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Volume 22, Number 1. CUSTOM HOME (ISSN: 1055-3479; USPS: 010-543) is published six times a year (Jan./Feb., March/April, May/June, July/Aug., Sept./Oct., Nov./Dec.) by Hanley Wood, LLC, One Thomas Circle, N.W., Suite 600, Washington, DC 20005. Copyright 2012 by Hanley Wood, LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part prohibited without written authorization. CUSTOM HOME is sent free of charge to qualifi ed readersinvolved in the custom home building and design industries. Publisher reserves the right to determine qualifi cation. Nonqualifi ed annual subscription rates: U.S. and possessions and Canada, $36; all other countries,$192. Single-copy price: $10. For subscription information, write: Circulation, CUSTOM HOME, Hanley Wood, LLC, One Thomas Circle, N.W., Suite 600, Washington, DC, 20005. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, DC, and at additional mailing offi ces. Postmaster: Send address changes to CUSTOM HOME, P.O. Box 3494, Northbrook, IL 60065-9831. Printed in the USA.

On the cover: Andy Byrnes, our 2012 Custom Builder of the Year. Photo: Jason Millstein / Aurora Select. January/February 2012 / Custom Home / 3

26

Features

28 2012 Custom Builder of the Year / Hybrid Drive/ Andy Byrnes’ trendsetting design/build company, The Construction Zone, took a hit when the Phoenix real estate bubble burst. Byrnes beat the doldrums with a fl urry of innovation, deploying crews to projects in remote locations and leveraging in-house talent to tackle entirely new lines of work.

40 On Site / Internal Logic In Philadelphia, the Split Level House adds a bright domestic presence to an awkward site while showcasing the forward- thinking efforts of its builder/architect team. Insight: The

home’s bullnose façade references the street’s other buildings.

ContentsJanuary/February 2012An urban infi ll house in Philadelphia employs a

split-fl oor layout to elevate the front door from the busy street and to accommodate the owner’s request for a garage.

40

Departments

5 Editor’s Page 8 Custom Market Watch 10 Master Class / Group Hug 18 Custom Builder 2.0 / Outside the Box 22 K+B Studio / Lighten Up 24 K+B Studio / Bright Idea 26 K+B Studio / Products 46 High Performers 48 Top of the Line 50 Great Finds 55 Ad Index 56 Last Detail

Directions Virtual Conference: Our 2012 Custom Builder of the Year provides advice on building outside your city and region—see page 16.*

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Editor’s Page

One of the worst aspects of this recession has been the pervasive paralysis. Every-one is stuck. People are frozen in houses they can’t sell. They’re postponing major life events, like getting married or retiring. And, those in business for themselves are mired in markets that no longer support them and their companies. What to do?

Custom building has always been an intensively personal, local profession. Your knowledge of building codes in your area, the strengths and weaknesses of subcontractors, and your relationships with building mate-rial dealers make up an important chunk of your expertise. But what if your market has ground to a halt, or has slowed down so much that you’re faced with either closing shop or laying off your entire workforce? Most builders have survived by picking up small jobs and biding their time for conditions to improve. They’ve added handyman divisions and other revenue streams to stay afl oat. Of course, these strategies make sense and they’re working for a lot of companies. But there’s one builder who is do-ing something entirely, radically different: Andy Byrnes of The Construction Zone . When the going got tough, he got going—out of town, and all across the country. He followed the work—and not just any work, but the best architect-designed work being done in the United States. He’s our Custom Builder of the Year.

In exporting his talents, Byrnes answered a need no one had yet fully articu-lated. Turns out, brand-name architects want great builders to build their one-of-a-kind designs. But architects’ clients often ask them to design houses in remote locations with little talent base. Combine a famous architect, a wealthy client, a far-fl ung location, and a cutting-edge modern design and the building corps grows even leaner—or more costly, as they think twice and charge triple looking at complex, multipage sheets of drawings.

How did Byrnes get this gig? Well, he already had a reputation with top-notch architects either residing in his hometown of Phoenix or who’d come to build there. So following those architects’ jobs to other places was not unthinkable. It’s just no one had really thought of it before. But you also should know he’s a ringer: Byrnes is a licensed architect as well as a contractor—one who happens to love building more than designing. So, is his model replicable by builders who aren’t architects? I think so. He’s fi rst and foremost a great builder.

Leaving Town

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EDITORIAL DIRECTOR / S. Claire ConroyMANAGING EDITOR / Jennifer LashSENIOR EDITORS / Meghan Drueding, LEED Green Assoc., Shelley D. Hutchins, Bruce D. SniderASSISTANT EDITOR / Evelyn RabilCONTRIBUTING EDITOR / Cheryl Weber, LEED APWEB PRODUCER / Zack Sherwood

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www.customhomeonline.com8 / Custom Home / January/February 2012

B uilding a sprawling house on unspoiled land isn’t as popular or feasible as it usedto be. At least that’s the housing market news as told by The American Instituteof Architects (AIA) in its 2011 Home Design Trends Survey. In� ll projects, how-ever, remain a rising segment of the residential market with 65 percent of the 500residential architecture � rms’ surveyed reporting higher demand for in� ll. Respon-

dents indicate that clients want those close-in locations because of existing infrastructure, accessto public transportation, proximity to jobs and retail, and more modest square footage. Existing lots in established neighborhoods ideally meet all of those needs and offer neighborhood bond-ing, which was another prevalent client desire.

In� ll projects consistently have grown since 2010, showing that smaller-scale urban houses

might be a long-term movement for the industry. Houses may be getting smaller on a permanent basis, but quality and longevity are steadily increasing among custom home clients. Durable materials garnered a 68 percent rating as a frequent request. Other design components that ranked highly include front or side porches, an open plan that invites interaction, and simple de-tailing. Sustainable products and systems still display increased in-terest, but not nearly as much as in past years. Another interesting and possibly enduring trend is multi-generational cohabitation. Clients asking for those extended family spaces rose by 44 percent through the third quarter of 2011, which remains fairly even with the 47 percent increase in 2010. Accord-ing to the AIA’s chief economist, Kermit Baker, architects aren’t the only ones noticing this inclination among homeowners. Baker states in his third quarter survey summa-ry that “a recent study by the Pew Research Center found that 16.7 percent of the U.S. population was living in multigenerational house-holds in 2009, up from 15.1 percent in 2000.”

On the � nancial side of things, residential architecture � rms still note a decline in billings, especial-ly among those in the Northeast. There are several optimistic indus-try signs, however. Project backlogs are lengthening, albeit slowly, and client inquiries remain just above the magic number of 50, which indicates some positive growth. And while renovations and home improvements remain one of the healthiest sectors, Baker notes that the all new construction segments are dropping except the custom/luxury market, which is experienc-ing a “substantial easing in decline” to the tune of 15 percent.

