There’s a battle underway in lots of communities across the country. One area is the irresistible force involving progress – home builders, developers, and homebuyers in a big hurry to move into brand-new homes. Conversely, the immovable object involves community government and individuals already settled into expanding neighborhoods. The combatants are generally fighting for the right to know what neighborhoods look like – exclusively, how to control “cookie-cutter” residences and assure diversity involving architectural design.
The young families that occupy the first few properties in a new neighborhood will often be quite surprised when they see that a nearly identical version of the home they call their own is usually under construction two gates down. How did that transpire? After all, when they used their builder, they chose the large rock color, the siding coloring, and the roof shingles; these people reversed the plan and selected the upgraded landscaping bundle. But suddenly, their eyesight of home ownership, their most significant investment, their pride, is diluted by similar thoughts sprouting up their street altogether.
Home builders, as well as developers, on the other hand, are under intense financial and competing pressure. Development starts several years before construction when property developers purchase and “stockpile” land for future use. It’s a speculative game, and developers cross their fingertips that homebuyers will wish today the land they bought ten years ago. The secret is to appeal to a broad target audience and buy land in places now that will be in demand later on. Part of that broader charm is expressed in the type of homes offered for sale or construction within those neighborhoods. The most secure route is always a small number of very easily modified designs that can be precisely priced and that will fulfill the desires of the most significant number of individuals.
When a homebuyer sits right down to “customize” one of these plans, he usually chooses from a pre-determined vocabulary of options to work well together and generate an attractive home. That’s a practical system until you consider that in a given neighborhood, where the homebuyers are similar in age group, income, education, values, and so on, it is very likely that their tastes in home style are similar too. And before long, two different buyers beginning with the same basic plan get to choose similar materials and colors. Oops – now what?
Anyone, of course, has the right to decide what his or her property looks like. Some of America’s ideal homes are unique, exclusive designs that indicate their keepers’ personalities. But those homes are hardly ever built in “typical” suburban local communities. More likely, they’re on components isolated from any important architectural context and need to be brought up only to trees and territory forms.
Most homes in this country are built next door to other homes. A group of homes jointly forms a neighborhood, plus a neighborhood often looks ideal (and holds its price best) when the homes inside share a common design bond. But that’s where the struggle starts. Houses can be way too similar, and neighborhoods usually take on a monotonous character. Typically the appeal of attractive homes is usually weakened. Soon homeowners, along with city officials, are criticizing the repetition of identical houses, and builders and developers find themselves having to guard their right to build exactly what their buyers are asking for.
From the complex and challenging problem, however, there are solutions. The most common is instituting a design evaluation process — a system about determining whether a particular style is compatible with the homes around it. Although inherently very subjective, design reviews can have a higher degree of objectivity if crystal clear guidelines are drawn up. Historical neighborhoods around the country possess successfully used design evaluation for many years to maintain their personality and property values. More recent communities use design recommendations to guarantee style compatibility and assure new diversity simultaneously. The design review procedure requires that attention become paid to the design of every home as an individual task, not just as another permutation of the standard plan. Also needs that each proposed design become evaluated in terms of the houses around it.
But because of the natural difficulty of imposing guidelines upon something as subjective and personal as the design of a house, the design review process could be cumbersome and painful.
The correct formula is to put more “custom” in the custom design procedure. A “true” custom property is designed from the beginning with a particular owner’s demands, dreams, desires, and would like in mind. When a home shows a family’s quirks, the idea displays a unique character that can’t be transferred to another property. It is, by definition, famous from all others. Building more true custom homes throughout neighborhoods facing “cookie-cutter” troubles adds much of the desired assortment that raises the level of executive integrity for the whole community.
To the homeowner, there are several rewards so you can get involved in the custom design course of action. The most obvious is a house that is a better fit for a distinct family than a speculative property designed for a broad market. This could mean that more joy and satisfaction are found in living now. It might mean that the spots built are used rapidly, unlike many new homes, where obsolete formal spaces are generally little more than places to produce furniture.
But the biggest prize may be financial. A designed home is often a smaller property, and smaller homes give you the choice of paying less for the complete project or paying the savings on much better details throughout (and it is the details that make truly good homes). A custom-designed house may also make more efficient utilization of materials, saving money on the fundamental structure of the building. The added costs of style professionals can be absorbed via cost savings in the house itself.
The builder client of my own recently called to discuss precisely what could be done for a potential purchaser who is “struggling” to afford to create a home in a neighborhood in which the design regulations encourage the usage of expensive exterior materials. The actual buyer’s budget is limited. However, he doesn’t want to quit space in the house; he’s considering cutting back on the exterior design. In case he does, he’s specific to incur the wrath of the design review panel. His buyer may not understand it, but he will become a foot soldier within the continuing battle over the directly to control the look of our interests.
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