090326 ~ Joshua Dee Architecture LLC - Joshua Dee

0:00Around the home with the Builders and Remodelers Association of Greater Ann Arbor on the Lucian Lant Show, 1290WLBY, as we welcome Joshua D from Joshua D Architecture. How do you know when you need an architect? What does an architect do? How can it benefit you in your project? He is a member of the Builders and Remodelers Association of Greater Ann Arbor or Bragg Ann Arbor, brand new member, so it's nice to have you here. Welcome. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I just kind of joined recently, actually, as a recommendation of my wife, who does interior design, and you know, things were a little slower this year, and kind of working on portfolio and getting things updated, and my wife was like, maybe she'd, you know, join this group, and maybe meet some new people that way. Yeah, you have a smart wife. She's absolutely right. It's a phenomenal organization, and our listeners can go to braggannarbor.com and get more details about the Builders and Remodelers Association of Greater Ann Arbor. Joshua, you have 20 years of experience designing new homes and alterations, common themes throughout your work involved, creating homes that fit for the lifestyle of the individual you're working with, and designing

1:03renovations to make homes better versions of themselves. What exactly in the process of doing that does the architect do? What's your role? Yeah, so there's a lot of different things, and it just depends on, you know, some of the early questions in the project, you know, one of my favorite projects was one of the first ones I reported was a craftsman bungalow, and I remember sitting down in the initial meeting with client and the builder, or all kind of a table together at the same time, and they had an infill a lot. So it's kind of a lot in between a bunch of existing houses, in an older, you know, kind of early 20th century context and stuff, and they love the old arts and crafts architecture in that area, and wanted to make sure that when they were building a new home there, that it wasn't going to look out of place, it was going to be a great neighbor to those that existed. And they also, like, because they appreciated that, they wanted that to be in their house, but it's kind of a thing you have to be sensitive to, because not a lot of, you know, a lot of new construction doesn't look like that anymore. Like, how do you bring infuse that old style, but then get, you know, the type of kitchen and modern amenities and everything you want to get.

2:08So there's a lot about learning about them, how they live, entertain others, what their family was like, you know, how that house is going to serve their family, but also how is that going to fit into the streetscape. So, you know, there's a lot of great examples that were down the street, there was a house that, you know, we look at it really kind of set sort of quietly, but confidently on the property and didn't try to dominate the neighbors or anything. So there's good historical examples, and then there were some other examples with modern building construction, and you can kind of see where they can kind of go off and not seem quite right, because, you know, the things that we expect, you know, the insulation, the energy performance, you know, sometimes kind of fights the thickness and the shell, the building. So, you know, you can kind of see from that house, if you look at the relationship between the windows and the roof at the dormer, it's a relatively thin profile, that roof really hugs the top of the window, you know, so it's a very thin part of the house's

3:10shell. So we kind of had to think about how can we construct this in a way that's going to be, you know, very warm and tight and energy efficient, but also not too bulky, not too thick, and, you know, look off, you know, not, yeah. I can already tell just hearing you speak in the first few minutes here, you have a great sensibility for design and for respecting architecture and that design process. I love that about you. That is fantastic. So often people just go in there, and they willy-nilly put stuff together, and it does fit with the neighborhood, or it looks off. You're very sensitive to that. Yeah, and I think to like a lot of people pick up on that, even if they can't articulate, because we've all driven down the street and seen a project or an addition to something, and you're like, wait a minute, something happened here where you recognize that pattern doesn't feel complete on that house or whatever it is, right? You know, that house grew in a way, had something, you know, there was some problem where there

4:11wasn't enough space, that you know, there's a battery or something, and it's like, how do you get that? But then kind of reconcile with the original design or the original bones and feeling the house. You graduated with your master of architecture from Lawrence Technological University, which is renowned for architects coming out of there. Yeah, thank you. And you develop your skills in crafting traditionally-styled homes while working under a skilled architect who specializes in historic preservation. So that is understandable now. Yeah. How you're able to do all of this. It all starts with a schematic. I want to take people through the process of an architect's role in a project. Tell us about that. Yeah, so like I said, that kind of that initial, you know, conversation where you're sort of sitting down, there's really nothing on paper yet. You know, you might be walking through an existing house or if it's a new construction house from scratch, you're sort of thinking about, you know, the program goals, like what are, what are rooms, how big should this have. And the design is going to be very loose at that point. You know, like we might be just doing rough sketches. You know, there's a lot of

