Jes Stafford

Designer. Maker. Architecteur. Builder. People watcher. Space and place aficionado. Construction Junkie. Social Media Connoisseur. Shower singer. Coffee break guitar player.

Architectural Story Telling – Discovery of a Passion

The third post in the #Architaclks blog post series.

It was another one of those nights.  I floated out of a deep sleep to semi-consciousness.  A pleasant dream stirred and dissolved in the wake of thoughts regarding real life.  This slight disappointment became bitter when the numbers on the clock across the room came into dark focus.  There are oo many minutes before beginning the day to get out of bed, too few to go back to sleep. I plugged in my earphones and looked up the podcast app.

The comforting familiar voices started on an early episode of the Archispeak Podcast . The hosts posed a question to the listeners “what is your passion?”

Continue reading

This is Exciting! It All Comes Together

This is the second in a series of posts called #Architalks, organized by Bob Borson at Life of an Architect . #Architalks is a group of architects writing blog posts around a single theme or subject and posting them all at the same time. Last month we took on some common questions about our profession.  This time we write on the theme THIS IS EXCITING.  I hope you enjoy this as well as the other #architalks posts. Be sure to check out all the links below.
Thew Deck

Deck for Friends – Photo by Sarah Thew – Carolina Blue Design Group

Projects are just fun.  As a whole, they have a clear beginning, middle and end.  This is true no matter how messy one gets along they way.  It is not just full-blown architectural projects that are like this. Continue reading

Ask the architect.

Common Questions About Our Profession

A handful of architects had pizza at Lou Malnati’s (River North) a while back at the American Institute of Architects National Convention.  It was a great way to make real connections with a bunch of online friends and colleagues.  We have all been fortifying that real connection by some great interaction since then through social media and getting really pumped up to carry some serious momentum into the 2015 convention.

Architects online meet in Chicago for some real face time and real pizza

Architects online meet in Chicago for some real face time and real pizza #AIAcon14

Beginning with THIS post, we are doing a blog thing where we will each be writing about some common questions that people interested in becoming architects ask.  This was organized by Bob Borson at Life of an Architect who invited a handful of others to participate. #ArchiTalks for more. I will edit this post to add links to their answers as they become available.  I hope you enjoy this and take the time to read the different posts.  It will be evident that architecture, while often stereotyped, is a profession that is diverse in opportunity and has plenty of room for all types of people who enjoy creating spaces.

What kind of projects were you doing when you first started as an architect? Continue reading

Novedge Interviews MODarchitect.

Photo by Patrick Sullivan - Hendersonville Times News

Photo by Patrick Sullivan – Hendersonville Times News

Earlier this week, Aurora Meneghello of Novedge interviewed Modus Operandi Design Architect Jes Stafford for their blog. See the interview here. It is a great blog post to get to know Jes and the roots of his interest and beginnings in architecture. Have a look.

Aurora has been an active participant in the Google+ community, Big Time Small Firm, that Jes founded. She has been a regular at the BTSF Hangouts and asks great questions that really keep a hangout interesting.

Here are a few links that are related to the content:

Henderson County Tourism Development Authority
Big Time Small Firm on Google+

Profit, Perils and Preconceptions – The Architect and Residential Home Design Plans

  “Just the plans.  Just the plans, ma’am.”

When US residents consider a new home, they essentially have two options: select from available listed homes or build a custom home.  When building a custom home, the process often starts with a search of residential home design plans.  There are many ways and places to get house plans but for this post I will refer to them as “plan-services”. When homemakers explore plan-services, they may be told that they will save by not pursuing custom design. Realistically, how many owners do you think live in plans-service homes that are built without edits to the original design? The answer: not one. If, by chance, they reside in a plan-service home that did not require changes, I guarantee the builder made design changes before the house was listed (existing stock). Continue reading