Frederick + Frederick wins two AIA SC Awards

We were awarded two Robert Mills Residential Design Awards by The American Institute of Architects South Carolina at the annual design award gala on October 23, 2010.

The Fienning Residence in Beaufort was recognized with citation award. Juror, Phil Szostak, FAIA, said "He liked the quiet restraint of the addition to the historical house."

The Cole Residence in Palmetto Bluff won a merit award. Mr. Szostak commented that "He appreciated the vernacular form of the dog-trot and the regionally appropriate material palette."

Beaufort 3 Century New Freedman's Cottage

"What if every simple act of design and construction made the world a better place?"

"WHAT IF EVERY INTERVENTION RESULTED IN GREATER BIODIVERSITY; INCREASED SOIL HEALTH; ADDITIONAL OUTLETS FOR BEAUTY AND PERSONAL EXPRESSIONS; A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF CLIMATE, CULTURE, AND PLACE; A REALIGNMENT OF OUR FOOD AND TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS; AND A MORE PROFOUND SENSE OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A CITIZEN OF A PLANET WHERE RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES ARE PROVIDED FAIRLY AND EQUITABLY?"

THIS IS THE LIVING BUILDING CHALLENGE. WE ACCEPT THIS CHALLENGE FOR THE FUTURE FORM OF BEAUFORT TO HONOR THE UNIQUE CULTURAL AND ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE OF THE NORTHWEST QUADRANT AND TO PROTECT THE NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK DISTRICT. THE 560 SQUARE FOOT "FREEDMEN" COTTAGE IS BASED ON THE CIRCA 1850'S FREEDMEN COTTAGES FOUND IN THE NORTHWEST QUADRANT. THESE WERE THE HOUSES OF THE NEWLY FREED AFRICAN AMERICANS AND NOW IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY WE WILL BE FREE FROM THE GRID OF POWER, WATER, AND THE AUTOMOBILE. EACH HOUSE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD WILL GENERATE AROUND 4000KwH PER YEAR IN ELECTRICITY THROUGH PHOTOVOLTAICS AND WIND TURBINES, WHILE CONSUMING AROUND 2000 KwH PER YEAR; SELLING THE REMAINING ENERGY BACK TO THE POWER COMPANY. EACH HOUSE WILL COLLECT RAINWATER FROM THE ROOF TO TREAT AND USE AS POTABLE WATER IN THE HOUSE. GRAYWATER AND CONDENSATION FROM THE HEAT PUMP WILL BE COLLECTED AND STORED IN A SEPARATE CISTERN AND USED FOR IRRIGATION IN THE COMMUNITY GARDENS. THE PROCESSES, MATERIALS, AND PRODUCTS PRESENTED IN THIS PROJECT ARE AVAILABLE TODAY. AS ENERGY AND WATER FEES INCREASE AND TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES THEY WILL BECOME AFFORDABLE.

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We haven't built a physical model since we started with Revit three years ago. It is much faster to build a model in Revit than by hand! For more infomation on the Beaufort 3 Century Project http://www.beaufortthreecentury.org/ Please visit the exhibition at the Verdier House Mondays - Saturdays 10 am until 4 pm (it's free) and vote on the people's choice!

Beaufort 3 Century Architectural Competition

We have been super busy the last few weeks preparing our competition entry. The description of the competition as found on the Beaufort County Web page http://bcgov.net/about-beaufort-county/public-service/planning/expo_2011/index.php or condensed below.

"The Beaufort Three-Century Project & Historic Beaufort Foundation are hosting a public exhibition of architecture and community design to complement the City of Beaufort tri-centennial celebration. The exhibit will demonstrate how the valued built forms of Beaufort can be successfully fused with the future requirements for sustainability of energy, water, materials, human ecology and indigenous vegetation. The design categories will include the Single Structure Infill and the Neighborhood Plan – each on one of three pre-selected opportunity sites in historic Beaufort. In addition to cash awards for these two categories, there will be a People's Choice award, as voted by exhibition visitors during the three-week long event.

