In the end, it came down to a contest between the houses they called "the bulldog" and "the pajama room." The former had a spunky, tough facade; the latter, a cozy area overlooking the kitchen where children could say goodnight before heading off to bed. Both were scale models for a single-family house that the School of Architecture's first-year class is building this summer on an empty lot at 50 Derby Ave. in New Haven.
The atmosphere was tense in the crowded room on the seventh floor of the Art and Architecture building on April 28. For hours, architectural critics and community members had been arguing back and forth, weighing the pros and cons of the models designed by teams of first-year architecture students.
Scale models with cutaways, technical drawings and artistic renderings of the final four designs lined the walls of the jury room. Dominating the space was a scale-model of the neighborhood where the new house will be built. The structure will stand on a triangular lot on the corner of Derby and Winthrop avenues. Across the street is a Seventh Day Adventist Church that was originally a synagogue. The neighborhood also includes a little park, double-decker wood-frame houses and a couple of small apartment buildings.
The eight voting jurors placed one model, then the other, onto the empty lot in the scale-model neighborhood. They raised questions, criticized and defended what they saw, and, finally, cast their votes. After much agonizing, the "bulldog" house won by a single vote.
The process that led to the selection of the Building Project actually began a month earlier, when the students in the Master of Architecture program were given the specifications for the annual First-Year Building Project. Initially, each of the 44 students submitted an original design. Over time, designs were eliminated, combined and improved. For the final competition, the class was grouped into four design teams.
Each team had to respect the same limitations. The overall square footage was set at 1,500 -- far smaller than the usual architect-designed house. The guidelines called for three bedrooms and two-and-a half baths, an eat-in kitchen, living room and, preferably, a den and dining room.
The winning design has an open first floor with unusual interior angles. One wall is made of large, square, wooden panels topped by a border of lucite bricks. The triangular kitchen is galley style, and the living-dining areas are designed for flexible use. A combination of very large and very small windows are arranged in geometrical patterns. There is a two-level shed roof, and a front porch and facade.
"The house engages in a great dialogue with the park across the corner," commented assistant project manager Jennifer Smith, who will graduate from the School of Architecture this spring. "The overscaled windows, the spacious interior, and the doubled height give this house a feeling of spaciousness." The site was surveyed the day after judging was complete, and before the end of the week, the foundation was excavated. Construction began on April 30, when the entire first-year class began working in rotating shifts of 11, starting with the rough construction. All will give six weeks of manual labor to the house, learning the realities of their profession every step of the way. After June 14, a crew of eight students -- with some local high school interns -- will complete the project. When construction is finished, 50 Derby Ave. will be sold at cost to a low-income family by the not- for-profit agency Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven.
"We can build it. We are working with a very competent team of students and faculty," said project director Paul Brouard, who has been guiding students through this process for 27 years.
Members of the "bulldog" design team were Kara Bartelt, Pete Brooks, Tarra Cotterman, Russell Davies, June Grant, Kenya Hannans, Melanie Kiihn, Lori Pavese, Edgar Papazian, Brian Ramer and Grace Tsao. However, all the proposals and their originators received high praise from the jurors, who complimented the creativity and thought that went into each project. "They all have substantial virtues," said James Paley, executive director of Neighborhood Housing Services.
"It isn't a matter of winners and losers," Herb Newman, project coordinator and architectural critic, told the assembled first-year students when the winning design was announced. "Because of the nature of the process, all of the ideas here belong to the entire class." The hands-on approach of the First-Year Building Project has been part of the School of Architecture's program since 1966, when students were assigned community building projects in Appalachia. In the 1970s, students began designing structures for urban Connecticut. Projects have included a community center, bandshell, library extension, and several one-family houses.
"An offering unique to Yale, the Building Project allows students to experience, with their minds and hands, the critical relationship between conceptualization and realization, between design and construction," said Fred Koetter, dean of the School of Architecture. "With the completed project, the students gain a tangible and unforgettable sense of how their efforts have contributed to the positive interest of their community--how their work may have a direct and meaningful effect upon the lives of others. The Yale Building Project stands as a small but important commitment by our school to demonstrate that, in the end, the architect must be a responsible and active member of the community."
-- By Gila Reinstein