4 January 2012 - Architects have always been inspired by buildings without architects (BWA); think barns, yurts, traditional Japanese houses, etc. This is because the purity of a structure driven solely by function, materials, comfort and economy is perennially refreshing. A BWA trend we are noticing in Otsego County involves freestanding structures assembled out of wood studs and translucent material. The photographed example always turns our heads, given the translucent roof and walls, clear structural support, and irregular geometry. This even sports a PV solar collector on the roof. Inspirational? You bet!

13 October 11 - We were saddened by the pasing of Steve Jobs. We proudly consider ourselves as part of the Apple faithful as we have never purchased anything else. The holistic and integreated beauty of their products contributes to our daily enjoyment of what we do. Design matters, and Apple under Jobs is proof of that.

14 September 2011 - Kurt is pleased to be teaching design this fall as an Adjunct Professor at Morrisville State College. First year design students always bring a refreshing and unique viewpoint. One class mantra is that there is no bad drawing.

1 September 11 - The most beautiful solar panel installation that we have seen is this ground mount installation in Craftsbury, VT. They have azimuth and rotational tracking so that they are aimed at the sun all day. They are aesthetically beautiful and fun to watch.

It starts to get tricky when you balance the costs and benefits of solar panels when applied in historic contexts. While we laude the early adopters, we are becoming alarmed at the aesthetic effect these panels have on local properties. In the future, photovoltaic generation will be incorporated into most exterior building materials; the entire envelope will be a solar collector. You already see this technology incorporated into metal roof panels and into glazing systems. So the best move now might be to spend your green dollars elsewhere, say by upgrading wall insulation. This approach will lower your carbon footprint and will give the market time to catch up so that solar harvesting and aesthetics will go hand in hand.

6 July 11 - It is not often that you can get energy efficient construction for the same price as typical construction. For a highly energy efficient residence now under construction, we have selected a Canadian company for the windows and doors. We compared the thermal performance of the Canadian units with the performance of a highly reputable American window company. We asked the American company to give us their most energy efficient units that they make. And it turns out that the American units would increase the energy load on the house by a whopping 10% when compared with the Canadian. And the kicker is that the purchase cost is the same. So we feel that the American companies need to do some more homework. And we have no doubt that they will; look at the recent turnaround in the American automotive market. When it comes to windows and doors, you can have your cake and eat it too.

17 April 11 - Farmers are increasingly constructing fabric barns for their livestock. They really are very cool structures; translucent, open, airy. Some manufacturers even tout their system as moveable. Then it suddenly hit us, these fabric barns are incredibly similar to the Iroquois longhouse (pre European influence), which also used to dot our landscape. Both are or were arched, long and rectangular, lightweight, easily constructed, easily disposed and ultimately moveable. Has our regional architectural history come full circle?

1 March 11 - We are against lifting the fracking moratorium, until all New York counties have had the opportunity to strengthen their zoning laws. We want to see property values increase and we don't see how industrial production sites distributed across the countryside helps with this valuation. It is ironic that our clients are required by zoning laws to construct silt fences during excavation to control surface runoff; meanwhile, their next door neighbors are allowed to lease their land to gas companies who will inject harmful chemicals into the actual groundwater, for which no zoning application is required. The resolution of this dilemma seems simple; apply the municipality's zoning law to ALL proposed land uses, be it residential construction or gas drilling. For municipalities without zoning laws, the County Planning Board should review the proposed land use to ensure that SEQRA requirements are enforced.

3 January 11 - A recent article in The New Yorker by Alex Ross reawakened my interest in the avant guard composer, John Cage. The result was music listening sessions as well as reading two books. One of them was Cage'sbook Silence. Turns out that he considered a career in architecture by apprenticing with an architect. When he was told by the architect that he had to choose between music and architecture, as both require a full life commitment, he immediately quit his job and chose music. Given that his most famous composition (4'33") was such that no notes were played by the musician, I wonder what his most famous building would have been had he become an architect? It surely would have had no walls or roof and yet would have somehow been successful.