Design Trends Chart Toppers

Remodeling: kitchen/bath

Remodeling: additions /alterations

First-time buyer /affordable homes

Move-up homes

Townhouses /condos

Custom/ luxury homes

Second /vacation homes

Front /side porches

Simpler detailing on exterior

Single-story homes

Contemporary home styles

40%

Home Improvement Market Solid; Construction Still Weak in All Major Sectors

Public Focus and Simplicity Priorities for Home Styles

SOURCE: THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS HOME DESIGN TRENDS SURVEY

57%

28%

24%

37.3%

35.4%

-37.3%

-36.4%

-35.3%

-26.9%

-61.4%

10%

16%

26%

42.7%

41.9%

-35.4%

-33.6%

-39.2%

-42.5%

-65.4%

11%

Percent of respondents reporting sector “improving” minus percent reporting sector ”weakening”

■ 2011 Q3

■ 2010 Q3

■ 2011 Q3 ■ 2010 Q3

Percent of respondents reporting popularity of trend

“increasing” minus percent reporting trend ”decreasing”

Custom Market Watch By Shelley D. Hutchins


Working in an established, high-end, inner-ring suburb of Wash-

ington, D.C., builder Jay Endelman successfully has weathered

more than 30 years of economic ups and downs and always had

another project on the horizon using his focused, one-house-

at-a-time model. Founder and president of Guild Craft in Chevy

Chase, Md., Endelman once had fi ve employees and completed

an average of three new construction or whole-house renova-

tion projects each year. He’s now down to one full-time project

supervisor, and they mostly take on

smaller remodeling projects or ad-

ditions to keep busy. Like with many

other small builders, however, this

continued economic downturn meant

moving out of his comfort zone to bal-

ance the books.

Infi ll spec remodel is how En-

delman describes the project that

brought his business well into the

black. Within six months, he identifi ed

an upwardly trending neighborhood,

lined up private investors, committed

personal funds, bought a distressed,

uninhabitable property in a competi-

tive market, completely renovated the

house and yard, and sold it for con-

siderable profi t. It was a big risk that

paid off. “There is certainly a higher

level of anxiety with spec building

and you don’t get to truly produce a

unique space as with custom work,”

Endelman admits, “but there’s also

the satisfaction of being able to cre-

ate a more modest house that still stands out from the rest and

enhances the immediate community.”

Endelman made several fast but smart decisions to make

this project successful. The fi rst step was fi nding a community

that maintained a “strong pulse even since the housing bub-

ble burst.” Endelman chose to bid on a single-family house in

Hyattsville, Md., because of the area’s many desirable traits—

easily accessible public transportation, convenient routes into

the city, and large development or mixed-use projects in prog-

ress. He had already lined up private investors and committed

personal funds because banks and other lenders remain a hard

sell. Once fi nancing and location were set, fi nding a house and

entering the bidding process began. “Financing had to be pre-

arranged so I could act quickly,” he says. “No contingencies or

inspections are allowed on this type of sale. Most people would

spend more time considering buying a pair of pants!”

Selecting the right property to buy is crucial despite the

fast choices. Endelman looked for a special quality either al-

ready existing in the property or for the chance to create one.

This house ended up having both. The single-story bungalow

Endelman purchased has a full base-

ment and detached masonry garage,

which are both nice selling points. He

knew this was the house he wanted

to buy, however, the moment he saw

the backyard. The half-acre backyard

is well over twice the size of typical

yards in the neighborhood. Endelman

used the garage to frame the space

and reworked landscaping to gener-

ate a large, inviting outdoor area. The

oversized yard gave Endelman an ex-

isting stand-out feature and also in-

spired his added “wow” factor. While

planning changes for the structure,

the builder realized that the interior

spaces needed to be opened up to

create a better connection to the yard.

“The stairway to the lower level was

at the back of the house and blocked

any views to the yard,” he explains.

“To avoid rebuilding the entire exte-

rior wall, I put an interior window in

the kitchen and opened the stair land-

ing to generate sightlines out and bring daylight in. It was an

inexpensive solution that adds a huge value to the space.”

Turning this eyesore into a well-designed, modest house with

several custom touches gave Endelman worthwhile and profi t-

able work to do. The project—after 45 nail-biting days on the

market—let the builder sleep better at night knowing he can

keep his trusted supervisor employed and his bills paid. Endel-

man also sees his efforts to transform the uninhabitable house

into a desirable home as a way to give back to the community.

And despite the anxieties of fl ipping a distressed property using

private and personal funding, the rewards were enough that

he’s already looking to bid on his next infi ll spec project.

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Profi le: Fulfi lling

Infi ll

Builder Jay Endelman rebuilt this bungalow with interesting details, plus higher-end,

effi cient, durable materials. He also added landscaping that highlights

a spacious backyard.


Jerry Eddinger loves his work almost as much

as he does his family, and he is among the rare

custom builders who seldom have to choose be-

tween the two. His wife, Mary Lou, is president of

Eddinger Enterprises . Their eldest daughter, Nancy

Madarus , is his partner in the company’s construc-

tion division. Nancy’s husband, Kevin Madarus ,

handles earthwork and heavy equipment, and

their college-age sons pitch in on occasion. The

Eddingers’ younger daughter, Susie Cavallo , runs

the plumbing and painting division out of the same

Healdsburg, Calif. , offi ce, while her husband, Scott

Cavallo , does most of the company’s steel fabri-

cation. All of which makes life for the patriarch a

pretty pleasant affair. “I’m 72 and have absolutely

no desire to retire,” Eddinger says. “I enjoy my job,

and I get to do pretty much what I want. I come to

work to see my kids and my grandkids.”

His children seem equally pleased with the

arrangement. “My parents started this business when I was real young,” says

Nancy, 47, who remembers tagging along with her father to construction sites

when she was 5 years old. “When I was 12, he gave me my fi rst construction

job,” she says. “He had me pouring concrete and stripping forms. By the time

I was 15, I was doing walk-throughs with buyers at a development he

was managing.” Nancy and Susie had another family business from which

to choose—a women’s clothing store run by their mother’s family—but PHO

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Master Class By Bruce D. Snider

Jerry Eddinger, Nancy Madarus, Mary Lou Eddinger, and Susie Cavallo (clockwise from upper left).

The Eddinger clan puts work and family fi rst.

Group Hug

Whether it’s remodeling or replacement, Marvin has a solution. The broadest rangeof products combined with the most energy efficient options available meansthere’s no better partner for exceeding your clients’ needs. It’s all part of fourgenerations of innovation and craftsmanship backed by an unwavering commitmentto service and support from local retailers. Get a closer look at our extraordinary range of replacement and remodeling options with our new, updated catalog.

