BMA Blog

04 Oct 2010

It’s all in the details

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One of the great things about designing residential projects for specific clients is that you can really get in and explore the opportunities to deliver a superior product that exceeds expectations. We have a project that is currently under construction and it is as good an example as any to help demonstrate what I am talking about. In speculative residential development, there is a certain amount of thinking that involves working towards the lowest common denominator. Since there isn’t a specific client that the contractor (or architect) is answering to, the product is designed and built to have the greatest appeal to the greatest spectrum of potential home buyers. As a result, almost everything is predictable and formulaic – any “WOW” features are carefully calculated risks because they generally represent un-programmed construction costs; sort of a give the people what they want.

That’s incredibly boring and not what we do here.

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Partial Exterior Elevation (click to enlarge)

I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the covered porch on of one of our projects. (I shouldn’t have to tell you that you shouldn’t build from these details – I have specifically left some information off) This is a fairly straightforward design situation – the covered porch at the entry. Most people have this scenario in one form or another at their own home – but we are trying to look at some of little things to make this entry sequence just a little bit more special. In modern design, there is typically a lot going on that you aren’t instantly supposed to know about or be clubbed over the head with. Things like:

  • Thin roof profiles
  • Gutter treatments (including scuppers, overflows, and downspouts)
  • Alignment – how things line up in relationship with other architectural features

Take the exterior elevation above, if you can read drawings you can see that there is a lot going on that is going to impact the entry procession. There is a box gutter that is basically the same depth as the structure of the roof, the gutter is formed from the same metal fascia material, and there is a scupper to discharge the water instead of a downspout. All of these things were done so that we can minimize the visual impact of how rainwater falls off this section of roof.

Wall Section (click to enlarge)

Taking a look at a section through the entry porch, the gutter profile is easier to see. Something else that you can find is a skylight that is placed along the edge of the house. This was done so that light can penetrate through the roof and rake the entry wall. There is also a strip light cove in this skylight so that the entry will be evenly illuminated during the evening hours. It would have been simple to place some shallow profile can lights into the porch ceiling but we would have received scalloped light patterns on the wall and the brightest spot would be the porch floor – and we are not big fans of illuminating floors. It is a better design to light and feature the wall and have the light reflect onto the floor than the other way around.

Another design feature is that the interior and exterior ceiling height are the same, and that the glazing goes all the way up. This is a really graceful way to extend the view from one side of the window through to the other side without interruption. It is an important consideration that in modern design, the boundary between interior and exterior spaces be blurred. As a result, we create opportunities to capture the space that tends to be wasted and unused in the front and side yards of most projects.

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Enlarged Detail at canopy (click to enlarge)

Drilling all the way in, let’s take a look at the detail of the light cove and porch skylight at the entry. Other than some extra 2x material, caulk, and some glass – this is not a terribly difficult detail to execute. The benefit it provides is really the result of someone thinking about the opportunity to look at the little things and develop the detail that supports the story. The client loves this feature despite it not being in the programming – this is the sort of detail that happens when creativity and opportunity come together. It is also the reason I tell people that working with an architect should be a fun and rewarding experience.

It’s all in the details.

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31 Aug 2010

IKEA Overconfidence

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Posted in Life in General | 1 Comment

My daughter Abby is entering her fourth year of college at NYU. The dorms at NYU are what you might expect for New York City-small, old and sometimes visited by Jerry the Mouse. The last two years she shared a converted one bedroom dorm with 3 roommates. The conversion is created by placing two desks and two beds in the living room. The lucky girls (Abby of course) who gets  this space has the opportunity to have all their clothes, which hang on an open racks, be infused with the evenings Asian dinner fare. By the way Abby was only slightly jealous of her sister, Zoe, who goes to the University of Texas where a typical dorm room (Suite) includes a full kitchen, a pleather sectional couch, and a walk in closet with its own zip code.