6 December 10 -We found this fun software tool on the Department of Energy's website that is worth sharing. The program is called Climate Consultant and you use it to provide climate information for any location in the country. The user inputs various parameters, and the program then outputs visually interesting and engaging graphics of sun angles, humidity, and the like. As an added bonus, the program will output an animated wind graphic which provides a greater sense of wind dynamics thru say a single month. And to top it off, the download is free.

29 September 10 - Here is a chance for someone to have a free building. Brewery Ommegang has been storing a disassembled hop barn in our barn for years now. The building was originally built in around 1850 and was located about 10 miles from Cooperstown. Ommegang bought and stored the building, with the intent of rebuilding it on their campus. As the building was taken down, all of the parts were numbered and documented. So, this might be just the accessory to satisfy that barn craving that lurks deep inside all of us.

28 July 10 - In our region, there are many derelict farm buildings that as they decay, they curve and bend. We find that the forms they create are usually more interesting than the original building. It was with great delight when we found this one just outside of New Berlin. Our guess is that it used to be a poultry building. The great curve and swoop of the roof almost looks like something that we might design. We're sure that the next time we drive by, it will have completely collapsed. but in this current state of suspended decay, we think it is just fantastic.

9 July 10 - Where do you go if you want to 1)see new architecture, 2) get exercise and 3) have fun all at the same time? You take your bicycle to the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway. The Greenway path basically circles the island, and we have ridden from the George Washington Bridge to the Brooklyn Bridge. There are all sorts of big name interesting new buildings to see by Nouvelle, Gehery, Meier, etc. You can stop at the High Line and then inspect the new construction at Ground Zero. Cafes are sprinkled up and down the Greenway. We took our bikes on the ferry to Govenor's Island and rode around there. Riding your bike across the Brooklyn Bridge is a treat not to be missed. And what is truly amazing is that it is all free.

27 May 10 - It's amazing how you can drive past a building for years and not really see it. The Ford dealership in Norwich hit us over the head the other day. as we finally woke up to the fact that the front of the building has a dramatic floating horizontal plane originally designed to showcase the new cars. We can imagine a warm summer evening in the 60's, the cars on their own stage, theatrically lit, yet not behind glass, most likely proved irresistible to the buyer. Although for now this dramatic space has devolved to something that you merely walk across to get to the showroom, we'll keep our eyes open to see if cars are displayed there in the future.

23 April 10 - We greatly enjoyed our trip to the Tennis Hall of Fame in Neport. Not only is the museum itself near and dear to our hearts. But the building is part of the 20th century architectural cannon. Designed by McKim, Mead and White, it was such a joy to spend time in and around it after seeing only photos in books. Everywhere your eye went, there was such delight. You could almost imagine the pleasure that the draftsmen felt as they drew the long continuous horizontal lines with their pencils and t squares. And the fact that the whole thing was finely crafted around a single tennis court just increases the fantasy exponentially.

12 March 10 - The local Cub Scout Pack was in the office this week. They had to visit an Architect's office as a requirement for a badge they are working on. Because they thought that the Badgley / Kong Residence was sufficiently cool, they spent part of the time drawing that house from a scale model. The results are absolutely great. Below are two of the drawings. Brad said they may hang the series in the house. Once again, everyone's inner architect shines thru.

8 March 10 - We got the chance to see the Xenakis show at the Drawing Center in the City. Now we have a new hero to worship, as Xenakis' career spanned both architecture and music composition. He worked in LeCorbusier's office as a project architect. He was fascinated with parabolic architectural forms. And then he became a significant avant guard music composer. What a career. The musical scores on display are architecturally obsessive as the lines and squiggles diagram a soundscape. Very unique and inspiring. If, as Goethe stated, architecture is frozen music, then the Xenakis drawings are the closest attempt we have seen to bridge the two.

