frenetic pace.  Filled with quaint shops and cafes, the entire city was a wonderful mix of culture, rhythm and charm.

I unfortunately have acquired a sickness that forces me to look at the design and architecture of space no matter where I am on the planet.  I am fascinated by the efficiency of maritime vessel spaces, and the vibrancy of colors that the Caribbean buildings embrace; I love the marriage of outdoor space that is afforded in the climate of eighty-degree permanence and so my day in San Juan was thoroughly invigorating.

We spent a few hours in the Hotel El Convento – relaxing in its interior courtyards and enjoying the local fare of food and drink.  It made me aware of something I had not experienced since a visit to Europe.  Architecture is the fingerprint of humanity on history.  Long after our existence has assumed its rightful place as dust, the only trace of what once was is the progress we have left behind.  There in San Juan, a building hundreds of years old was affording me new memories.  It had once been a convent with hundreds of stories and lives passing through its doors.  It was now a hotel and a restaurant, providing new opportunities for memories and engagement with the environment around.  I was captivated by the colors, and the smells of antiquity.  Here we were, sharing in the long history and culture of a space.

Few will know that I had spent an afternoon at the Hotel, or in San Juan.  Perhaps if anyone cared to research, they might find a log of the ship we were on and a manifest of the passengers and could assume we had spent time in Old San Juan.  But the walls of the Hotel El Convento will continue to place its indelible mark on the ground of San Juan.  In the course of the life of that Architecture, hundreds of thousands of people will share a wide variety of story and memory within its design.  History will continue to transform that space into new use and dynamic spaces that shape the lives of those who have yet to visit or even be born.  If only for a few moments and a few wonderful flavors I was a small line in the fingerprint of the Architecture of the Hotel El Convento.  Humbling and beautiful. Something to keep in mind for Fort Collins new homes.

It is very hard to remember that events now long in the past were once in the future.
Frederic William Maitland

Ran across a great book that is a follow up to my last post.  Its called Living Retro by Andrew Weaving.  It’s a fantastic book that has a host of examples of retro styled homes from all over the world.   The opening paragraph had me thinking a lot about our houses and the way we design.

“It’s a conundrum: now we are well and truly into the twenty-first century, why do we still look back to find inspiration for a truly modern way of living?  It’s ironic that we look to the past to create interiors that are in the vanguard of fashion.  But, without a doubt, retro style has enormous appeal.  Today our homes are an extension of who we are; a way of signaling to others our tastes, opinions and outlook of the world.”

I have realized that what is being created in home design is not so much about innovation and forward thinking as re-inventing and re-hashing old ways.  It seems to me that what we are really longing for in our home spaces is not so much a new way of life, but a comfort that can be provided by a visit to the past methodology of design.  Numerous times people comment that our homes are so different and then proceed to tell me about how it reminds them of another time or home from a bygone era.  (Grandmas, or a house we stayed in California, a 1950′s Ranch instead of our Fort Collins home)

Some might criticize that America has lost its innovative edge in Architecture and design.  I would counter by saying that its not so much that we have failed to innovate, but instead failed to listen to the principles of what makes a great design.  Time after time, I see homes that push the edge of design for designs sake.  It fails to take into consideration the end user.  Making leading edge design still starts with the homeowner.  They have to make their space a reflection of who they are.  New design doesn’t reflect anything but a commentary on the micromanaged American Experience. I believe we will never break through into better innovative design until we get back to letting the people decide what suits them best, and stop hoping that our controlling of the design of the neighborhoods, and houses will lead to better living in a Fort Collins new home.

I have really been taken with the Mid-Century Modern style of architecture and design as of late.  It may have started with a close viewing of the Incredibles by Pixar with my little boys, but has been accentuated by further reading and research.  One of my favorite homes is the Frank Sinatra home in Palm Springs called Twin Palms.  It was designed by a leader in the modernist movement of architecture, Emerson Stewart Wiliams.  His designs were sparing and sensible, and were in tune with the environment around him.  There is a great article in this link http://acn.liveauctioneers.com/index.php/component/content/article/60-style-century-magazine/531-palm-springs-eternal-architect .  It has some excellent photos of the 1950′s Ranches and the Twin Palms home, and some of his other contributions to the Palm Springs area.

In my digging around for other Mid-Century work (for ideas for future Fort Collins homes for sale), I ran across an artist from the Disney company who was instrumental in the art direction of Disneyland.  His name is Stan Jolley and his work was the foundation of the Tomorrowland aesthetic.  The sparseness and imagination that is implicit in his work is really an excellent example of the hope that the mid-century generation shared in about the future.  It wasn’t until the early 70’s that art and images about the future became the dark vision of an industrial complex gone wrong.  Take a look at the artwork; to create these visions and implement them on paper really is an amazing talent.

http://www.mouseclubhouse.com/Interviews/stan-jolley/stan-jolley2.htm