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Eddinger Enter-prises converted this historic Santa Rosa, Calif., barn into a gathering space for a four-generation family (top and above). A second-fl oor offi ce serves the family business. Looking much like a restored original, this Healdsburg, Calif., Victorian designed by San Francisco–based architects Remick Associates is an all-new home (right).

construction won out. Nancy says a big plus in her becom-

ing a builder was the chance to spend more time with

her father. “We call him Jerry at work,” she explains. “He’s

a great guy; he’s fun. It didn’t seem like work.”

After graduating college with a degree in marketing,

Nancy split her time among the family business, a lumber-

yard, and a local winery. “Then one day Jerry got sick,”

she says. She stepped in until her father recovered, and

she never left. “That was in 1988,” she says, without a

hint of regret. In addition to daily contact with her family,

which she cherishes, the job offers her the same fl exibil-

ity her father enjoyed when she was growing up. Jerry

worked long hours but also found time to coach his kids’

sports teams, she remembers, and she and Kevin followed

suit when their sons were young. “We were still work-

ing 10- and 12-hour days,” she says, “but we were doing

some of it at midnight.”

American popular culture idealizes the family business, but the diffi culty of actually running one

has spawned an entire industry of consultants and therapists. The Eddingers and their family have

succeeded by ignoring the experts and cheerfully breaking

one of their cardinal rules: Leave work at work. “We’re always

talking about work,” Nancy says. “We keep nothing sepa-

rate. We live in a small community. We run into our clients at

the grocery store, at sporting events. It’s just part of our

day, and that’s fi ne with us.” The family maintains order

by upholding the principle of respect for one’s elders—

“There is a pecking order, and Jerry is at the top of it,”

Nancy explains—and with a clearly defi ned domain for each

member. “It’s something of a democracy, but not quite,” she

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says. “We get each other’s opinions, but we don’t have to.”

There is risk involved in so many members of one family

depending on a single source of income. To counteract the po-

tential volatility of the construction market, the Eddingers have

invested in commercial property that generates rental income.

And while their other investments took a hit during the down-

turn, Jerry says, “if we were to retire tomorrow, we wouldn’t

be affected.” That is in part because of an ethos of frugality

that runs through the family. “We play hard, but we save hard,

too,” Nancy says. “None of us has much debt, and the company

doesn’t either.” Deep roots in the community and a diversifi ed

business model provide additional stability. “We do $20,000

kitchen remodels as well as multimillion-dollar houses and big

commercial jobs,” Nancy says. Perhaps as a result, Jerry adds,

the downturn’s effects on the business have been rather muted.

“In 2010, we were down about 20 percent,” he says. “In 2011,

we were up by 25 percent.”

On the matter of putting the family’s fi nancial eggs in one

basket, Nancy concludes, “that’s something we think about,

but it’s not something we dwell on.” Which leaves time for

more important questions, such as: When will Jerry slow down?

“It’s almost an unspoken contest,” Nancy says in mock exas-

peration. “I’ll get here at 6:30, and he’ll have gotten here at

6:25.” That’s totally unnecessary, she notes. “We’ve got 30 employees

here. There are plenty of people to pick up the slack. Wouldn’t it be

nice to come in at 8:00 and leave at 2:30?” Maybe. But Nancy says she

understands her father’s attraction toward work because she shares the

same impulse. “My family are my very best friends,” she says, “so I get to

go to work with the people I like the most. That’s pretty cool.” ■ PHO

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With much of its structure exposed, this northern Cali-fornia compound by Sonoma, Calif.–based Nielsen:Schuh Archi-tects required fi nish-quality craftsman-ship at every stage of construction.

Eddinger Enterprises

www.eddingers.com

Type of business: Custom

builder /remodeler

Years in business: 44

Employees: 30

2011 starts: 48

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P refabricated custom homes still seem futuristic to a lot of people. But to Russell D. Busa , they’re business as usual. “I grew up in the building business with my dad,” says Busa, who is based in Burlington, Mass. “We were doing modular and panelized houses 25 years ago. People think this is a new thing, but it’s not.”

Busa started his own custom building company, Sterling Homes Development Corp. , in 1994, after eight years at his father’s design/build � rm. At � rst, Sterling did mostly stick-built and panelized projects, but over the past six to eight years Busa has seen a distinct shift toward modular homes. These aren’t remotely similar to manufactured housing; Busa’s high-end custom residences run anywhere from $150 to $300 per

square foot. They’re built in a factory and craned onto the site, atop a standard foun-dation. And they currently make up about 80 percent of the homes Busa builds, with most of the other 20 percent going to stick building. “We’re doing very little panel-ized right now,” he says.

In Busa’s experience, modular’s ad-vantages are hard to beat. “Not only does it have a quick turnaround time for the cli-ent, it’s also quick for the neighborhood,” he says. That’s important in the older, rela-tively dense suburbs of Boston, where he tends to work. He recently built a custom home in Wellesley, Mass., in four months. Had it been stick-built, he estimates it would have taken one to two years to con-struct. Building speed also helps reduce concerns about weather impacting the site work. And it cuts down on inconvenience to the clients, who may have to rent or stay with family members while their home is being constructed.

Lower cost is another factor, but Busa cautions that while modular can be cheaper than site-built construction, it’s not as inex-pensive as many believe. “One of the most common misconceptions out there is that modular should be 20 to 25 percent less. In custom homes, that is very misleading.” A more accurate � gure, he adds, would be an average of 7 percent to 10 percent in material savings. The increased building speed also can provide a cost advantage to customers who are spending money to rent temporary housing. Busa says using pan-elized construction will realize savings of about 3 percent to 5 percent over the cost of building on site.

Sterling has worked with the same modular and panelized factory, Preferred Building Systems in Claremont, N.H., since 2007. “When I get a number from the factory, it’s locked in,” Busa says. “With stick-built, there are a lot more unknowns.” Claremont is a two and a half hour drive from Boston, and he often takes clients for a factory visit so they can see exactly where their home will be made and who will be making it. The factory acts as a subcontractor, and has no direct interaction

Outside the Box

Russell D. Busa has found a niche building modular custom homes.

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with the client. It takes care of transport-ing the house modules to the site, and then Busa and his team join them to one anoth-er. Sterling also handles demolition (most of Busa’s projects are on teardown sites), site excavation, exterior stairs, connecting wiring and plumbing, � nish fi ooring, inte-rior painting, and landscaping.

Along with an increase in modular cus-tom homes, Busa also has seen growth in the remodeling sector. The company has two stick-built renovations on the books for the coming year, as well as some small-

er additions. Sometimes modular or pan-elized construction can make sense with remodeling, especially on a larger project. But, as Busa explains, “if it’s just a small room, it’s counterproductive from a price standpoint to build it in the factory.”