22 January 10 - Kurt got to spend time in North Carolina at the Martin Doll Residence. This house was designed by our client's father, who was an industrialist, not an architect. The house has sloping Mondrian patterned glazing and free geometry that harks back to Frank Lloyd Wright. The pavilion quality is reminiscent of other fun buildings that we love not designed by architects: barns, grange halls, rural churches. Martin was just following his inner architect, which, we believe, resides in all of us.

4 January 10 - We know that the real estate market is topsy turvy. But how about this; at auction, the Pontiac Silverdome was sold for $583,000. No, there is not a decimal place error. So, for the same amount of money, you can get a reasonable house in Cooperstown, or the Silverdome? We do realize that location is everything, and that Pontiac is in Michigan. But still, it makes you wonder how far out of alignment the markets still might be.

30 November 09 - We went to the Bauhaus show at MOMA. The Bauhaus was a design movement in Europe which touted modernism during the '20s and '30s. The show consisted mostly of drawings and most of it was student work. Grandma's opinion was that most of it should not even be in a museum. And maybe that's the point; we were struck by the overall innocence and purity of the drawing and the watercolor studies. Hard to believe that this was the work of future architects who were out to foment cultural revolution thru modernism. We were especially taken with the drawings that used a musical score as a basis for a color exercise.

2 November 09 - Ground has been broken for an expansion at Brewery Ommegang. After a long time in the planning stages, it is amazing to see a bulldozer on site. We are planning a green facade, which will be a wall of vegetation runing up the side of the building. We put a perspective view of the expansion on our Ommegang webpage.

8 September 09 - We think that the nicest part of being published in Fine Homebuilding is learning of all the people who subscribe to and enjoy the magazine. We can't think of another magazine, with the possible exception of Dwell, that is universally subscribed to on this, for lack of a better term, grassroots level. In the ever expanding publication world, both print and online, we are proud that our work continues to be valued by Fine Homebuilding.

14 August 09 - Shipping Container Housing has become all the rage. We had the fun exercise of designing a prototype container house. Our "big idea" was to let the containers serve as the above ground basement, and then construct a stick framed second floor over the containers. By the time you get done making the containers work as living space (insulation, windows, plumbing, etc), you really don't save substantially over conventional construction. You maximize the cost efficiency of the containers by doing the least amount of work to them. $8000 gets you two containers delivered to your Upsate site, crane placement included; not a bad deal at all.

17 July 09 - Seems that we are finally getting around to reading the books that it seems like everyone else has read, The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. One of his basic tennants is that we should strive for quality, not quantity, in what we eat; if we emphasize quality, we will eat less because what we do eat will be more satisfying. Architects, with the Small House movement (a la Sarah Susanka) have been beating the quality over quantity drum for years. So it is great to see this food - shelter confluence. As the author points out, whereas this approach may have a larger initial cost outlay, the long term cost to both the individual, society and the planet will be far lower.

2 July 09 - We saw the Frank Lloyd Wright show at the Guggenheim. We loved it because the curators used mostly drawings to tell the story of his career. Along with all of the famous perspectives we have worshiped over the years, there were also fantastic working drawings, process drawings, etc. At the top of the ramp, the last section focuses on the Guggenheim. It was very touching to read the selection of correspondence between Wright and his clients, as they both worked to express dreams, needs, and real world realities over the 16 years it tooK to bring the Guggenheim into the world. This links to drawings of a few of the alternate designs for the Guggenheim, and aptly demonstrates that even in the best of cases, the design process is full of detours.

