Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: design review

[Howard Landman (howard]

> At Pathways (which is under construction) we went the "bulk purchase" route 
> at virtually every point to save money.  We decided to have four different 
> house plans, one for each number of bedroom sized house (1,2,3 & 4 bedrooms) 
> and then allowed customizations off of the basic plan (mirror image of the 
> basic plan, minor interior wall changes, add a couple of feet here or there, 
> bay windows, etc).  This saved us a bunch on architect fees and simplified it 
> a lot for the builders, which also holds down costs.

This sounds similar to what was done at River Rock.  It was a good idea.
The only problem was, some of the defaults were pretty brain-dead.
For example, in the largest unit (the kind I bought), the default kitchen
opened right into the front doorway.  You walk in the front door, you're
basically standing in the kitchen.

Fixing that and other things forced me to go to "level III customization",
which cost $3000 up front, plus architects fees, plus any difference in
construction costs.  (Although to be honest, I might well have chosen
that level of customization anyway.  But being *forced* to, just to fix
obvious problems with the default floorplan, wasn't very thrilling.)

Most of the people who decided on these defaults are no longer with
the community.  There's a lot of turnover.  I think we have 2 of the
original people left.  There were options (such as an "under-counter
refrigerator") put into the options list simply because one person
demanded them.  That person isn't with us anymore, but the options are
still there even if no one wants them.

Another problem area (in my opinion) was garages.  Some "cohousing
consultants" were hired early on.  One of their gems of advice was to
make all the garages extra small.  This was, unfortunately, followed, so
all but 2 of the garages in our development are too narrow for my car to
fit in (it has a slightly wide wheelbase).  They're also rather short -
my garage door is already broken from having hit the tail end of my car
so many times, and I've only been using it a month.  I can't put storage
shelves on the lower part of the back wall of the garage because the car
wouldn't fit at all then, and the shelves I put on the side wall make
it painfully cramped to open the passenger-side door.  And this is the
largest garage in the entire development!  I would *GLADLY* have paid
extra money for a larger garage, but that wasn't allowed.

So my advice is - really think *hard* about your defaults.  You, and
all the people who aren't there yet, will have to live with the choices.
If at all possible, LAY THEM OUT, onsite, and walk around in them to see
if they feel right.  Use cardboard or string or chalk.  But don't make
paper plans that fit someone's personal agenda but fail to work in the
real world.

I strongly recommend the book A Pattern Language - not all 1500 pages of
it, but most of the second half - for anyone involved with making design
decisions.  The patterns "Farmhouse Kitchen" and "Entry Room" would have
probably prevented the malaligned kitchen problem, for example.  If you
read that book, you'll have more "common sense" than a dozen consultants.

        Howard A. Landman
        River Rock Cohousing
        Fort Collins, CO