NYC Apartment Floor Plan

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This spring Abby decided she wanted to live in an apartment with a roommate. We (Cindy and Bruce-her loving parents) said yes to the apartment. Abby went on the hunt for the apartment with Zach Shor, Real Estate agent and friend, one fateful Saturday morning. The first text was “the apartments are like shoe boxes”. I responded like a dad- great “less furniture to buy.” The third apartment was the “ONE”, located in Murray Hill at Third and 35th. Abby described it as only a fourth floor walk up, two bedroom, bath and living area. It is wonderful.

Little did we know how much fun it would be to go through the process of being the guarantor for the apartment and the ease/simplicity of furnishing it. Last year we refinanced our house during a renovation project. It was simple- go into the bank, fill out 15 minutes of paperwork and go through the drive through to pick up the check. Approval for the apartment required tax statements, bank statements, a letter from your CPA and note from your Rabbi that you are in good standing with your dues payment (which also means you will get your High Holiday tickets).

Abby got the apartment and asked me to assist her with selecting furniture and helping her move in (the daughter of an architect knows how to do this).  She sent me a sketch she did of the floor plan including dimensions. I laid out the plan on grid paper and realized that she and Bayla were going to live in a shoebox over at least the next couple of years. What fits in a shoebox, is well designed and inexpensive-  IKEA furniture.  The process of creating a furniture plan, selecting the best pieces to fit each space, and keeping to a budget (budget is a foreign word in our household) began. Numerous trips were made to the IKEA in Frisco, Texas. The first trip was overwhelming to Abby,so many furniture options, the smell of freshly baked cinnamon buns in the air and dollar hot dawgs. I suggested we just go room by room and select furniture which would make the rooms feel larger than they actually are. A full size bed, dresser and small vertical bookcase completed the bedroom (8’-0” x 11’-0”). The living room which is about twice size of the bedroom included a miniature couch, side chair, bookcase and TV stand. The dining area, which is really just a wide hallway, worked well for the Fusion table because the chairs nestle underneath when not in use. Four trips were made to IKEA to confirm how the furniture is put together, check color options and eat dollar dawgs.

IKEA Pictogram

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OK that was Texas and Abby’s apartment is in New York City. IKEA does not take pre-orders. With the list in hand we headed to IKEA Brooklyn via the subway and then a bus. Get the cart, go down the aisle, and pull the furniture from the bin. Go to the next isle/bin- crap their out of the Billy cabinet. This was the beginning of the logistics nightmare that New York City can be. Once we paid we headed over to the delivery department. After shopping for three hours dealing with the delivery department was even more fun. They said the delivery would be late the next day, which put my assembly schedule behind, so I introduced them to Mr. Jackson ($20.00). The furniture made it to the apartment early the next day. Back to the City with bags of plates, cookware and stuff that cost 9 cents. We headed to Best Buy to purchase A/C window units. Taxis are a way of life in The Big Apple and another Jackson got us back to Abby’s apartment. Walk up apartments are great for the young but 2 with A/C units and bags from IKEA the four flights of stairs this was just the first trip of 50 that reduced me to a crying middle age baby.

The second day adventure started with Abby headed to the Elizabeth, New Jersey IKEA to purchase the remaining pieces of furniture. Again, Mr. Jackson proved his worth and by the end of the evening the second delivery made it to the apartment around 10:15 p.m. The first group of furniture showed up while Abby was in New Jersey. No helper with the delivery guy so he and I carried 13 heavy awkward size boxes up the four flights of stairs. I gave myself a Jackson as a tip. One box was missing and after a lengthy phone call one more box would arrive later that evening.

Now it was time to start putting together furniture. I hate to admit the following but I don’t mind putting furniture together. The Europeans have figured out how to provide instructions that generally are easy to follow. Pictograms are provided for all the parts and steps for assembly. Maybe my background as an architect allows me to visualize the process better than written instructions. Years of putting together Playmobil dollhouses doesn’t hurt.