8 June 09 - Teresa went last week to a daylong seminar entitled Green Strategies for Historic Buildings. As a profession, we must balance cultural legacy, sustainable energy and cost to determine the optimal preservation strategy of a building. Take for example window replacement. New windows are great; they work smoothly, they are easier to clean, and less drafty. Amazingly, regarding energy savings, replacement windows have a 25 year payback, which makes them quite expensive. That cost must be balanced with the cultural loss that a house suffers when the existing windows are removed. Other options to consider along with their payback are are motion sensors (0.5 yr), programmable thermostats (1 yr), insulation (7 yrs), HVAC (12 yrs) none of which removes cultural heritage.

21 Msy 09 - We have discussed the Energy Building Code as a topic on this page before. It was interesting to learn how New York State's Energy Code stacks up with codes across the nation. And the answer is not so hot. If you follow the link to this text, you can see that our Energy Code is in the bottom 50th percentile, which means that if we design at the current energy code, our building will use more energy than half of the buildings nationally. Principally because of AVA's use of spray insulation, our recent residences have generously exceeded the Code. Nevertheless, it is sobering to see how our code compares.

14 May 09 - We love the new Alice Tully Hall renovation in the City, and what is really fun is the lobby, in which there is a coffee/snack bar. The floor is sunken below the sidewalk; so as you look out, you are looking up at the street action. The combined effects of being below the street coupled with the cantilevered ceiling above, creates a protective and welcome sense of intimacy for what is an open urban room. Perfect location for rendezvous and refreshment with the continuous theater of Broadway at something just above eye level.

9 April 09 - Here is a happy note given the tax season upon us. The State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) will help fund the costs of your barn renovation. This winter, part of the foundation wall collapsed at our barn. Given that the barn is still under agricultural use via housing sheep and other agricultural interests, the SHPO tax credit was very welcome. Now, that foundation wall, and thus the barn, will be there for another 100 years.

27 March 09 - Sincere thanks to everyone who has expressed intrigue with Brad Badgley's and Vivian Kong's residence as it takes shape on Route 33. Usually, our more modern pieces happen off the beaten path, so it is a new experience to get everyone's impressions as the house takes shape. So far, we think it is being liked, although that may be because nobody so far has come up to us and said "...that house on 33, eyesore!" But if that is the case, no sweat, as Vivian and Brad plan to enclose the property with dense vegetation.

16 March 09 - Teresa was honored to be asked to chair the new Coperstown Historic Preservation & Architectural Review Board. With the considerable experience of the entire Board (see Freeman's Journal article, third from top), the application and approval process should now be a more pleasurable and efficient experience for all.

23 February 09 - At the beginning of our careers, much time was spent in parallel artistic pursuit, such as watercolor sketching, music composition, etc. Then, as life picks up speed, it seems there is less time for everything; the non essential gets eliminated. One positive of the recession is to now be able to re-connect with the basics. Recession as renewal? Quite possibly, as our goal is to emerge aesthetically stronger.

28 December 08 - One of the (many) great things about the Sol LeWitt retrospective at Mass Moca is that they used manual drafting equipment; straightedges, lead holders, etc. for the wall drawings. We found the first, lowest, floor to be the most spectacular; given the precision and huge scale of the drawings, we thought that at some point, they became architectural although we were not sure exactly how. Any trip we take to Mass Moca is inspiring, and the Sol LeWitt show only increased the pleasure. After that much art, the only way to recover is dinner at The Spice Root (Indian) in nearby Williamstown.

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4 December 08 - We had occasion to visit The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. In a far corner of the Museum was one of the two prototypes of Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion House. Right off the bat, we got those Architectural Warm Fuzzies: here we were walking up to of the seminal masterworks of the 20th century. Once inside, you couldn't escape the overall impression of thinness; exterior cladding as thin aluminum sheeting, it creaked as you walked around , exposed thin wood veneers for interior finishes. The other overwhelming impression was that of ultimate efficiency in which manufacturing, assembly, delivery, systems and form are holistically integrated into a living experience that was bright, cheery and open. This is the true Machine for Living. And, yes, it surely needs refinement; it would have been interesting to see what he would have done with the 2nd or 3rd generation. At a time in which there is increasingly less and less (resources, money, etc.)Bucky continues to inspire with designs that are 50 years old that we are only starting to wake up to.

