August 1996 Volume 2, Issue 4

Take a hike!... but only if you look and feel buff. It's 40 feet vertically from the garage to the front door. No problem, ride the tram. When our clients came to us with this beautiful but steep site we knew Architect and Client would love this effort. This is a current sketch at the end of the Design Development phase. As you can see the house is turning out fabulously. Each room enjoys a spectacular view of its own kind. Maximizing views and comfort will surely add joy and value to this family's life.

Now lets talk about creating more value. We developed many different designs for this home and site. Each design responded to the natural beauty of the site, the client's lifestyle and budget in useful ways. When client and Architect thought the exploration was complete and very valuable we made one more really different design attempt. We are calling it "tread lightly." What if we didn't attach the garage to the house? What if we didn't use seventeen foot retaining walls in a dozen places$ What if we designed to limit excavation and haul out to a fraction of conventional approaches$

Then we compared the cost of the last two designs- number 4 and design number 5. Number 4 is three stories tall and has over a 100 feet of retaining walls over 12 feet tall and the garage is by the front door. Design number 5 is 25 feet higher up the slope for better views, has just a short section of retaining wall and no off site earth removal. There is a tram ride up from the garage. The cost difference- #4 is $60,000 more expensive. Treading lightly on the earth looks fabulous and (including the tram) saved our client $60,000!

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