21 Dec 2015

Looking Back on AIA Asheville 2015

Dwelling on... the year serving as President of AIA Asheville. Last Tuesday, on the 15th, we held the 2015 AIA Asheville Christmas Party. There is a write up about it at the Modern Asheville website. In keeping with tradition, I passed the crown, which happens to be a Santa hat to Nathan Bryant of Samsel Architects. I also had the pleasure of announcing that our Executive Assistant, Mary Fierle was voted to Honorary Membership and

26 Oct 2015

The Right Questions – Programming a Project

Dwelling on... The Importance of Programming as The First Step in a Project Intentions Confounded by Directions “What can I do for you?” the handyman said. “I want to push a button right here to open the garage door.” Tom answered, gesturing with one finger to the inside wall by the back door and pointing with the other toward the detached garage . Little did Tom know, these directions were going to cost more than he

8 Oct 2015

Homework – Rain Delay Rails

Dwelling on #DesignersBuilding - A DIY Blog Series This blog series is an account of what happens when an architect, me, pushes past design and single handedly tackles some renovation; from design through demolition and to construction. I look forward to sharing with you my discoveries, the challenges, and the solutions. Please share your stories of renovation and remodeling in the comments, DIY or not. Rain Delay If you have caught on to my every-other-week-post-schedule,

9 Aug 2015

Homework – Demo to Framing

Dwelling on #DesignersBuilding – A DIY Blog Series This blog series is an account of what happens when an architect, me, pushes past design and single-handedly tackles renovation from design through demolition and to construction. I look forward to sharing with you my discoveries, the challenges, and the solutions. Please share your stories of renovation and remodeling in the comments, DIY or not. 'Other Stuff' Discovered During Demolition Review Last time, in the premiere Homework post, I highlighted demolition

3 Aug 2015

Purpose in the Profession

Dwelling on what I love being a part of and what purpose I serve in the profession of architecture... Another post in the #Architalks blogging series.  #Architalks is organized by Bob Borson at Life of an Architect . A group of architects writes blog posts around a single theme or subject and posts them all at the same time, ensuring a good range of various takes on the subject or theme. Last month we wrote a post on SUMMER BREAK.  This

23 Jun 2015

Homework – Demolition

Dwelling on #DesignersBuilding - A DIY Blog Series This blog series is an account of what happens when an architect, me, pushes past design and single-handedly tackles renovation from design through demolition and to construction. I look forward to sharing with you my discoveries, the challenges, and the solutions. Please share your stories of renovation and remodeling in the comments, DIY or not. Sunroom - Before  Beginning A highlighting feature of our house was the enclosed sunroom which overlooked

23 Jun 2015

Making Space and the Favorite Place

Dwelling on what makes the favorite place... Another post in the #Architaclks blog post series. Steam rises from a mug of morning goodness to catch the rays of the rising sun that streak sparingly at their shallow angle through the bay window. The spider fern there bends – reaches and joins a dance as a breeze catches the sheer curtains, briefly billowing into the room. The morning breeze makes its way over and buffers the

Novedge Interviews MODarchitect.

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

Study Sketch of the Kilpatrick Home Design by MOD14 Jul 2013

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

Town Hall, Fletcher, NC – Topping Off

Setting Steel at the Town Hall Project Recently, we met a major milestone with the Fletcher Town Hall project when Cooper Construction set the cupola atop the roof structure, finishing the highest piece of building. Currently, this is the largest construction administration project with Modus Operandi Design. It is exciting to see the progress so I wanted to share a little of this with you.Check out this short slideshow showing the progress from the initial