Designing for Davis

Michael Mills (Mills Group Architects)and I will work together next week to draw up the concept for a couple of houses to be built on Thomas Ave in Davis. This session will drive the design for the first homes in Riverwalk style, but undoubtedly will evolve and diversify as the project progresses. My goal for aesthetics is to echo the profiles and rythm of Davis' Victorian homes circa 1900 while using a more casual and less ornate lineup of materials and architectural details. So the basic shape of the house would best be defined as Victorian, but the materials lean toward the farm and industrial, and the architectural details are minimized. For functionality, it will be important to understand the demographics of the buying public. The active retiree who bikes and enjoys fishing and bird watching? The young family with one head of household running a small business and the other working for a company? A DC family that loves Davis and Canaan? A couple who has chosen the lifestyle that Davis offers? A major opportunity is to build housing that doesn't require much maintenance and has very low utility bills. Accommodating today's recreation interests is also important. Flexibility in the number of people the house can sleep is important to retirees hosting their families or weekenders with guests. Formal dining and entry areas are not important. Graciously hosting a large cookout or dinner party is important. Large mud rooms with sturdy materials will handle the gear and clothing of mountain living and mountain sports. A separate space for an office, a guest, or for small children to play is important. A front porch acts as an extension to the mud room concept for bikes, skis or as a doorway to the community. Unfortunately, many Davis homes have had their front porches 'closed in' in an attempt to cheaply add interior space. I believe a front porch - big or small -- is a tradition that fits well with today's mountain life style.

Another idea: Side-by-sides. Davis lots are 30 and 40' wide with no setback zoning. People routinely build to within feet or inches of the lot line. Side yards can become useless, dark, snow gulleys - wasted space that leaves exterior wall space needlessly exposed to the elements. One of the photos above shows a 'side by side'....two houses with a section between them that eliminates a side yard, saves some exterior wall exposure, and allows a larger side yard on the other side of each house. Building houses in pairs as side-by-sides may be a good solution in Davis for eliminating some waste and gaining more useful side yards.

A second idea: modernized carriage houses. With 132ft deep lots, Davis homes often have a variety of structures found on the alley. Traditionally these were carriage houses for horses, wagons, livery and workmans' tools. Today many of those are gone...replaced by sheds. Keeping horses is not allowed in Davis any more, and cars are a bit cramped in 10' alleys. Winter makes the unplowed, unpaved, alleys even less likely to accommodate parking. In designing a useful carriage houses of the future, the structure should be set back from the alley to allow turning radius and outside parking. For now we will gravel the public alley up to the properties, but my understanding is that the Town is seeking funding to eventually pave the alleys. A 2-car garage can be topped with a small apartment or studio. A carriage house apartment then becomes a part of the property that can be rented or used by the owner. With this flexibility, the owner can use what parts of the property they need and rent out the rest.