5:15conversation kind of around the big picture of what this thing wants to be, how big is it, how, how does it sit on the land and stuff. So you're not, you're not getting very, very detailed at that point, but you're you're asking a lot of questions and just sort of finding your way through things. But but the end of, you know, a schematic design phase, I like to be able to present a client with a set of plans and drawings that communicate, you know, in general, what that thing is going to be. So be able to see how it lays out. And those are plans they can take to a builder or any other person they'll be consulting with interior designers, you know, to sort of see the big picture. And it's detailed enough that, you know, they can look at it, understand it. So you've got this schematic design to get the ball rolling, but then the design development is next to show the character of the project. Yeah, and that's where we definitely get more detail, more specific. So when we kind of know the scope of the project, big picture, you know, now it's a little more like, how does it, how does it go together? How does it, how are we going to construct it and build it?

6:16So we're answering those kinds of questions. And then it gets to the really detailed aspect. And that is the construction documents. Yeah, yeah. So that's kind of where it gets really technical. And a lot of people might look at the drawings and kind of think like, you know, if they're not in the building industry, what am I looking at? Because either they're dying as a communication tool to explain how all that stuff goes together. So you'll be, you know, cuts through walls where it'll explain from the outside of that wall with that material as in a face all the way through the makeup of that wall to the inside and with that, with that finished face is on the interior. Are you working with builders during that process then? Or no? Yeah, I definitely like to have the builder pulled in early like right in the schematic design. So like, because schematic design is a lot of those big picture, you know, kind of like logical how to use your house sort of questions, what it wants to be. You know, that's the phase where I'll be really engaged with the owner and the clients. And you know, at that point,

7:17then like the pulled the builder and after you kind of get their input kind of get that feedback on price, make sure the project's within budget, you know, because it's really easy to design to a wish list and then find out, oh, I, you know, this is beyond what we want to spend on, you know, or so you're able to design to the clients price point then what their project is? Yeah, I definitely want to keep that in mind because you want to keep the project very realistic. You don't want to, you know, get too far into it and then find out like, oh, we can't achieve this, you know. At what point do you get paid then is that after it's completed or is that your design phase? It's kind of all the way through. It's a little bit to posit up front and proportion to whatever the size of the project is. And then, you know, if the project's large enough to have all these really specific milestones like that, there might be a little bit of a payment in the middle and then of course when it's all done. So a really simple project could be a little positive front and then work through the process and then when they're holding the drawings of payment, but that doesn't mean I just disappear after that. Either there's, you know, during the construction phase the builder may have questions or things that come up, there might be something that changes. So I

8:22always, you know, want to be involved in relevant questions. Of course, see how it all turns out to when it's all done. We're talking with Joshua D. He's with Joshua D architecture and you can go online to his website jashowad.com.de. Just like it sounds jashowad.com. You have on there some of the works that you have done and your portfolio, including a Kavanaugh Lake house. You have Sheridan craftsmen and then a home on Morton's and Boulevard beautifully done. I mean, you're taking these homes that look like they've stood for a while and created them for the future, but given that sensibility of their past as well. You know, a beautiful job of that. Tell me a little bit more about some of these projects you've done. Yeah. So Morton's and House was kind of interesting because, you know, it's an example we're trying to get a second story on a house that never had that, right? So that's kind of a common problem, you know, people face as they've got a one-story house, their family's growing. It's hard to believe that was a ranch before looking out this. Right.

