The New American Home: Wright-Inspired 'Party Pavilion ...

By Robbie Whelan

Each year at the National Association of Home Builders? big trade show, a group of home-product suppliers teams up with a builder to sponsor the construction of the ?New American Home,? showcasing the latest builders have to offer American consumers. Or as the NAHB puts it, to offer ?a collection of ideas for the industry to take away?in large pieces, or bit-by bit?and put into millions of homes across the country each year?innovative products?for the future of home building.?

The results have been varied. In 2012, Developments reported that the New American Home was shrinking, while in 2010, true to the spirit of that year, the New American Home fell into foreclosure and was sold at auction before it could be finished. But generally speaking, the project has resulted in fairly tame architecture. Builders have occasionally experimented with new materials, but stuck mostly to the ranch house and villa styles that are comfortable for most Americans.

This year is different. Blue Heron, a Las Vegas developer, has built a New American Home?that hardly resembles the typical American home at all. Sprawling at nearly 7,000 square feet, the home features a subterranean courtyard, thousands of square feet of artificial water features, massive concrete-like overhangs, metal hand rails, faux-travertine floors and dozens of glass walls. The home has a price tag of about $4 million.

?The whole concept from the very beginning was this totally different style: the desert contemporary aesthetic,? says Tyler Jones, Blue Heron?s co-founder and chief executive. ?We?ve bet our whole company on some of the trends we?re showing here.?

Mr. Jones, 35, started Blue Heron in 2004 with his father, a custom home builder, after studying architecture at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He says after he moved back to Las Vegas, he quickly grew tired of the city?s ?quasi-Mediterranean, Tuscan style with red tile roofs and brown stucco everywhere.?

Since 2005, Blue Heron has sold some 100 homes in Las Vegas, often to design enthusiasts who care more about the home?s horizontal aluminum louvers than about the fact that the home does not have a traditional, family-friendly set-up.

The most obvious point of reference for this year?s New American Home is Frank Lloyd Wright, the famous architect behind Fallingwater, a western Pennsylvania house perched over a waterfall, jutting out from a hillside full of boulders into the middle of a stream. Wright used the natural terrain as a guide, working within its confines to build what he called ?organic architecture.? Blue Heron has tried to update that idea here, using water features and a sand-hued color palette to give the home a contemplative feel, and a mix of materials including stone, pebble-filled gabion walls and Resista, a wood-like paneling made from reused rice husks.

Developments asked three people?the project?s architect, a luxury custom home builder and the architect of the New American Home from a decade ago?to review photos, plans, and video tours of this year?s house and report their thoughts. Here are some excerpts from their emailed responses:

Michael Gardner, Blue Heron?s in-house architect, designed the space, and said he drew inspiration from Wright?s work in Los Angeles and at Taliesen West, the late architect?s winter home and school in the Arizona desert.

There?s some inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright and Asian architecture with tapered edges?It?s a warm contemporary feeling. A very modern take, a use of glass. The big broad overhangs are a Frank Lloyd Wright inspired element?The client is a professional of some sort who has a high powered, maybe stressful, all-day kind of job where they?re going all day and coming home to a kind of calm, Zen-like, relaxing type environment. It?s definitely not set up for families. It?s for a professional single, or a married couple that?s very social.

Tanner Luster is chief executive of Luster Custom Homes in Scottsdale, Ariz., where his company is currently building homes at Sterling at Silverleaf, a luxury new-home community with a focus on sustainable features.

I like how the home uses technology in a way that isn?t intimidating, but provides the convenience a ?smart house? should offer. My clients are usually a little hesitant at first when discussing the inclusion of home controls. We help educate them about user friendly systems that are as easy to operate as their iPads. Once they see it, they love it?

The home also excels in energy efficiency by providing the best return on investment to the homeowner with high efficiency HVAC systems, LED lighting and spray foam insulation. By far, energy efficient elements and building specifications are the most in-demand requests we receive from clients?

From a building and budget perspective, it would be a challenge to re-create all of the features and elements on a mass scale due to the substantial cost. However, the fundamentals of the home are spot-on when it comes to what American home buyers are looking for today.

Melanie S. Taylor, of Melanie Taylor Architecture and Gardens, an architect based in New Haven, Conn., has designed seven different custom homes for magazines and builder shows. In 2002, she designed the New American Home for the NAHB?s International Builders? Show in Atlanta.

The New American Home for 2013 echoes Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright?s masterpiece that dramatically appears to float above the waterfall that flows through its sylvan site. Like a precious and ostentatiously displayed commodity, water is hoarded within TNAH 2013 even as the house modestly sinks into its setting, a golf course within the Nevada desert. While Fallingwater gestures outwards, embracing the surrounding woodland like a reverent lover, TNAH 2013 looks inward to its overriding element, a huge, man-made holding pond and the heavy forms of the house look as if they were designed by a defense contractor?

As per builders? and market demands, designs for show homes have gotten progressively larger since the 1980s. Nonetheless, both the size and the design of TNAH 2013 are unusual for a residence. Any building where such a high proportion of space is dedicated to water and entertainment is intrinsically nonresidential. This house functions better as a party pavilion than as a safe and comfortable home for children or the elderly?

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2013/01/24/the-new-american-home-wright-inspired-party-pavilion/

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