Here is my process of putting together IKEA furniture:

  1. Open the box and layout all the pieces.
  2. Open the bag of connecting pieces and put them in like piles.
  3. Open the instructions and review the assembly steps.
  4. Go back and look at all the parts and assembly steps again.
  5. Drink a cold beer.
  6. Assemble the furniture step by step per the pictogram’s.
  7. Do not deviate from the instructions.
  8. Admire the finished assembled piece of furniture and drink another beer.
  9. Repeat process until out of furniture or out of beer.

Assembly went well the first day and continued until the middle of the next day when, finally, IKEA OVERCONFIDENCE took over. That is the moment you abandon the nine steps above and start to put together furniture without reviewing the instructions because you think you know what you are doing. Disaster strikes – frames are put together backwards, shelves are upside down, and drawers don’t slide in properly and you have ended with extra parts!!!

IKEA Furniture

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Remember the IKEA designs, instructions and packaging are extremely well thought out. If something is not working out during the assembly it is most likely your fault. So, I took a break (drank more beer) and shook off my IKEA OVERCONFIDENCE.

FINAL SCORE:

IKEA FURNITURE                     14

BEER                                    12

SCOTCH                                1  (just a single shot – not the whole bottle)

ABBY                                     very happy

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10 Aug 2010

The Offices of BMA

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Work environments are important – they tell visitors a lot about what to expect from the place they are visiting. I almost always enjoy visiting other architects office because it seems like there is always something wacky going on somewhere. I’m not talking about the office’s of large architectural firms – no. I like going into the offices of firms with 30 people or less…15 or less is even better. It’s at the point where budget is still the major obstacle and the possibility of seeing saw-horse desks and reclaimed bookshelves is a distinct and sometimes necessary component.

Floor plan

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These are the offices of Bernbaum Magadini Architects and you can look at the floor plan above and see that the layout of the office is really straightforward. Tricy and I laid this office out and we set our programmatic priorities and looking back 4 years later, I think we did a pretty good job. Good use of space, clear public/ private separation, definable hierarchies, lay out space and quality multi-function space.

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One of the things that we did try and jazz up was our reception desk – but only a little. All the millwork in our office is clear-coated medium density fiberboard (MDF). It is super cheap, incredibly stable and durable and since most people aren’t used to seeing it without a coat of paint on, it seems new and unique. Trickery!! We did however pony up a little extra $$ to insert a MDF decorative panel on the front of the reception desk and as soon as I can remember where we got it, I’ll come back and amend this paragraph. I do remember that it cost about $400 for a 4′ x 8′ x 3/4″ sheet.

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We only have hard ceilings in just a few places – the conference room and immediately above the reception desk are the only spots with a gypsum board ceiling. We wanted the acoustics to be a little better and have a more finished looking enclosure in the most public of spaces. We put 2′ x 2′ acoustic tile in the offices but everywhere else it is open to structure. In the conference room, we have 3″ worth of beam depth popping through the gyp board, but I liked the look and decided to keep the ceiling where it was – just painted it out in the same seal gray as the rest of the deck and structure.

Also – see that giant TV, we watch it while eating popcorn as often as not – beer Fridays, The Office and spicy Cheetos, popcorn and cocoa coated almonds. Working here is pretty good.

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We have a large-ish center area where we put a large layout table. Most of the time, it turns into a temporary dumping ground between meetings but it is an extremely useful area. Not only will we have group meetings and vendor material presentations here, but this table has been used for pumpkin carving contests, gingerbread house making contests, valentine cookie decorating. We even challenged a guy in the office to eat a “Ghost Pepper” (Bhut Jolokia Pepper – the hottest pepper in the world by a long shot). In the end, he only ate the teeniest tiniest bite ever in the history of chickening out at the last minute but he’ll tell you he ate it. He’s a liar.

