Architect works to make traditional touches affordable

Local
By Laura Ruby
Source: Fauquier Weekend
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16 2008

New book uncovers 'Roots' of places we call home

Russell Versaci's first book, “Creating the New Old House,” championed quality traditional design, offering an option for people who wanted to embrace classic design while enjoying modern amenities.

Versaci's new book, “Roots of Home” was released in October. It explores American styles, their roots and evolution.

When he began his career in the 1970s at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, modernism was all the rage. But Versaci was drawn to traditional architecture and found like-minded peers at the University of Pennsylvania, where he finished his degree.

“They allowed me to work up a program because I was older and more experienced in business," he said. "I've been intrigued by design for my entire life. I spent lots of time in libraries at Penn, pulling out books that no one had looked at for decades. We cobbled together an architecture program.”

Even before the success of the book, Versaci found a receptive audience of homeowners in Washington, D.C. and the surrounding suburbs who wanted those traditional touches. He founded Versaci Neumann & Partners in Washington, D.C. in 1985, leaving the firm to start a new, smaller venture dubbed Russell Versaci Architecture in 2006.

“I started the practice in 1985 with one mission ? to reintroduce classic, traditional design,” he said. “This whole thing was necessary because modernism had basically taken over all of the architecture schools. Post World War II, traditional architecture wasn't being taught. Up until then, every house in America was built in traditional style.”

Versaci said that after the Great Depression and World War II, architects turned to modern design and, for the most part, the field never looked back. But, for Versaci, modern design doesn't speak to home. While it may work well in an office or professional settings, it simply doesn't offer the comfort that people seek at the end of the work day.

“By 2000, I felt like we pretty well understood how to create these traditional houses,” Versaci said. “In early 2004, when the book came out, America's housing boom was at its peak. The pace of new development seemed unstoppable ? and it wasn't a pretty sight. Everywhere you looked, new plastic 'faux-traditional' houses were marching row after row through former cornfields,” Versaci said. “'Creating a New Old House' was the first book to say to readers, 'Just because you want a new house doesn't mean you have to settle for something ugly. Here's how you can do it differently.'”

While the first book outlined a method for designing new homes in traditional styles, Versaci's latest book, published last month, tells the story of the origins of America's classic house styles, tracing their evolution from the earliest colonial settlements to today's best new architect-designed traditional homes.

“When I was working on my first book, I became intrigued by the stories behind the classic house styles that gave character to America's greatest places,” Versaci said. “I realized that there are reasons why houses look the way they do, that there were cultural and historical factors that shaped their character. I love history, and I love architecture, and this topic was a perfect marriage of the two, so I started working on 'Roots of Home.'”

Part architecture and part history, the new book offers a historical perspective on traditional American architecture, incorporating hundreds of photographs of both old and new homes. It explores regional styles, like the Spanish colonial and mission-style homes of the western states, and the salt box and Cape Cod of New England.

Versaci and his staff aim to develop portfolios for each of the styles represented in the book, offering homeowners a chance to build a new old house in the style that they love.

In his travels over the years, Versaci said that most people he meets are receptive to the new old house concept and know right away what he's talking about. The hurdle, he said, has been in making the homes affordable to average homeowners. He has recently made significant strides in that department. (See accompanying story.)

Middleburg architect Russell Versaci is passionate about his craft.

When he became enamored of architecture more than 30 years ago, his peers were embracing the modernism movement, designing houses with clean lines and little embellishment.

Versaci quickly identified himself as old school and has played a prominent role in bringing traditional design back to the forefront. Now his objective is to make architecturally designed traditional homes more affordable and available to a broader segment of the population.

To that end, Versaci has developed contracts with builders of prefabricated and modular homes to construct his professionally designed homes with these cost-saving, highly-efficient methods.

“One of the fortunate byproducts of the implosion of the housing market is that the era of McMansion-building is over," he said. "There will be no market for these behemoths going forward as home buyers realize that they are money pits and are unfit for a more frugal, environmentally conscious America.”

Though he had previously tried unsuccessfully to form alliances with prefab and modular builders, Versaci said that with the downturn in housing construction, builders began to look for alternative streams of income, and his idea of using factories to build architecturally designed homes began to sound less crazy.