Like most of the custom builders who are still in business, Busa has had to change some of his processes. “Before, I could meet with a client maybe twice and they’d be ready to build . Now I spend

months with a client before they’re ready. It’s a much more competitive market out there than I can ever remember.”

He’s also noticed that customers are more interested in conserving energy than in the past, a development that dovetails nicely with his modular work. Preferred Building Systems emphasizes energy ef-� ciency, building homes with an average HERS rating of 57 . Busa thinks that if he could � nd a client who wanted to invest in solar panels and geothermal heating and cooling, he could even get a home down to net-zero energy.

Business has been slower than it was during the boom, but Busa still managed to build � ve custom houses in 2010 and 2011. He also found time to start a divi-sion devoted solely to redoing residential roofs. “It’s been an asset for the company � nancially, and we sometimes get other jobs from roo� ng projects,” he says. “It’s nice to have the smaller projects to back� ll in between other jobs.”

Additionally, Busa has started blog-ging as a way to stay in touch with past, present, and potential clients. Home main-tenance advice and tips on topics such as green building and remodeling create a helpful blog environment rather than a sales-oriented tone. “In this recession, the successful builders are able to convey a level of trust,” he says. “As long as you provide them with that trust, that’s the key.” For him, having the ability to use different types of techniques to build a custom home is part of that trust. “We can offer people a variety of different ways to meet their goals.” ■

Sterling Homes Development Corp., Burlington, Mass., www.sterlinghomesdev.com / Type of business: Custom builder / Years in business: 18 / Employees: 5 / Annual revenue: $1.2 million / Average number of projects per year: 3 to 5 / Project type breakdown—remodeling vs. new construction: 30 percent vs. 70 percent / Project type breakdown—residential vs. commercial: 100 percent vs. 0 percent

Sterling Homes engages both independent and in-house designers on its projects. It worked with Art Form Architecture on a Concord, Mass., modular custom home (top). Russell Busa's father, Frank Busa, designed a Sterling custom home in Wellesley, Mass., also modular (above). And the company teamed with architect Peter Karb and HPA Design on a stick-built custom home (below) in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass.

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San Francisco’s celebrated Victorian row houses have many charms, but with windows often limited to two elevations, they can make access to daylight a challenge. The Paci� c Heights Townhouse, located at the end of its block, enjoys the luxury of a long southern exposure at one side wall. “That,” says architect Jonathan Feldman , “bought us 40 feet of space to bring in light.” In combining the house’s two fi ats into a single residence, Feldman lever-aged that built-in advantage by locating the daytime rooms as close to the sun as possible. “All living spaces are on the top fi oor,” Feldman says, “where there’s more light and access to a roof deck.”

The kitchen hugs the south wall, mediating between the living and dining rooms to the front, and the more casual breakfast area and family room to the rear. “It’s the heart and hub of the public spaces,” says Feldman, who highlighted that cen-trality in the most literal way possible. “We added a ton of large windows down the side of the build-ing, and skylights,” he says. Storage concentrated along the north wall, including a walk-in pantry se-creted behind a glass-paneled door, frees the south wall for a bank of windows overlooking the house’s narrow side yard.

A U-shaped layout of painted wood base cabi-nets and a small working island, both with stone-composite counters, de� ne the cooking area and contrast with the darker wood fi oor, an engineered material surfaced with reclaimed oak. Ceiling-sus-pended storage—glass-front cabinets toward the dining room, open shelves toward the breakfast area—brackets the space at eye level. “It’s a kitchen that has a ton of counters and a ton of storage but doesn’t feel very substantial,” Feldman says, “because everything’s put away.” —Bruce D. Snider

Lighten Up


Project: Pacifi c Heights Townhouse, San Francisco; Builder: Lorax Development , San Francisco; Architect: Feldman Architecture , San Francisco; Interior designer: Lisa Lougee Interiors , San Francisco; Photographer: Paul Dyer. / Resources: Cabinets: Woodshanti Cooperative; Countertops: EuroStone; Dishwasher: Miele; Flooring: Restoration Timber; Garbage disposer: Insinkerator; Lighting fi xtures: Anta, Bocci, Santa & Cole, USA Illumination; Oven: Viking; Paints: Benjamin Moore; Plumbing fi ttings: Kindred; Plumbing fi xtures: Ann Sachs, Blanco, Grohe; Refrigerator: SubZero; Skylights: O’Keeffe’s; Windows: Marvin

A long, open southern exposure and a generous bank of skylights put this kitchen in the spotlight. Located between living/dining and breakfast/family rooms, it mediates between the house’s formal and casual spaces.


K+B Studio

The Paci� c Heights Townhouse master bath stakes out its own southern exposure one fi oor below the kitchen. Its symmetrical layout centers on a Carrara marble-topped sink counter, book-ended by a shower to the east and a tub to the west. (A door op-posite the counter conceals the toilet compartment.) The coun-

ter’s marble backsplash rises to the sill height of the three south-facing windows, establishing a water table that segues into a glass-tile surround at the tub. The same watery blue tile lines the walk-in shower, while variegated blue ceramic mosaic tile picks up the aquatic theme at the fi oor. The dark wood of the base cabinet and tub skirt—a sustainably harvested hardwood called Chechen —provides an earthy contrast. In the interest of simplicity, architect Jonathan Feldman designed cutouts instead of knobs for the cabinet’s drawer and door pulls. “Less is more,” he explains. “Less things to clean and stick out at you. It lets the material be the focus.” To avoid the focus of neighbors across the bamboo-planted side yard, Feldman speci� ed etched glass for the windows. “You can see the bamboo silhouetted through them,” he explains, “but you can keep your privacy.” —B.D.S.

Project: Pacifi c Heights Townhouse, San Francisco; Builder: Lorax Development , San Francisco; Architect: Feldman Architecture , San Francisco; Interior designer: Lisa Lougee Interiors , San Francisco; Photographer: Paul Dyer. / Ceramic tile: Ann Sacks, Waterworks; Lighting fi xtures: Waterworks; Paint: Benjamin Moore; Plumbing fi ttings: American Standard, Toto; Plumbing fi xtures: Duravit, Grohe, Kohler, Waterworks; Windows: Marvin.

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lessly with a notched shiplap design that leaves a large concealed nailing area. The low-maintenance 3TL pro� le is 8 1/2 inches wide and installs 30 percent faster than standard-width beadboard, the maker says. The b oards resist rotting, warping, moisture, and insects. CertainTeed . 800.233.8990. www.certainteed.com .

