Category Archives: Uncategorized

Small Buildings That Make a Big Splash

In honor of Earth Day, April 22, let’s go back to basics. Take the bath, for example. We know it can be lavish, but what’s a simpler approach that’s resource efficient and exhilarating at the same time? I’m glad you asked. Heidi

Richardson, principal of Richardson Architects,  designed this modest but memorable 150 sq. ft. bath house for a dairy farm. You can see the context Continue reading →

Dueling Pitchforks

Spacious porches, simple barn-inspired shapes, and informal open layouts designed for casual living are the key elements of a successful farmhouse. I’m delighted to introduce two contemporary farmhouse plans that celebrate country living in thoughtful ways: the newest additions to our Exclusive Collection.  Heidi Richardson, the great granddaughter of the legendary Boston architect Henry Hobson Richardson, is an award-winning Northern California architect who has designed a wide variety of buildings and once worked for William Turnbull, one

of the architects of Sea Ranch on California’s Sonoma Coast. Here’s her elegant Plan 889-2. The understated outline — a central gable flanked by porches Continue reading →

Patterns from the Past, Paths to the Future

Last week Houseplans.com staffers (yours truly included) had lunch with influential Connecticut architect Duo Dickinson — author of The House You Build and House On A Budget — to hear his views on why more architects should embrace the ready-made plan idea. Yeah baby! (Read his entire guest post on Time To Build.) He sketched in the history of the architect-designed house plan and mentioned the famous popular debate fostered in 1938 when Life magazine asked eight architects to design houses for families at several different income levels (when a dollar was really worth something!).

The magazine asked  for a “traditional” and a “modern” plan for each of four families. According to Duo, it “was a forum to show that the art of architecture Continue reading →

Pier Review

Recently I toured the remarkable new home for San Francisco’s famous Exploratorium — the museum of science, art, and human perception founded by physicist Frank Oppenheimer (brother of J. Robert Oppenheimer) in 1969 — which opens officially on April 17. Formerly housed at the landmark Palace of Fine Arts, it has moved to Piers 15-17 on the Embarcadero near downtown. Resting on new piles driven into the Bay, the impressive 9-acre setting for this “research and development lab for public learning” couldn’t be more fitting. After all, “embarcadero” means docking point and this is an institution that

takes us on a journey of discovery (embarking from what we know, disembarking with new insights…) in the worlds of biology, physics, listening, cognition, and  Continue reading →

Enveloped in Nature

The Shingle Style developed during the late 19th century in the northeastern United States where wood was plentiful and an Arts and Crafts/back-to-nature esthetic reigned. The great architectural historian Vincent Scully identified and codified the style and called it the first truly American building idiom. Cedar shingles became the enveloping matrix holding together an exuberant array of architectural expressions for a burgeoning leisure class. Consider houses like

Kragsyde, at Manchester by-the-Sea by Peabody & Stearns of 1882 with its Continue reading →