Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Design Process: Call for experiences

[Lee Haring (LEHBC]

Cantine's Island group of Saugerties, New York, is having a rewarding experienc
e working with the architect we hired, Raym ReRis of Belmont, Massachusetts. Co
mmitted to modular housing, we quickly realized that a designer sympathetic to
groups and to cohousing was going to be needed to mediate between what modular
manufacturers offer and the individual needs of our twelve households. As work
goes on, costs keep going up. The trend worries us. We might even lose some sta
unch members of the group if costs keep ascending. Some of the rise in costs is
 attributable to using an architect at all. But he is zealous about helping us
keep costs down. Where the project will suffer is in the common house. It will
not be the huge, sumptuous, capacious refuge some of us dreamed of. Instead it
will have to be added to in future years.