Concessions (originally posted on LiveModern on March 1, 2005)

I was cautiously optimistic about resubmitting the plans to the Southampton Town building inspector. As noted in the previous entry, the details to be sorted out were primarily regarding the cantilever structure (for the two balconies) and the hurricane windzone requirements. In addition to providing window data (or a commitment to create wood shutters in lieu of impact resistant windows), the drawings needed to show cross sectional details on the "hurricane connections," or the structural members that would ensure the integrity of the structure in a hurricane. This came as somewhat of a surprise to Ron the builder, whose own "traditional" house project went through the permit process without a hitch. To make matters worse, the stock set of plans issued by Nate Wieler (who is located in NC, which is considered to be a prime hurricane windzone area) did not contain any hurricane engineering drawings. There are a couple of takehome messages in this: 1) There is a double standard; a modern house (with a lot of glazing) will be subject to much greater scrutiny and will require much more justification than a traditional house and 2) there is a lot to be said for using a local architect or getting a local engineer's take on a project very early on in the design phase. A face-to-face meeting with the building inspector also proved very helpful towards figuring out what we needed to do to fulfill the building inspector's issues.

After delving into the engineering issues, things became more complicated than expected. As noted before, the first floor walls will be constructed of precast concrete walls made by Superior Walls. Not an issue engineering-wise. The problem now was to justify the cantilevers and the rest of the second floor structure using wood members (LVLs, 2x10s, etc.). In a nutshell, the building inspector was skeptical about this approach without some engineering data. After some consideration and subsequent follow-up with the inspector, we are proposing to use structural steel to form the structure of the second floor on top of the concrete walls. This will definitely satisfy the building inspector's concerns. However, this is going to be significantly more costly than wood, but it is also the path of least resistance. Ron the builder says it may be worth investigating the possibilty of framing the second floor walls with steel studs as well since we are now buying significant amounts of steel structural members anyway. The precut steel may also save us some construction time. SIPs?? Fuggedaboutit! If I was willing to put up with many more weeks of shenanigans with the building department, thousands of more dollars in engineering and then the looming uncertainty of getting approval, I would go for it. But framing the second floor with steel may be the quickest and perhaps least costly approach. Hurricane resistance? With all of this concrete and steel, I think this house will be the only thing standing in the Hamptons after an atom bomb!

Another kink in the road was that we were requested to go before the Southampton Town Architectural review board (this morning). I was not even aware of such a group, but Ron the builder says it is fairly routine for modern houses. The architectural review board was concerned mainly with the amount of visibility into/out of the house from the street and the neighbors (due to the extensive use of glazing). They were also concerned about the glare of reflected light from the windows. We now have a couple of weeks (until the next meeting) to figure out how to address the visibility/glare issues. This may be simply a matter of planting some mature trees in some strategic locations around the property (in addition to the hedge that is already in place). Again, this is way above/beyond the standard applied to traditional houses. So we are now revisiting the site plan/elevations to see what types of trees to plant. Is there a such thing as modern trees? ;-)

So hopefully, once we submit a revised site plan and elevation with trees, the architectural review board will relent and the permit will issue by the third week of March. Accordingly, hopefully the snow will be gone and the ground will be thawed as well.