9:25Yeah. And there was one where the builder had called me up. They had bought the house, you know, to invest in it. And, you know, they're like, what do we do with this? And I kind of was in the area. And I'm like, well, I'll swing by one day when I'm there. I pulled up and kind of parked and walked around. And remember, I remember looking at it and thinking about the unusual, not really unusual footprint, but it kind of had this bump out in the front where that triple window is. And thinking, okay, if this house grew an additional story, looking at the house's next door, it's kind of a, can't really see it too well from the pictures, but there's a house that kind of had a second story edition. And there's a one-story house. And how this new addition on this one's going to fit in without towering over those. So did you add those two dormers in? There's one larger than the other. I call them dormers. I'm not sure if I have the right term, but the upstairs part. Yeah. So that projecting piece kind of has got one large sort of gable projects out. And there's a smaller dormer next to it. Kind of sits behind it a little. Right. Yeah. And that's because the sort of main body that roof is pulled down to that first

10:29level, so those project up into it. And it helps that house feel a little more welcoming and not tower over the next door. Yeah. I like the look of that too. It's really beautiful. And then did you design the kind of olive green sighting on there and all of that? Yeah. We kind of had some different ideas, but really the builder was working with somebody with that and did a really amazing color selection on the outside. And then brick as well. And yeah, the brick and materials and stuff were all part of the drawings. That's beautiful. How about the Kavanaugh Lake House? Tell me about that. So that was kind of interesting because there was a house on that property that somebody had kind of cobbled together and it was sort of like not really falling in itself, but there was a garage that was there and actually constructed much more soundly than the house was. So when the client had bought the property, they knew that the house part of that was going to be raised. So it was pretty much a new construction house, but we used some of that shell, the old garage. And kind of had to squeeze it in between the water set back and the existing shell that was there.

11:34You would never guess there was any renovation on this though. It looks like it's been like this forever. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, beautiful. Wow. Yeah, and I think that's one of those where the house. The house, she was very grounded because of that stone around the sort of lower level and kind of comes up as and it really looks like a base to the house gives the house kind of a pedestal the rest into the hill. Right. Right. That's beautiful. And then the Sheridan House? Yeah, so that was again, a brand new construction house that even to this day, the clients will tell me people they've walked by and given them compliments and stuff and can't believe that it's, can't believe it's a brand new house. There's just so many aspects like you mentioned earlier about being sensitive to the front porch. It's a real porch that you can sit on. It's like an outdoor room. And it creates that bridge. Yeah, and it just creates that bridge between the very walkable community that sits in and then the interior. So you have that place to kind of engage me part of what's going on, but also be protected. And you know, it's outstanding work that you do,

12:37Joshua D. You mentioned your wife as an interior designer. How did the two of you meet? We actually met at a Bible study like 10 years ago and somebody had just kind of mentioned that like, oh, yeah, I think somebody in my group is, you know, taking interior design courses. And I thought like, maybe I need to talk to her. And kind of just hit it off. You know, we actually went on some tours, buildings and Detroit, you know, and sort of was, you know, we're kind of just meant to be, you know, getting a group of friends together, just kind of casually get to know each other that way and nobody else showed up. So it was just the two of us. I think we all planted that with you. Probably. You have a baby now, is that right? We do. We have, we have an 11 month old. So it's hard to believe that this is our first trip around the sun. You know, it's going by that fast. Congratulations to you. How did this all start for you? I mentioned Lawrence Tech, but you when you were a little boy, did you draw? Tell me where you got the bug to become an artist. Yeah. So it kind of was early on. And, you know, growing up in the late 80s or early 90s, there's a lot of development in Southeast Michigan. And

13:39one of my, you know, mom and grandma's, you know, things they would do on Sunday afternoon is kind of go look at all the model houses that were open. And I'd go with them. And, you know, they'd have the brochures with the four plans and the folders and everything. And, you know, the, you know, two model houses at the neighborhood that you'd walk through and stuff. And I just remember, like, you know, houses and look at the four plans and thinking about like, oh, what if they did this differently? Oh my gosh. You're having stuff like that. Yeah. So yeah. Oh, that's a wonderful story. Well, kudos to your mother. Yeah. That's great. Great talking with you today. He's a new member of Bragg Ann Arbor. And we are introducing to you Joshua D from Joshua D architecture. Go online and you can get more details about how to start a project with Joshua. It's Joshua D.com and DSVL DEE. Thank you so much. Thank you. Wonderful to talk with you. Beautiful work that you do. And for more information about the builders and remodeling, association of Greater Ann Arbor visit Bragg Ann Arbor.com. I'm Lucy Ann Lance and this is Ann Arbor's talk station, 1290 WLBY.