28 October 08 - We went to the City last weekend to see the Zaha Hadid designed Chanel pavilion in Central Park. It was a treat to experience one of her buildings as we found it a holistic gem in the best traditions of the art pavilion, think Barcelona. We couldn't help but contrast this event with the MOMA Prefab houses as noted below; the Chanel building is certainly prefabricated and would be just about as practical to live in. Great architecture aside, it was the total user experience which was the most fun. From first entry to the site to your exit, your total user experience was minutely controlled. Identically dressed and demeanored assistants saw to your every move. An MP3 headphoned soundtrack choreographed your experience. We guessed that this was the closest we'll ever get to an actual Chanel shopping experience. And then as if on cue, a woman got into the ticket line carrying her Chanel shoulder bag, which caused us to joke that here was someone who in her own way helped pay for all of this. Or, as someone near us said, what goes around comes around.

25 September 08 - Three things on the current financial meltdown. 1. Falling home prices are at the root. 2. Architects are used in only about 5% of the housing starts nationwide. 3. Most of the houses in question are suburban sprawl McMansion wonders. So thinking in terms of design, as we are always wont to do, we wonder if all of this is not some sort of acerbic comment on the value of residential design in America? A quick Google search reveals that states like FL, CO and NE have both the highest sprawl and the greatest foreclosure rate. Architects have historically always wanted to solve societies ills with their work, think Le Corbusier. So if architects had been involved in a higher percentage of starts, the quality of the design would be higher, the houses would be worth more, and financial disaster would be prevented. Ok a fantasy, I admit. But then architects are good at fantasy.

28 July 08 - We saw Home Delivery - Fabricating the Modern Dwelling at MOMA this weekend. The exhibit starts with a history of the prefabricated house and culminates with 5 modern houses that you can walk thru. They even have a partial Lustron house constructed inside the museum. While the exhibit was great fun (model of Thomas Edison's concrete houses, movies, etc.), and the houses were stimulating to experience, we do have a gripe. How could they have not made even a passing reference to the modular housing industry that flourishes across the country and especially in Otsego County? Modular housing has everything the MOMA houses have: they are a)built in a factory, b)use off the shelf components, c)economically viable, d)show up on a truck and e)basic installation takes a day. Alas, the modular's are not modern and thus not cool in the MOMA sense, so they don't qualify. So here's an idea for a sympathetic exhibition; get some architects to go wild and see what the potentials are using the modular housing industry as a starting point. You might end up with solutions that are saleable, buildable, and yet fun.

2 July 08 - Wightman Specialty Woods used a photo of the Stayman Residence living room for the cover of their beautiful new brochure. For years, Wightman's has been to us this almost mythical place where much of the finish flooring for our projects comes from. We can be very slow on the uptake sometimes, but now we learn that the majority of Wightman's raw material comes from within a 60 mile radius of their Portlandville plant. So we find the confluence of sustainability, the venerable Wightman's, and the modern Stayman interior to be great fun.

13 May 08 - We all understand mileage standards for vehicles. Yet, most of our clients are suprised to learn that there are mileage requirements for buildings as well, which is called the Energy Conservation Code. While everyone knows that you put insulation in a building, the Code mandates how much there should be, and in fact allows tradeoffs between say larger glazing areas and thicker insulation. What is interesting is that you don't read anything about a building's mileage, yet automobile mileage is always a political hot potato. Since buildings are responsible for the vast majority of CO2 emissions, it would be interesting to turn the Energy Code into a hot potato also. You can hear arguments on the Senate floor now; "I vote to raise the R value for walls to R 24! No, R 19! No R 24! Spellbinding.