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I f you had to choose a place to be a custom builder when the housing bubble burst, you couldn’t do much worse than Phoenix. Fofitune magazine � agged the city as a real estate “dead zone” as early as 2006. From that year’s peak, prices proceeded to drop by more than 50 per-

cent. By fall 2011, they still hadn’t recovered to January 2000 levels. Custom builder/architect Andy Byrnes offers a more telling statistic. Before the crash, he says, his accountant had 65 builder clients; now he has six. For Byrnes’ Phoenix-based design/build company, The Construction Zone (CZ), the � rst

hard jolt came in spring 2008, when two ma-jor projects disappeared within a month. “It was probably $20 million of work that went

away,” Byrnes says. “For us that’s the equivalent of a whole year of work. We went from 115 employees to 40.” But while other builders struggled to main-tain a semblance of their former business or quietly folded, Byrnes responded with a � urry of innovation, diversifying his company both geographically and de� nitionally. Drawing on its ties with prominent residential architects, CZ expanded beyond a shrinking Phoenix market while leveraging its talented, � exible workforce to explore entirely new lines of work. Yes, Byrnes readily admits, the boom years were good to him, but he is adamant in his assertion that they are over. “If you’re a builder in Arizona just waiting for it to go back

Custom Builder of the Year By Bruce D. Snider

Hybrid Drive

Andy Byrnes innovates his way forward.


to the way it was,” he says, “you’re doing nothing.”

On Ramp Wiry and kinetic at 42, Byrnes seems to idle at higher rpm than your average person. As a kid in Massachu-setts, he raced motocross bikes. He attended Tulane Uni-versity on an athletic scholarship, “for pole vaulting, of all things,” he says. After taking up bicycling as a hobby in 1999, he went on to win his age group in the 2001 Ari-zona State Mountain Biking Championship. “I’m an all-in kind of guy,” says Byrnes, grinning. “Whatever I do, I overdo it.” Entrepreneurship came to him as naturally as athletics. “I always had my own business,” he says. During high school it was Cruise Brothers Landscap-ing. “The summer before college, I made like $40,000,”

Custom Builder of the Year Hybrid Drive


amid the fallout of the savings and loan crisis. “This place was a disaster,” he remembers. Seeking a job, he says, “I met a ton of architects. Nobody was very busy. But it was a good opportunity for me because I had a year to hang around and network with all these guys.” And that gave Byrnes the idea for a different kind of building company. “I had always worked in the construction industry,” he explains, and his notion of architecture had always been entwined with the construction process. “I never had a strong desire to just sit and draw pictures.” Putting an architect’s aesthetic sense and design skills out on the jobsite made Byrnes a hit with Phoenix’s top modernist � rms. “And that,” he says, “became a really good business plan.” In short order he established a new category in the industry: the architectural construction company.

“Working with Construction Zone is always my � rst choice,” says Phoenix-based architect Eddie Jones. “The principals are ar-

he says. “In greenbacks. I almost didn’t go to college.” Once there, he almost didn’t stay. “I was in arts and sciences, and I thought to myself, ‘This is a huge waste of time. Not only is it costing a ton of money, I’m not making any money.’” Architecture proved a better � t, but true to his restlessly enterprising nature, Byrnes charted his own course in the profession.

Architects who also are builders are nothing new, but very few deploy their construction crews in the service of another archi-tect’s design, and that is precisely the approach that Byrnes settled on. More than half of CZ’s work is for other architects, and the company has created a niche for itself by partnering with Phoe-nix’s most prominent modernist � rms.

Byrnes didn’t set out to become the architect’s architect/builder. “I just sort of followed my nose,” he says. In 1992, fresh out of the Tulane School of Architecture, he arrived in Phoenix

Dubbed 3300 by its builder, this 30,000 square foot building houses both a residence and a private museum. The ground fl oor’s massive rammed earth walls and exposed steel trusses contrast with the translucent box they support (opposite page). The second-fl oor residence features glass fl oors and serpentine stacked-glass partitions. Architect: Jones Studio, Phoenix; Photos: Robert Reck


chitects, and all their project managers and superintendents are at least graduate architects, so the learning curve is gone. We get to talk only about the good things.” With skilled designers on the job-site, Jones safely can put less detail on his drawings. “I’ll do what I call a ‘permit set,’” he says. “I don’t sweat the door jambs; I don’t sweat the cabinets.” When he intends minor building components to align, Jones says, “I don’t have to communicate it to the electri-cian or the plumber or the tile setter. It’s just done.” And having Byrnes on the team expands Jones’ range as a designer. The duo � rst came to the attention of this magazine in 2006, with a Custom Home Design Award–winning detail: a serpentine, stacked-glass partition wall, for which CZ provided R&D as well as fabrication (see photo, page 31). “We’re always exploring new territory,” says Jones, who relies on Byrnes for feedback on constructability and cost. “He’s fearless, and he has the resources to get the job done.”

“We make it really easy for the architects,” Byrnes explains. “We take what they do and run with it, without running over them.” To � eld a team capable of making good on that prom-ise, Byrnes cultivates architectural talent in his own farm system. “We’re very involved in Arizona State University and University of Arizona,” Byrnes says. “So we get the cream of the crop as summer interns.” Standout interns often have a CZ job waiting for them upon graduation, says Byrnes, who has done well by turning promising graduate architects into outstanding superin-tendents and project managers. “Unteaching guys is harder than teaching guys,” he explains. “And the old-style superintendent who sits in the trailer and lets the subs run the job is not going to fi y with us.” When a CZ superintendent is in the trailer, he’s most likely working at a CAD station, detailing a condition the

architect either did not anticipate or sim-ply left to CZ’s discretion. Cruising Speed The � rm’s capabilities are amply on dis-play in a house designed by Wendell Bur-nette Architects , now under construction in a gated community in Scottsdale, Ariz. (see photos, pages 34 and 35). Approach-ing the gate on a sun-drenched fall day, Byrnes pulls his Land Rover around a line of two dozen tradesman’s trucks waiting to enter. “This is the � rst time I’ve seen a line here in two years,” he remarks. “It used to be a mile.” Inside the gate, one � nds what one expects—large Southwest-style houses—and something rather unex-pected: a low, abstractly geometrical form with crisp, planar surfaces rendered in rammed earth and Cor-Ten steel. Virtually windowless at its entry side, the house ex-pands as the grade falls away, cracking its obscure shell to reveal broad walls of glass that bound a private, multilevel courtyard.

The house is large—nearly 8,000 square feet—but that number is made practically moot by the audacity of the design and by a combination of technology, material, and craft ut-terly unique in the residential sphere. The massive rammed earth walls are pierced here and there by pyramidal or conical openings that required CZ to break new ground in formwork. The main-level ceilings are plates of 16-gauge hot-rolled steel fastened with superstrong adhesive tape, except for those that conceal important equipment, which are held in place by magnets. The master bath is lined—fi oors and walls—with sheets of onyx “grouted” with bronze strips. One outside wall—18 feet wide by 12 feet tall, mounted with bronze shower � ttings, and bisected by a full-width glass panel—hinges open into a private courtyard for al fresco showers.

