A house is going up at 134 Cedar Hill Ave. Crews of first-year School of Architecture students are working on it, and when it's done, it will be a beauty. How can it miss? It's designed, planned and being built by some of the country's leading future architects.
The house itself is hard to categorize. It's not a standard style like Colonial, Ranch or Cape Cod, but an unusual two-part, two-story building with a shed roof, open interior spaces, old-fashioned front porch and innovative "exterior" room off the kitchen. The design for 134 Cedar Hill, created by a team of eight students, was chosen out of 36 original designs, which were later narrowed down to eight semifinalists and then four finalists.
Each design had to meet certain specifications and not exceed stated limitations. The overall square footage was set at 1,500. The one-family house had to include a master bedroom and bath and two additional bedrooms that would share a bath. A rear door was required and parking for one car. A front porch was suggested. Floors had to be vinyl composition or carpet, not hardwood.
The final four projects were presented to a panel of jurors on a cold, rainy Monday late in April. For hours, the nine jurors -- architecture faculty, local architects and members of the Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven, the local not-for-profit agency that is the client for the project-- studied the basswood scale models displayed on long tables in the architecture school's "pit." The walls around them were covered with technical drawings, overviews, floor plans and landscape designs for each model. The first-year students, many of whom had stayed up round the clock in order to finish the project on schedule, were gathered at a local watering hole, waiting for the verdict. About 25 interested bystanders -- most of them upperclassmen in the School of Architecture -- milled around the room, drifting from model to model, drawing to drawing. Members of the jury raised questions and objections, criticized and defended what they saw and, finally, cast their votes.
After multiple ballots, the early favorite, House Number Four, triumphed.
"The house is designed to accommodate the unique conditions of the site," said Paul Brouard, project director, explaining why the design's strengths won the judges over. The site is a triple lot, about 120 x 95, on a street of one- and two-family wood frame houses.
"A broad face and an extended roof line gesture the apartment building and the gabled house next door," he continued, adding that the two sections of the house connect at a jog, making good use of the space available and reflecting elements of the neighboring buildings while maintaining a non-traditional form. "The internal organization of the house embodies the ideas of spaciousness and flow," he added, with an open floor plan on the first level -- a particularly welcome feature in what is, essentially, a small house.
Perhaps the most attractive feature, said the judges, was the way the design incorporated outdoor space. As Professor Brouard explained, "The configuration of the house inherently creates a protected deck area, addressing the extensive backyard of the site." In good weather, the homeowners will have an extra "room," partially sheltered, but outdoors.
Local architect Herb Newman, juror and project coordinator, noted, "The compelling difference between this house and the other designs is the 'outdoor room' -- the amenity it offers and how it extends the inside of the house."
Juror Ruth Henderson, a board member from Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven, was impressed with the open floor pplan and loved the window seat on the staircase landing.
The decision made, the first-year students were invited in to rejoice and commiserate. Members of the winning design team were Holly Deichmann, Emily Kovner, Marc Roehrle, Pauline Shu, Justin Stein, Sam Wible, Belinda Young and Maureen Zell.
Ms. Kovner said she was "pleasantly surprised at the choice. I thought they'd pick a house with a conventional gabled look. I'm glad the definition of 'contextuality' was broadened." Looking back on the design-by-committee process each team went through, she said, "It was frustrating, horrible and wonderful. Making decisions was a contest of wills."
"Everyone's exhausted," offered Paul Boulifard, a first-year student who was on Team Two. "I think we're all going home to sleep."
They were also gathering strength for the physical labor ahead. Building permits were to be obtained the next day, and before the end of the week, the project was staked out and the foundation was excavated and poured. The first-year class was divided into four new teams that rotate on the site and put up the house, start to finish. All of them are committed to six weeks of construction. After June 14, a smaller crew of students will continue to work on the house through the summer.
"The opportunity to do this is one of the selling points of Yale's program," said Mr. Boulifard.
Ms. Kovner, one of several first-year students who had no prior construction experience, said, "This makes architecture more tangible. Most of the year we sat at desks and drafted and made models. Doing this makes it more real."
Mason Kirby says the project "resurrected the first year of architecture school for me. For most of the year, we worked in isolation. This has forced us to deal with each other, comment on each other's ideas and work together."
Faith Rose concurs: "I welcome the comraderie. Doing this feels good."
Mr. Newman, who has been one of the project judges since 1970, commented, "It's a wonderful thing for the students. "Very early in their education, they deal with real clients, schedules, building materials. This helps form them for the rest of their professional lives."
The hands-on approach has been part of the School of Architecture's program since 1966, when first-year students were assigned community building projects in Appalachia. In the 1970s, urban Connecticut became the beneficiary of the program. Projects included a community center, bandshell and library extension. For the past six years, the students have designed and built one- and two-family houses in New Haven. The client has sometimes been Habitat for Humanity and the future owner has sometimes worked alongside the students.
That won't be the case this time, however. Once the house is completed, Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven will offer it for sale to a buyer who meets the agency's profile.
-- By Gila Reinstein