17 April 08 - Brewery Ommegang and AVA will present "Everyone Likes Green Beer" at the prelude seminar to Earth Day 2008. Our talk will highlight how Ommegang's expansion plans are tailored to meet increased production needs while providing the lowest possible carbon footprint, both in the construction and operation of the building. Clicking here will take you to the Environmental Education Network of Otsego County's website, who are sponsoring the event.

28 February 08 - In a recent issue of The New Yorker, a British company, Tesco, has set out to reduce the carbon footprint of their global supermarket operations. The article discusses the incredible complexity of trying to determine, for example, the environmental burden of where you should buy your apples. In this instance, they determined that it was better for the planet if Tesco imported New Zeland apples rather than purchasing them 50 miles away. After a huge investment of time and money, they concluded that the three most important steps toward a green lifestyle is 1) insulate your house, 2)make sure you have insulated glazing in your windows and 3)increase the efficiency of your house boiler. This makes sense, given that buildings are the greatest energy hogs. And it is nice to see someone say that being green involves something other than lifestyle shopping choices.

14 January 08 - Press Release - Click on the text for link to the SUNY Morrisville website for Roomplay press release. All of the students did a tremendous job in the construction of their environments. It was inspirational for me to see their interpretation of a modeling system that I have been exploring. I think someme somewhere said that a good educational experience happens when the student and the teacher learn together, and this was certainly the case. The image below is from Team Zen's Roomplay.

10 December 07 - In the recent issue of Architect Magazine, the editor questions the profession's current focus, both in the media nad in the schools, on modernism. Yet, the vast majority of structures built in the US are traditional. So should the profession refocus itself more on traditional design, given that this is what the market demands? We find this article interesting given that our practice involves both traditional and modernist buildings. Whatever the style, the building is either good, or it is not, and we hope that this is the first clarion call toward simply good design.

26 November 07 - The Zoltick Residence is nearing completion for an expected move in date of early January. Work is proceeding at a fast pace.

21 November 07 - Kurt's architectural design class is basing their final project this semester on Roomplay, which will culminate in student teams designing and constructing full scale rooms. This is an exciting project and we hope to show you images of the results. This is an image from Kurt's initial Roomplay experiments.

17 October 07 - We appreciated this article in Metropolis magazine regarding sustainable design. Be it a building or a chair, quality craftsmanship is paramount for sustainable design. Click here to go to article.

1 September 07 - Kurt is serving as Adjunct Professor at SUNY Morrisville College teaching first year architectural design.

27 August 07 - Teresa has completed her stint st Cooperstown Planning Board Chair after 5 years of service.

July 07 - We went to Philip Johnson's Glass House, the Historic Trust property recently opened to the public. Kurt worked with Mr. Johnson for a number of years, so it was great to finally see the house. Given Mr. Johnson's unmatched self promotional abilities, we were curious as to whether the reality was worthy of the hype. In our humble estimation, it turns out that indeed Glass Hous, by itself, is sublime. Five stars, highly recommended.

The landscape, both natural and man made, surrounding Cooperstown provides a wealth of inspiration. The rolling hills and topography looks much as it did 50 years ago.

Here in the second decade of the 21st century, great cultural influences are spreading themselves like never before. This yields a pluralism which has only begun to be felt. There is an increasing sophistication of the populous which enables greater analytical powers as they evaluate cultural forces, including architecture.

We evaluate each architectural project individually to discover a design direction that is appropriate. Whereas a historical solution will work for one instance, a more modernist solution will be appropriate in another. It is important to resist the urge to be historical just to be historical, and modern just to be modern.

Equally important is the user’s quality of experience. For as the user is happy and fully functional in their building, the more the building will want to be preserved.

We like to think that given our obsession with quality, we are building sustain ably. Increasingly, we are helping our clients balance alternate heating innitiatives such as passive solar, solar PV, solar thermal, and geothermal.

The built world is replete with mediocre traditional and mediocre modern built responses. Given the pervasive culture of bigger is better, our practice might be summarized as an antidote to that.