Large pieces of building that move in similarly unlikely and elegant ways are a recurring theme. The main entry door is a ceil-ing-height panel of Star� re low-iron glass. “Nine feet by 11 1/2 feet,” Byrnes says. “An $18,000 piece of glass.” In the living area, a glass wall rises 13 feet from the ground-concrete fi oor to the steel-paneled ceiling, four of its 5-foot-wide panels pivoting like vertical louvers to open the room to the courtyard. “This house has been completely handmade by Construction Zone,” Byrnes notes, including the glazing assemblies that are so integral to its




A LEED-certifi ed design/build project, The Perch refl ects The Construction Zone’s affi nity for local materials in their most basic form. Its exterior massing is a composition of blocklike forms rendered in rammed earth, raw steel, and resawn Douglas fi r. Architect: The Construction Zone, Phoenix; Photos: Bill Timmerman


character (see “Clear Advantage,” page 39). “We’ve done more drawing on this project—times two—than we’ve done on all our other projects combined for 20 years. That kind of separates us from other builders. We draw and draw and draw and engineer and engineer and engineer.” And build: “We’re at six and a half years in construction, and probably about two more years in design. We had 40 to 50 people of my staff out here full time for years.”

The project was a godsend during years when the pipeline of work slowed to a trickle, and when projects in hand could turn to dust overnight. To provide a glimpse at the latter scenario, Byrnes heads toward a would-be trophy home in another upscale subdi-vision. Ringed by chain link fence and open to the elements, the house stands on a construction site idled when the client put the $25 million project on inde� nite hold halfway to completion. Designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson , the house looks like an abandoned airport terminal. “We’ve been stuck in the mud here for about three years,” says Byrnes, descending the dirt ramp to a 5,000-square-foot subterranean garage. Inside the cavernous space,

two CZ workers are fabricating steel-frame glazing units for an-other project. The company is using the building as overfi ow shop space while it house-sits the property for the owner. Byrnes isn’t out signi� cant money on the job, but it still visibly pains him to be here. A compulsively organized person—he uses a straightedge to letter his to-do list—Byrnes lives to complete things. And this big, unavoidable thing stubbornly resists completion.

Interstate System What is most striking about the visit, though, is not what a hard blow the housing crash dealt, but how quickly and creatively By-rnes rebounded. Recognizing two of his company’s key assets—a young, talented, fi exible staff and close ties to architects with nationwide clientele—he began to accept projects he previously would have rejected as too distant. Once untethered from his home base, Byrnes identi� ed a wealth of opportunities. An earlier Phoe-nix house CZ built for San Antonio–based Lake|Flato Architects set the stage for projects with that � rm in Mississippi, South Dakota,




The Construction Zone’s most demanding project to date, Desert Courtyard pushes the limits of construc-tion technology with knife-edge detailing in rammed earth and rusted steel. A hinged wall, clad in onyx and bisected by a band of glass, opens the master bath to a private walled courtyard (opposite page). Architect: Wendell Burnette Architects, Phoenix; Photos: Bill Timmerman


The Farrell Residence preserves the topography of its steep site by splitting off an elegant carport at street level. A screen of perforated aluminum panels anchors the graphically simple entry façade. Window walls provide city and mountain views while screening out neighboring houses. Architect: The Construction Zone and Mike Rumpletin, Phoenix; Photos: Bill Timmerman


businesses that make stuff. And just as environmental stress drives the evolution of new species, the stress of the recession seems to have spurred Byrnes not only to adapt his primary business, but also to generate new ones.

The CZ of� ce occupies the top two fi oors of a three-story, glass-walled building on a major downtown business artery. De-signed and built by the company , it’s furnished with construction-themed original artwork and CZ-made furniture of black steel and white oak. Half a dozen young employees work at CAD stations in a sunny room with a high ceiling of black steel roof trusses. By-rnes and his partner, company CFO Michael Groves , share a sepa-rate corner of� ce nearby. Sitting at mirror-image desks, each with a drafting board and separated by a concrete conference table, the two banter comfortably as they work. New-agey piano music pours from an iPod on the desk between them. “Hey, you trying to put me to sleep with that?” Byrnes asks, without looking up from his email. Groves � nds some alternative rock and turns back to his computer. Groves, 45 , is a builder’s son who became an architect after a � rst

California, and Texas. Out-of-state work for other ar-chitects followed, along with CZ-designed remote-site work. “Right now, we have three jobs under construc-tion in Arizona,” Byrnes says, “and � ve out of state.”

Project manager Matthew Muller , 35 and a li-censed architect, is just back from a Lake|Flato project in South Dakota. He visits every two to three weeks to huddle with the company’s project superintendent, who will stay on site for the duration (Byrnes visits the company’s remote projects as needed). For the South Dakota job, CZ imported a few specialized Phoenix subcontractors and a mason from Texas, Muller says, “but everything else has been local guys.” The model works well in remote, rural areas, where local general contractors often lack experience coordinating com-plex, technically sophisticated projects. What CZ of-fers in such situations is management expertise and an architectural eye on the job. And because local builders tend to charge an “afraid to do it” premium for one-off modern houses, CZ often is the cost-effective solution.

Ted Flato was the partner in charge on his � rm’s � rst CZ project, in Phoenix . “It was a remote location for us,” Flato says, “so we were hoping to � nd some-one who understands our kind of modernism, the win-dow details and door details.” Byrnes and the CZ crew

seemed capable of reading his mind. “We do a very thorough set of drawings,” Flato says, “but there are always some details that you’d never get to.” CZ � lled in the blanks, Flato says, “and made choices that were not only great, but also were completely in the spirit of what we were doing. They were as good as or better than what we would have done. It was like having someone from my of� ce on the jobsite all the time.” Flato invited Byrnes to work in Texas, but there was too much action in Phoenix. Until, of course, there wasn’t. While Flato and his � rm sympathized, he says, “we also said that this is a real opportunity, so we brought Andy into some other proj-ects in Texas. We knew he would get it.”

The South Dakota project “is a huge challenge because it’s not an area that’s used to doing custom homes,” Flato says. “People are not even used to looking at drawings that have a lot of speci-� city. Andy actually knows what we do and can say, ‘Well, I can build it for X.’ He was game to go there and also to leverage some of the talent that’s up there. It allowed us to get some good archi-tecture for good value. It’s not that he cuts corners, he just knows how to make this stuff.”

Convertible Talents Byrnes is a prodigy not only at making stuff, but also at making

Hybrid Drive Custom Builder of the Year


career managing restaurants. That business experience, and his undergraduate degree in � nance, are unusual in architecture, he notes. “And they’ve been very helpful.”

