Re: Design Process: Call for experiences
From: School of Mathematics, U of MN (depts5.math.umn.edu)
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 94 11:49 CST
On Fri, 11 Nov 94 11:11 CST, 
Lee Haring  <cohousing-l [at] uci.com> wrote:

>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.
>
>
>
Monterey CoHousing-Mpls is at a similar stage and I too am worried about 
the cost of our architect.  Especially the benefit/cost ratio.  Personally,
I doubt he is worth the money we have already paid him, and we're not 
done yet with final drawings.  We were lucky in having a member with a 
background in architecture (a former student) and she sat down with the 
various households to come up with a design to suit their needs.  It would 
have cost a heap to pay the architect for that.  Anybody like that in your 
group?

Monika Stumpf, Monterey CoHousing-Mpls, dept [at] math.umn.edu

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