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Can you believe it? We actually have flat files? I keep thinking that these dinosaurs will go away but I am coming to the realization that they will never be leaving. Maybe the next generation will figure out how to avoid keeping 15,000 rolls of full size drawings laying about. All I use these days are half size sets – they fit on my desk  a whole lot better and I don’t look like a jerk carrying the small rolls around from meeting to meeting. Also, this is our “Resource Library” and it probably is a waste of space. We keep making it smaller and smaller because we get everything off the Internet these days. Far too often, when you rely on the resource library materials, you will select something awesome that they stopped making 13 years ago and you just designed a space around it. (That’s never actually happened to me…I’ve just heard of it happening to others).

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When your name is on the door, you can bring your dog to work. This is the office of Patricia ‘Tricy’ Magadini. Her main role here is designer and her office typically looks a lot worse than this. You’ll see that in addition to the computer, Tricy still drafts by hand. The other partner, Bruce Bernbaum, also is a hand drafter but they are the only ones – everyone else is far more proficient on the computer.

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This is my office – if I had a camera with a wider angle lens you might be able to detect more of what really happens here. There is a low reclining chair just in the bottom left of the photo that is a great napping  chair for reading through specifications. You will see that I am working wide aspect, dual 24″ monitors and I love them. I am in and out of programs all day long and now I can dedicate on monitor for things like email and social media. Although, it can be distracting, I have to close it down fairly regularly but I will replace it with Rhapsody so I can listen to some music while I work. A little possible bad karma might be on my horizon  -as I took this photo, the red ribbon on AIA Young Architect of the Year award fell down. That can’t be good right?

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Our Materials room – almost always a disaster and a challenge to find what you want but this is the room that all the visitors to our office are most enthralled by. You have to remember that all these things represent possibility and change for the better. I know when I bring my 6 year old daughter up to the office, this is a fun room to come to (although I don’t really let her spend any time in there – it’s dangerous!)

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This is one of the work areas that is in the very back of our office. We put it there because there is typically music being played, some sort of tape-ball tag or rubber band wars. We don’t need to see that sort of thing but we don’t need to pretend it doesn’t happen. I can assure you that there are few people in this country that can shoot you in the eye with a rubber band better than me. I’ve even shot myself in the eye a few times – I’m deadly. Bruce thinks he is pretty good as well and there are times when I have regretted that there is a narrow alignment between our two offices. His laser-like accuracy has successfully crossed the layout area gap on  occasion and woken me up from my nap (guess that’s why he’s the boss).

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14 Jul 2010

Better things are coming!

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Hello-

You have stumbled onto the new blog website for Bernbaum Magadini Architects, and by doing so,  you are either very clever or surf the internet a lot! We haven’t gone live with either our new website – which can be found at www.bmarchitects.com – or this blog.

Yet.

We are upgrading many things around our office and how we communicate is just one example…but it’s a big one. In the last few months, we have been creating a new website, we are preparing this blog, we signed up for twitter and Youtube accounts; we’ve even registered on websites like Digg and Stumbleupon…Whew! It is a lot of work but we find it all quite exciting.

Despite all these (somewhat) new methods for reaching out and talking with people, we still like to talk with people face to face. We like to draw with pen and pencil on paper and we think that you will like that too, but we have recognized that there is a brave new world out there. Providing architectural services goes way beyond just the design of a building and keeping water from leaking through your roof (which we are quite good at actually). As service providers, we think that the experience you have working with us is also very important. We are fun people and that translates into the work we do and the experience our clients and partners have while working with us.

So while all this social media is really exciting and gives people a chance to get to know us (without actually meeting us) we think that our personalities will extend through the posts we prepare and the relationships we develop through blogging and twittering (tweetering?). If you would like to follow what we are doing, you can subscribe to our blog here and we will deliver interesting and informative bits of information to you. What you will find on our blog are helpful articles on products and techniques that any homeowner should know as well as progress reports and construction photos of jobs we currently have in place. It should be interesting and we look forward to your participation.

Thanks, and we’ll talk to you soon.

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