This professional competition is open to architecture and land design professionals & students of those disciplines. Submissions should be physical models, virtual or perspective renderings of single structure infill or community plan models for one of three selected sites in historic Beaufort. Each submission should be accompanied by a specification board headlining the fundamental design principles and sustainable strategies used."

We chose to enter both the neighborhood master plan and individual building categories. The site we selected was the four blocks at the intersection of Wilmington and Washington Street.

The gray buildings on the site plan are recognized as contributing structures to the National Historic Landmark District. The are modest one and two story houses generally built right after the Civil War. This neighborhood was started by freed slaves and the majority of the current residents are African Americans. The white buildings are non-contributing structures.

This is the new master plan. We added a gathering place at the intersection of Wilmington and Washington and community gardens at the rear of each property.

Building in a Hurricane Prone Area

Many people relocate to lowcountry from inland communities where there are not hurricanes. So often the first question a new resident asks is "What are the best practices for building in a hurricane prone area?". Buildings need to simultaneously resist wind, rain, and flood.


The International Residential Building Code (IRC) made significant revisions after Hurricane Andrew that have been proven to prevent structural damage from wind. In fact, during the 2004 Florida hurricanes, no one died in any structure that was built under the revised code. The code requires that the building is tied together from the roof rafters to the foundation; the building is designed to withstand wind shear; the windows, doors, and skylights are protected from windborne debris; and the exterior finishes are securely fastened to the structure.

The success of the structural code changes highlighted the problem of rain entry into the building. Before when a homeowner was missing a roof, he was not concerned with a leaky window. Preventing rain infiltration is now a new focus in home construction. Many property insurance companies will give homeowners a discount for some of these best practices. The key items include: The roof needs an overhang to keep the rain off the building; provide sill pans under all windows and doors; flash all windows, doors and other penetrations; provide a drainage plane behind the exterior finish material to allow the water to escape and the wall to dry; provide a secondary roofing membrane; design closed crawl spaces that are dry and watertight; and drain the rain away from the house through the use of gutters and sloping the ground away from the building.

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has understood for several decades how to prevent flood damage. The basics are general common sense; elevate the livable space, floor structure and heating and air-conditioning ducts above the 100 year flood plane and the potential storm surge; install hydro-static vents to prevent flood waters from collapsing foundation walls; build with materials that tolerate getting wet; and design the walls to easily dry after they get wet.


The ASHRAE Guide for Buildings in Hot & Humid Climates recommends to design and construct buildings in hurricane prone areas using the following steps in order of priority: keep the building from blowing away; keep the rain out; elevate the structure above the flood plane; building with materials that tolerate soaking; and design the wall assemblies to easily dry with they become wet.

"I" House or Plantation Plain Style

A typical southern house was the "I" house, named because of the tall narrow profile. This house was two stories with a simple gable roof and a shed roofed one story porch in front and a shed roofed addition on the rear. Typically, there were masonry chimneys on each end of the house. This simple house was one room deep which maximized the amount of light and cross ventilation. It had high ceilings which allowed the heat to rise and provided a more comfortable environment. The one story porch allowed the second floor sleeping rooms to have ventilation on three sides. Occasionally there would be a double porch on the front. Kitchens were usually in a separate building behind the house; this kept the heat from the fireplace out of the main house and also protected the main house in the event of a kitchen fire.

There are a number of "I" houses to be found in Beaufort and the surrounding counties. The challenge with the "I" house is incorporating the necessities of modern day living, such as kitchens, bathrooms, closets and laundry rooms. We recently worked on an "I" house in Beaufort that has an important provenance.

In 1839, Robert Smalls was born a slave on this property. In the civil was he became a U.S. Army captain. He went on to serve in the SC House of Representative, SC Senate and was a United States Congressman for 5 terms. After the civil war, Robert Smalls purchased this and adjacent properties. It is believed that this circa 1855 house was moved to the property as part of the Smalls estate.

The original house was two rooms over two; it appears that a one story wing was added when the house was moved. The double front porches were removed many years ago and replaced with a small stoop. Typical of historic houses, there was only one inadequate bathroom and virtually no closets.

