Custom Design, Off-the-Shelf Budget
How Non-Gazillionaires Find the Right Architect and End Up With Their Dream Home
Johannes Zutt, in the kitchen with Lucas, chose an architect for the 3,000-square-foot house by looking at portfolios at the offices of the American Institute of Architects, then talking with a half-dozen prospects.
(Photos By Sarah L. Voisin -- The Washington Post)
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Saturday, October 20, 2007
Unique angles. Tall ceilings. Half walls. Open space.
David and Pamela Keene dreamed of building a contemporary-style house on a half-acre in downtown Vienna, in a quaint, leafy neighborhood west of the Beltway.
All they needed was a top-notch architect -- one who shared their vision, one with whom they were compatible, one they could afford.
But it wasn't easy. One architect they contacted not only dictated his non-negotiable fee -- 17 percent of the final cost of the house -- but also insisted on total control over the creative vision, David Keene recalled.
In fact, the architect even went as far as to tell them to ditch their furniture because he was going to design some himself. "It was his way or the highway," Keene recalled.
Even when they found an architect they clicked with artistically, there was the question of money. "It was hard negotiations," said David, a technology consultant. "We really sat down and butted heads."
They arrived at a fixed fee, about $63,000, based on the initial projected cost of the house.
"We don't have a gazillion dollars," added Pamela, who works for a real estate investment trust. "The last house the architect did in McLean used $6 million worth of material. There was no restraint in that deal, and we had a lot of restraint."
In an era of too much sameness, where tract houses and indistinguishable subdivisions rule the local landscape, the architect-designed custom home may seem a luxury beyond reach.
But as the Keenes and others have found, there are ways for non-gazillionaires to find an architect, keep construction costs down and build a dream home worthy of a spread in Architectural Digest for not much more than the cost of a house from a builder's plans.
For those on a tight budget, that may mean forgoing a superstar designer, cutting back on the number of bathrooms and the square footage, or installing standardized products such as doors, sinks and roofs.
"You have to let the architect do things that are cost-effective," said Randall Mars of Randall Mars Architects in McLean, who was hired by the Keenes. "We look after the budgets of the clients."