Of� ce manager Jessica Ruiz pops in with fi ight details for Byrnes, who is heading to Oakland, Calif., for a meeting on a restaurant deal. CZ is a partner in a restaurant development company that offers investors everything from concept and design to construction and staf� ng. “We’ll basically open a restaurant for an owner,” Byrnes says, “even run it for them if they want.” The out� t, called Les Bon Temps , has one project under way outside Boston and three more in northern Cali-fornia. While Groves taps out numbers on the Oakland deal, Ruiz reminds the partners that they have an engagement in town later in the week. “We just won the AIA commercial award for this building ,” Byrnes explains, “so we’re going to a banquet for that.” Groves pushes a paper toward Byrnes, looking quietly impressed, and says, “That doesn’t suck.” At that moment, Muller arrives to review a draft design/build proposal for a tennis court-and-garage addition. Byrnes ex-plains that CZ maintains a deliberate balance between in-house and outside-� rm design. “From a business standpoint, getting more jobs with architects lets us do more,” he says. “If we have three or four houses we’re working on design-wise, it pretty much swamps us, whereas, if � ve architects came to us today with projects, we’d say, ‘Sure.’” But design/build work has its value, too, because it presents another way for the company to engage its target clientele. The tennis court pro-posal is a case in point, Byrnes notes. “This is the kind of guy who, if we get in his wheelhouse …” Muller � nishes Byrnes’ thought: “Good client.”

The three then turn their attention to customatic.com , the website CZ is setting up to market a line of handsome, mini-malist consumer goods of its own design. First up: a wall clock, a set of � replace tools, and some CNC-cut anodized aluminum clothes hangers. Pulling up the beta site on his desktop moni-tor, Byrnes lays out the logic of the online retail venture. In construction, he says, “everything we do is a prototype. We build it once, and then it’s done. We thought we might as well sell this stuff.” The company’s in-house resources—in design, prototyping, marketing, and administration—make the proj-ect a relatively low-risk proposition. Groves does some quick sales projections while Byrnes puts the product photographer on speakerphone. CZ can pay his day rate, Byrnes tells the man. “Or do you want to have an investment in the thing?” The photographer pauses for only a moment before answering, “I just have a gut feeling about you and the product,” he says. “So, yeah, I would be interested.” Good call. ■


The O’Rourke residence tops its curved, stained concrete walls with sweeping forms clad in black titanium-coated zinc. Architect: Jones Studio, Phoenix; Photos: Courtesy The Construction Zone


The Construction Zone (CZ) got at crash course in glazing on a 2004 residence/private art museum designed by the Phoenix architec-

ture fi rm Jones Studio . “That project alone had about $1 million of custom glazing in it,” says CZ president Andy Byrnes , whose crews

fabricated not only custom curtain wall assemblies, but also glass fl oors and stacked-glass columns and partitions. Along the way, the

company developed a capability that has become one of its distinguishing features. Today, when you look at a CZ-built house, you’re

probably also looking at CZ windows and door systems.

Because every CZ window is custom, Byrnes says, he’s able to offer an unlimited range of design options. “We’re willing to en-

gineer this to a different ‘creativity tolerance’ than someone who’s building out of a catalog,” he says. “Everyone loves these rusted

steel buildings, and there is no manufacturer who makes a raw-steel system. If someone wants a 1/8 -inch bronze integrated threshold

folded on one end to receive 2 inches of stone fl ooring, we can do that. It

can be designed to integrate materials in a very precise way.”

“We began doing this because we wanted to control the time-

quality-cost equation,” Byrnes says. CZ prefabricates system components

in its own shop and assembles the units on site, cutting weeks off the

lead times required by large manufacturers. “It’s like a knocked-down

cabinet,” Byrnes says. “We leave critical pieces of the frame long and

trim them to fi t. We send the steel fabricators and then the glazing crew.”

None of this is cheap, he acknowledges, but CZ’s custom operable win-

dows are no more expensive than the top name brands. “On fi xed glass,”

he says, “we can be competitive with commercial storefront glazing.” ■

Clear Advantage

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Brick walls, mahogany windows, sapele siding, and the sandblasted concrete entry platform are a twist on tradi-tional neighborhood materials. The bullnose façade references other corner buildings on the street.


T wo great ideas don’t always play well together. That’s certainly true in the urban design realm, at least as a practical matter. Building on an in� ll lot avoids waste and the fragmentation caused by scattering houses into the countryside. It leads to a compact city with

a clear identity and pedestrian-friendly streets. And a beautiful dwelling inspires everything around it. But can the twain meet on a tight trapezoidal plot?

They can, and do, thanks to the collaboration by builder Charlie Overholser , of McCoubrey/Overholser , and Qb3 De-sign partners Stephen Mileto , Kevin Angstadt , and Patrycja Doniewski . Located in the eclectic Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia, this house adds a bright domestic presence to an awkward site while strengthening the neighborhood’s ties to its industrial past. But its forward-thinking stance belies the often extraordinary challenges of building on a remnant lot.

Northern Liberties has a colorful, if hardscrabble, past. Until the middle of the last century, it was a manufacturing hub pop-ulated by German and Irish immigrants who lived in tiny row houses near the tanneries, factories, and foundries where they worked. Blight claimed it in the 1970s as those jobs crumbled away, but over the past 10 years, redevelopment and the infi ux of artists and professionals has led to a renaissance. Responding to that history, Qb3 chose basic exterior materials—brick, wood, and concrete. Design cues came from a series of bull-nose corner buildings on the street, including an inn that stood on this parcel until about 30 years ago.

The home’s bullnose brick wraps the front cor-ner, cantilevering over a deeply recessed entryway. But the unusual split-fi oor layout came from the owner’s request for a ga-rage, and the need to elevate the front door to create some distance from the street. “It immediately started setting up this series of splits through the small, irregularly shaped site,” Mileto says.

Six exposed pipe columns skewer the two halves of the building together, creating point loads for staggered platforms that lead upward through the house and expand the space horizontally as well as vertically. “You’re al-ways looking into the fi oor below and above, or out on the street, or straight through the building,” Mileto says. The seven levels culminate in a master suite with views of an eye-level roof garden and brick parapet.

This complicated scheme called for steel framing. The cantilevered radius required it, and with only a sidewalk staging area, the structure had to go up quickly. Of course, the budget affected the playbook and added new technical challenges. To save money by mobilizing the steel framing crew just once, the structure was erected in one shot rather than fi oor by fi oor. “Often you build the � rst fi oor, take measurements, then build the second fi oor,” Overholser says.

On Site

InternalLogic A Philadelphia city house rethinks the suburban split.

By Cheryl Weber, LEED AP


“The challenge was hitting our heights and trying to keep the whole structure plumb, level, and square while not tied into the � ooring systems.”

More costs were trimmed by devising a hybrid framing system of steel and engineered wood. “The whole frame of the house initially was going to be steel, but as we worked toward the body of the structure we transitioned to engineered lumber,” Overholser says. “It ended up being a little trickier because you have differ-ent materials running into each other.”