Recently, Versaci came to an agreement with a Middlebury, Vermont company to develop prefab home kits, similar to the famous Sears bungalow kids that were sold between 1908 and 1940.

Designed by Versaci's firm, the prefab model will be built in sections ? a stretch of wall containing a window or door, for instance ? and pieces of the home kit are stacked on a flatbed truck which is then delivered to the construction site and assembled.

“They make as many parts of the house as they can in the factory,” Versaci said, standing in a prefabricated home under construction on a farm between The Plains and Middleburg. “For this house, we had three flatbed truckloads with all of the building materials and parts. University Homes is the general contractor. They come in, and the guys assemble and install the pieces.

“We've been able to take lots of things that needed to be done outside in less-than-ideal weather conditions and do them inside a climate-controlled factory. It saves 30 percent of the time and cost of traditional building, roughly speaking, because so much can be done inside and can be done much more efficiently.”

Versaci said that the cost of building with prefabricated methods is 80 percent of the cost of stick building on site and takes about six to eight months to complete.

Versaci has also developed a relationship with a Baltimore, Maryland modular home builder. By building modularly, Versaci said, home buyers can save more money ? and time ? because an even larger portion of the construction is being done in a factory setting.

And while this construction practice takes place in a factory, Versaci is quick to point out that these homes are not cookie-cutter units. It's the best of both worlds, he said, noting that the plans are highly customizable. He'll work with homeowners to make designs work on unique property and to apply the types of finishes and details that they want, Versaci said.

Meanwhile, homeowners are getting a house designed with their input to suit their needs at a much lower cost than hiring an architect to design and build the house.

Modular homes, Versaci explained, are the units drivers see on trucks being driven from their start in the factory to their home site.

Designing modular homes is a more tricky proposition, Versaci admitted, adding that details have to come together seamlessly where the homes are joined at the job site.

“People often associate modular homes with being cheap ? and not in a good way,” he said, noting that modular home are, in fact, exceedingly well constructed.

These homes, he said, have to be built to stand up to the 60 to 70 mile per hour winds that they encounter while being driven to their destinations, and they have to be built to stay together while they're lifted into place by a crane.

Add custom design by a skilled architect to that durability,and homeowners have the opportunity to purchase a unique, well-built product at a reasonable price, Versaci said. Modular home construction costs about 70 percent of traditional stick built homes, Versaci said, noting that construction takes about five months. Once the modular units arrive at the job site, they are about 80-85 percent complete, Versaci said.

So what does the finished product look like? Versaci's first book “Creating the New Old House,” offers insight. Published in 2004, the book outlined ways for homeowners to build new homes that feel like old homes.

The new old house is characterized by its use of natural materials and a feeling of having aged in place. Versaci uses recycled stone, brick, metal and wood from old houses and barns to re-create this patina. In some cases, Versaci will age new materials, like door knobs, to make them feel as if they've been turned thousands of times. He also uses paints with a more toned-down colors that look like colors that would have been used years ago.

Often, Versaci attempts to tell a story through design. He explained that in some cases, homes are designed to look as if sections were added later. Take the house in The Plains, for instance. Though it's a new structure, it was designed to look like a back porch had been converted into an interior space, in this case, the kitchen. Versaci often uses different materials, like stone with brick or clapboard, to emphasize the evolution of the home over time.

The house in The Plains will also have abundant built-in bookcases, dormers, southern pine shingles, and a porch that spans the front of the building. At about 2,300 square feet, it has four bedrooms, five bathrooms, and a kitchen-dining-living room space that is open and anchored by a fireplace.

About one-third the size of many McMansions, the Chesapeake Tidewater home was designed by Fauquier County native Rob Hale, an architect in Versaci's firm. Versaci said he expects the home to earn certifications from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Rating System, which encourages sustainable green building and development practices, and from the government-backed Energy Star program.

Perhaps more important than how the house will look is how it feels. Versaci is convinced it will feel like home. Down deep, Versaci believes, we all want to live in a house like Grandma's.

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