Robert Smalls is an important historical figure in South Carolina, so it was critical to respect the integrity of the house while providing the basic necessities in bathrooms and storage. We added a small L‐shaped second floor addition to house two new bathrooms, master bedroom closet and a small third bedroom. The addition backs up to the existing chimney and we left it exposed in the bathroom. We enclosed an existing small porch to create a breakfast room with a new porch beyond.


In restoring the double front porches, the house now looks like the typical Beaufort house that it is instead of some foreign transplant. The clients desire for a screened porch was met with a free standing enclosure that respects the scale of the historic home and encloses a courtyard on the south of the house.

More Dogtrots

My great grandmother Essie Curl Shackleford and her sister Ezzie Pearl (glad I wasn't named after them!) in front of their home with my great great grandparents circa 1895 in North Alabama.

As more and more people move to the coastal South there is a growing need to understand how to design your house for our hot humid climate. The intense solar radiation and high moisture create unique challenges to building a comfortable house that is easy to maintain and minimizes the impact to the environment.

Prior to the advent of air conditioning, an understanding of local environments enabled southerners to build in ways that buffered the harsh climatic realities. As Europeans moved to the southern colonies it typically took them a generation to adapt their native architecture to the climatic conditions of the region. They quickly learned that houses one room thick maximized cross ventilation. The thin plans also provided ample light that prohibited mold growth in dark areas. The best orientation of this thin plan was east to west to reduce solar gain. The windows were located to catch the prevailing summer breezes. Large porches or verandas were always located on the southern side and often on the east and west, too. The verandas protected the house from both the sun and the rain, provided circulation, and created a cool place to sit and sleep in the summertime. High ceilings allowed the heat to rise and provided a more comfortable environment. By raising the houses off the ground several things were accomplished; it allowed the first floor to be out of the flood plain in coastal areas; breezes are better on the raised first floor; and air circulation under the house helped reduce the heat gain.

An early prototype embracing these principles is the dog trot, also known as "two pens and a passage". One room was typically used for sleeping and the other for cooking. The covered open center passage was the main sitting room in warm weather that was cooled naturally by the Bernoulli effect. The center passage was often used as the dog kennel and thus the name dog trot. Dog trots are found in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, the Carolinas, and Texas.

The vernacular forms still are relevant in our climate and we have designed several dog trots, recently, which I have posted to this blog. There are other architects doing dog trots...here are a few of my favorites with links to their sites.

http://robertmcain.com/gillsville1.html

http://www.wbarchitects.com/projects/dog_trot_house/

http://www.wbarchitects.com/projects/dog_trot_house/

http://robertmcain.com/gillsville1.html

Bluff Plantation 2

The Bluff was originally owned by Nathaniel Heyward, brother of Thomas Heyward, signer of the Declaration of Independence. Nathaniel's house was burned in one of the wars but the two live oak avenues remain. We built this new house overlooking the river. It is based on the traditional "Beaufort T" house form.

Bluff Plantation

This house is based on the traditional "Beaufort T" Style house. The ancient oak alley just needed a nice big house at the end.

Contemporary dog Trot

Outdoor Fireplaces

This is a post on some of our favorite outdoor fireplaces. This fireplace shares a chiminey with two interior fireboxes and one other exterior firebox. This cozy screen porch is perfect for cool fall and winter evenings.

A rice mill chimney was the inspiration for the form of this outdoor fireplace. It is connected to a small building with a screen porch on the lower floor with a fireplace and an office on the second floor.

This was the first house we designed when we moved to Beaufort 21 years ago. This fireplace has a grill on the upper level right outside the kitchen.

This small side porch is perfect for an evening meal.

Another rice mill inspired chimney. This is one of three outdoor fireplaces in this house.

This is the second of three fireplaces. This sleeping porch is complete with a murphy bed. The owners say they sleep out here most of the time.

The third outdoor fireplace in the house is actually a pizza oven.

The family room addition to the historic house created a wonderful opportunity for an outdoor fireplace.