Getting out of the ground correct-ly is fundamental to any successful project. Although the house size was manageable, it covered a cramped site with no right angles. The original plan was to use helical piers, drilling down rather than removing the unstable soil. But after hitting the old hotel’s “mon-strous” foundation, that plan was scrapped. With an engineer watching, the crew spent three days removing the old foundation and digging down 14 feet against the neighbor’s shored-up foundation until they found solid fi ll. “Luckily, we had dry weather,” Overholser says. More modifi ed soil was trucked in and compacted in 12-inch increments before a new con-crete foundation could be poured.

Those diffi culties seem negligible now. One benefi t of the design-and-engineering collaboration is that, upon approach, the house appears as a robust brick building carved up with mahogany windows, sapele wood clad-ding, and clear and frosted glass. But the inside is airy and light-fi lled. “Because of the massively solid brick curve, it reads as an introverted house,” Mileto says. “But from the inside it feels like a predominantly glass building.” The façade’s historic-looking gray brick also negotiates subtle shifts of sensibility and place. A closer look at the clean, wire-cut surface reveals unex-pected orange � ecks and a bluish iridescence. “It was a design and construction process attuned to detail,” Mi-leto says. “Every inch is considered.” ■

On Site Internal Logic


Project Credits: Builder: McCoubrey/Overholser, Philadelphia; Architect: Qb3 Design, Philadelphia; Living space: 3,000 square feet; Site: 0.02 acres; Construction cost: $400 per square foot; Photographer: Todd Mason/Halkin Photography. / Resources: Bathroom plumbing fi xtures: Hastings, Kohler; Bathroom plumbing fi ttings: Duravit, Hansgrohe; Bathroom cabinets: Broan, James Van Etten; Brick/masonry products: Endicott; Countertops: Caesarstone; Dishwasher and range: Bosch; Entry door, garage door, and exterior siding: James Van Etten; Garbage disposal: Waste King; Hardware: Schlage; Kitchen cabinets: James Van Etten; Kitchen plumbing fi ttings and fi xtures: Blanco; Lighting fi xtures: Bega, Con-trast Lighting; Oven: Jenn-Air; Paints/stains: Benjamin Moore; Patio doors and windows: Weather Shield; Refrigerator: GE Monogram; Skylights/roof windows: Velux.

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Insight By Cheryl Weber, LEED AP

A reinterpretation of the old pharmacy building across the street, the Split Level House’s arcing

façade makes sense of the irregular street grid. And the glazed three-story entry slot frames views

across layers of space: from inside to outside and back inside again.

The cantilevered curve contains a structural steel radius tied to a series of point loads on round

lolly columns. Its metal stud framing was covered in plywood sheathing and then sprayed with a wa-

terproof membrane. “The radius was gentle enough that we could bend the plywood,” says builder

Charlie Overholser . To lay the Flemish bond-pattern brick, masons strung lines from top to bottom,

point to point, every foot or so to maintain the radius. “It’s standard brick, not curved,” he says. “We

were within an acceptable limit where it didn’t look faceted.” ■

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New TricksThe Nest Learning Thermostat not only remembers temperature preferences, but it continually re� nes its schedule to ensure maxi-mum comfort when users are home and to save energy when they are not. The Nest learns homeowners’ routines after one week, and then programs itself via sensors, algorithms, machine learning, and cloud computing, the maker says. A Wi-Fi connection allows users to check energy usage, set the temperature, and adjust the schedule online. Nest Labs . 855.469.6378. www.nest.com .

Mixed DrinkThe Aqua2use graywater system � lters waste water from the washer, shower, and bath and channels it to the garden, saving a family of four roughly 40,000 gallons per year, the com-pany estimates. The high volume of water dilutes the soap enough to bene� t plants, and a four-stage puri� cation � lter removes lint and debris. The compact system installs above orbelow ground. Water Wise Group . 805.468.4920. www.waterwisegroup.com.

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An iPad docks in the wall of every home Scott Frankel built last year. With a Crestron processor and the company’s Mobile G app, users can control six zones of lighting, music, the thermostat, the shades, and the security system from the Apple touchscreen. Con-trol apps for iPhones and Android devices allow homeowners to adjust the climate and monitor security from anywhere.

“When we are negotiating about a price, customers act like they don’t care about it that much,” Frankel says about the touchscreen controls. “And then the night before we sign the contract they say, ‘Wait, we get the [iPad system], don’t we?’ That to me is about as key as it’s going to get.”

Through a client, Frankel discovered another high-tech touch product: the Versa Lift power storage lift. It mounts in the attic or basement and transports loads up to 250 pounds between levels in 15 seconds via remote control, the company claims. “It’s almost like a dumbwaiter to get things into your attic,” he explains. “Not having to lug things up there, espe-cially in a two-story house, is awesome!”

And outdoors, Kamado Joe grills are the builder’s eye-catching choice for summer kitchens. The ProJoe in the company’s Revolution Series cloaks a 2-inch-thick ceramic core in a stainless steel shell. An insulation blanket between the ceramic and steel layers keeps heat in, reducing the exterior temperature to half that of the inside. The grill’s hinge

system is engineered to offset the weight of the 175-pound lid; it lifts with just 8 pounds of force. “They don’t rust, they’re pretty easy to clean, and they look really neat,” Frankel says. —Evelyn Rabil

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1-800-888-2418

visit www.feeney12.com

See us at IBS 2012

Booth W943


PHOT

O: M

ICHA

EL M

ORA

N The pixelated artwork in the entryway of this Long Island residence changes continually. Ribbons of stainless steel, bent up and down to form shelves and cubbies, allow hundreds of wine bottles to climb a wall of acid-etched glass.

“We not only bring the wine cellar upstairs, we feature it,” says architect Paul Masi . “The house is very long and exaggerated through the landscape but it has these intimate, isolated spaces”—one of which holds the wine. The wine room occupies an area between the kitchen and the front door, a freestanding volume within the space. The meticulous bends of the wine shelves reference the long paths winding through the grounds outside.

Masi chose a low-watt � uorescent fi xture to minimize heat and silhouette the bottle bottoms through the wall with a warm, even wash. Triple-insulated glass keeps the climate to cellar standards.—Evelyn Rabil

Last Detail

Signature Wine

Otisathome.com or contact Bill Kempf at (888) 852-6847.


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visit advantechperforms.com/ch or call 1.800.933.9220.

*Limitations and restrictions apply—visit advantechperforms.com for details. © 2011 Huber Engineered Woods LLC. AdvanTech is a registered trademark of Huber Engineered Woods LLC. Huber is a registered trademark of J.M. Huber Corporation. HUB6222-01/12


Custom Home-2012-01-02

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