Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Advice Needed: Repainting the community after 12 years in residence

[Laura Fitch (lfitch]

Another note about color scheme at Mosaic Commons:

Window and door trim is all ONE color, unifying the project

While unit colors were limited to 5, door colors choice were more numerous,
and more vibrant.

I think it was a brilliant idea (of the groups - not mine) to put all the
house colors onto the common house.  I really like the way the common house
looks colorful and cheerful, but integrated with the overall housing color
scheme.

Laura Fitch, AIA, LEED AP
Kraus-Fitch Architects, Inc.
110 Pulpit Hill Rd.
Amherst, MA  01002
413-549-5799

lfitch [at] krausfitch.com
www.krausfitch.com



-----Original Message-----
From: Ellen Keyne Seebacher [mailto:elle [at] pobox.com] 
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 9:37 AM
To: Cohousing-L
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Advice Needed: Repainting the community after 12 years
in residence


On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 10:24:45PM -0400, Elizabeth Magill wrote:

> Mosaic had a palette of five colors to choose from, selected by our 
> architect, and, SHOCKINGLY not including purple (which was the one 
> color many in the community had their heart set on). Then a team put 
> colors on houses based on each persons first and second choices and 
> distribution throughout the community.

Actually, our architects (hi, Laura!) helped the color team choose the
palette of five colors, based on initial feedback from the community (earth
tones?  pastels?  bright colors?).  We looked at dozens of colors Laura and
Mary suggested, and chose five HardiPlank tones that worked well together:
forest green, evening blue, "soft" (grey) green, "countrylane" brick red,
and "Harris cream" (a sunny yellow).

Then I sat up one night with a map and a list of everyone's favorite colors
and distributed them so that no immediate neighbors had the same colors.
After a couple of swaps at a general meeting, amazingly enough, we wound up
with someone everyone could live with.  Even when several people switched
units before move-in. :-)

For a look at how Mosaic's palette works in practice, see:

  http://photos.mosaic-commons.org/units

Also, we used all five of our colors on the Common House:

  http://photos.mosaic-commons.org/common-house/

> So I was a little shocked to discover that both systems really worked 
> very well, and both communities look great.

Yep!  And some of the purple fans in Mosaic got purple doors instead, so
they were happy too :-)


        Ellen Seebacher
        Mosaic Commons / Sawyer Hill Ecovillage
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