Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: design review

[PattyMara (PattyMara]

In a message dated 12/17/99 3:32:05 PM !!!First Boot!!!, Berrins [at] aol.com 
writes:

<< It doesn't sound like you guys had an architect, because the 
 front door / kitchen arrangement you have doesn't sound like anything a 
 decent architect would design.  And those garages!  An architect would have 
 known to build large enough for larger cars. >>

At Tierra Nueva Cohousing, central CA coast, we had architects and engineers 
and a contractor.  And we still ended up with garages placed so tightly that 
some of them are being used for storage, not cars.   Having all the 
professionals didn't do us much good.  They planned it, engineered it and 
built it without giving the community clue one that some of the garages were 
too small to park in for some vehicles.   Fortunately for my family, we own a 
compact car, and our garage is on the end so there is some wiggle room.  
Unfortunately for others, they own vans which do not make the tight turn 
necessary to get into their garages.

The key word in the quotation above is "decent architect".  Yes, a decent one 
will design structures that work.  And some sites will offer unique 
challenges.  Our parking lots are located on the upper and lower edges of our 
sloped site.  Why most of the garages (11) are on the smaller, steeper upper 
lot instead of the wider, flatter lower lot (4) is a mystery to me.  But did 
I foresee the problem before it was built, and when we were looking at 
designs on paper for approval?  Nope.  I just assumed it would be designed, 
engineered and built by professionals, and it would all work.  

Oh well.

For those of you in design stages, look carefully at the details and ask more 
questions of your professionals.  If you are invested in building garages for 
cars and storage both, then make sure you get a structure that will work for 
both.  Here, we designed 15 garages in for a community of 27 homes.  Now 
there are 3 households who very very much want a garage and cannot have one 
because they bought in after all garages were reserved. 

At Tierra Nueva there was and still is a stigma attached to wanting a garage 
for a *car* and *storage of stuff* probably based on some nebulous ideal of 
voluntary simplicity.   So we didn't build a garage for every house.  I wish 
we would have built more garages though, that were designed and engineered 
better.

Patty Mara Gourley
Tierra Nueva Cohousing, San Luis Obispo County, CA