TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2002
ARCHITECTURE
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN - 7A
804
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TOP:The main living area of 933 Pennsylvania St. is homeowner Karen Johnson's favorite part of the house that KU students built in 1998. The couple moved into the house after renting an apartment in Lawrence.
decided they were on the market for a house, just as the house was being built.
Alan Bowes, director of Tenants to Homeowners, a Lawrence not-for-profit organization that finances home buyers, mentioned to the couple that students were building the house.
Johnson said she and Scott were immediately sold on the idea because it would be "built by idealists."
"When we bought it, we didn't know what it was going to look like," Karen Johnson said. "We just didn't imagine anything normal."
She described the house as being "built like a tank." The house is framed by 2-by-6-inch studs, allowing for thicker walls and more insulation.
"We bought the house when it was a foundation," Johnson said. "We watched it go all the way up until it was finished in August. We got to be really intimate with the students, and it was just a great experience for all of us."
Johnson said the students who built the house had not returned since its completion, but new generations of students always came by to take a look.
$\textcircled{2}$ Management
ABOVE: The house at 1144 Pennsylvania St. was the second Studio 804 house, built with grants from the city of Lawrence. The solar light box takes advantage of sunlight on the exposed south wall.
Construction on the newest house, at 17th Street and Atherton Court, begins next semester.
Studio 804 is typically the last year of study for graduate students, although fifth-year undergraduate students occasionally participate in the program.
Students do all the construction work themselves, except for plumbing, electrical, and heating and air conditioning work. The city requires a licensed tradesperson for that.
The houses are scheduled for completion by graduation day.
"There's nothing more discouraging than, the Monday after graduation, to meet with them and realize there's still two or three weeks of work to do," Rockhill said.
With as few as eight and as many as 20 students every year, the class begins to learn management techniques in the fall semester from Kent Spreckelmeyer, professor of architecture.
During his three-credit-hour course, they interview former clients, gather zoning permits and research materials with which to build a 1,300 square-foot house.
"The main challenges of the students are to work within a very tight time frame and also try to match the realities with what they've done with the materials they have," Spreckelmeyer said.
A comparably sized Lawrence house would require about $160,000 and six months to
build, Rockhill said. Studio 804 homes are built on a tight budget of about $80,000 and are finished in four months.
Tenants to Homeowners provides the money to build the house. About 30 percent of the materials for the house are
Although the students aren't professional builders, Rockhill said construction typically ran
donated or heavily discounted.
Several years ago, a board blew off the side of a house and hit a truck, but no mishaps stand out in his mind as disasters.
"I am so braced for the unexpected that there isn't much anymore that surprises me," he said.
smoothly.
Weather is typically the biggest obstacle in construction — especially rain, Rockhill said. But balancing egos is the most persistent challenge.
Clients are not consulted in the design process because that would add too many opinions to the mix, he said.
"I can teach anybody how to weld," he said. "The most difficult part is the psychology of keeping 18 people from killing each other."
$\textcircled{3}$ Making changes
The spring semester begins early for Studio 804. This year's 18 students will return to school Jan.3 to begin designing the house. Once a building permit is secured, Rockhill and students in his six-credit-hour course meet at the construction site, where they will spend more than 60 hours a week building the house they designed.
Two years ago, Billy Williams, Lawrence graduate student, and 14 others designed and built the house at 1603 Random Road — a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house with a recycled gymnasium floor in the main living area.
The house took first place awards from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and in an international competition for sustainable design.
Jessica Fishback, St. Louis senior, said she enrolled in the class because she wanted to end her academic career with a "big bam."
She said real-life application of the skills she learned on previous design projects would help her in the future.
"You can only understand so much by using a two-dimensional drawing." Fishback said.
Fishback and her classmates were most concerned that the group would get along and finish the project by graduation.
She said she still wanted to return to the house once it was completed and hoped the homeowners would appreciate its architectural value and not make significant design changes.
"Even the ones that are already built and I haven't designed, I see changes have been made and it makes me sad," Fishback said of other Studio 804 homes.
$\textcircled{4}$ Pushing the envelope
After completing its first two homes, Studio 804 began partnering with Tenants to Homeowners, Inc. rather than the city
The organization finds and buys the building site and matches clients with the houses. The client rents the house for the first five years and then has the option to buy.
The biggest difference between working with the city and Tenants to Homeowners is that now the house must be handicapped accessible.
Neighbors aren't always as prepared for the finished houses.
This year, no client has been selected for the house, but prospective renters are always told the house will have a unique look, said Rebecca Buford, associate director for the organization.
Lawrence resident Gaby Holcomb lived across the street from the Johnsons' house and described it as ugly and out-ofplace.
She has since moved from that neighborhood, but said she now lived near two other Rockhill houses.
"I think the concept of building a house like that is good, having the students do a project," Holcomb said. "But I also think part of architecture is learning how to design something that sort of fits into the neighborhood."
With the Johnsons' house, Holcomb said the original plans had been changed after they'd been approved, but there was nothing she or her neighbors could do to affect the construction.
It is common to revise designs during the construction process, no matter who builds them, Rockhill said. He said the lessons learned from Studio 804 and the mission of the school outweighed the community reaction.
"As with anything that's different, you're bound to get a reaction — a questioning of what we're doing." Rockhill said.
Not everyone questions Studio 804's results.
Julia Snow moved two years ago from her trailer in North Lawrence to a Studio 804 home at 216 Alabama St. She said a man from Germany came to her door several months ago and offered her $50 to tour her home.
"He came to the house and said, 'You don't know how well-known these homes are,' " Snow said.
Rockhill said he and his students were prepared for the attention and reactions the houses received because they'd heard them all before.
"The criticism is because we're not interested in mediocrity," Rockhill said. "It's important to push the envelope."
Edited by Melissa Shuman
Contact Kansan staff writer Jenna Goepfert at jgoepfert@ kansan.com.