Ask The Designer - Bob Best

Featured Designer: Bob Best
Principal of DDI Architects and owner of www.Houseplanguys.com

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Before we start, can you tell our readers a little about yourself. For example, where do you live, what is your background, how long you have been a designer etc?

Bob: My name is Bob Best and I live in Vancouver, Washington and I've lived here for about three years now. I've been a designer of homes, since about 1960. Most of the homes I've worked on have been mid-west or east but where I have worked has been from: Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Los Angeles, to Seattle, back to Denver, Colorado and the Colorado Bests area. As far as my work, I've been all over the western part of the United States. I've never pursued being an architect, I am a practicing designer.

What are some of the reasons why someone should consider designing their own house or buying a plan as opposed to just going with what the builders model?

Bob: Well, there is a lot more latitude as far as design. Often times you may be in an area like the one I came from in Colorado, where there was a lot of western contemporary style and we were getting people in from the mid-west or the east coast that would like styles that were a little more traditional in that area or things like a country French look.

Are housing styles really tied closely to geography? Can you build a cape code home in California, or a Mediterranean style home in the North East, or do the designs really work best where they are popular?

Bob: No, you can pretty well build wherever you want to and whatever style you want to as long as you keep in mind of where you're at. There might be some things you might do to a Mediterranean or contemporary south-western home if you wanted it back east. For instance, in the area that we're at just out of Portland, stucco is not a very popular exterior and because they have so much rain it gets wet underneath it.

How has the housing market changed since you first started designing homes? Have you noticed any trends? Did the events of the past two years change what we are looking for in a new home?

Bob: In the last couple of years, not really. Because of the economy, the moderately priced homes are probably a lot more popular right now. Moderately priced homes range differently depending on the area you're in but usually around the $160,000 to $300,000. There are more baby-boomers that are starting to retire and they would like something smaller.

How do you go about designing a new plan? How much of the design process is based on the demands of the market, and how much of it is based on new ideas?

Bob: Well I guess you might look at the way you phrase that because if I'm going for a new design, most of the new designs I do are for individuals so it will be based on what they feel need or want. Then as far as exterior style, like I said, you get people that want country-French or they want southwestern. Often times they'll find areas in 2 or 3 floorplans, sometimes as many as 4 to 6 plans where they like the main floor on one, living area on one, kitchen-dining on the other, then upstairs they like the master bedroom, the kids suites and you end up trying to marry all of these plans into one. But I do get a fair number of people who come up to me and say this is what I've got to build on, this size lot and they like it this way, and we need these rooms and I got in a design it all from scratch.

How much effect has computers or the Internet had on the design profession. Do computers limit the creative process, or expand it. Do you design entirely on a computer, partially or not at all and why? What software do you use if any?

Bob: I design exclusively on computers and I use Autocad LT 2000. My concern when I started to switch over, which was like 6 or 7 years ago, was that I wouldn't be able to design on the computer. I mean, you ask any designer who does it by hand, they would have those concerns and it's a matter of changing the way you think. If you design just as well on a computer as you can sketching on a piece of paper then your thought process changes a little bit. As far as how the Internet and computers have affected the business, I say it has affected the business greatly and it's going to be a lot more so. To me as far as designer we're probably just beginning to see major changes on how we think about getting planned or building plans.

Is it true that 80% of the sales are from 20% of the designs?

Bob: I think that's a little disproportionate, I do have to say that probably two-thirds versus one- third may be pretty close and a lot of that appears to be price driven to some degree but also some designs are virtually classics. One particular floor-plan will sell over and over again because it just works well.

What percentage of your plans are modified by the buyer? What type of modifications are the most common?

Bob: A simple modification would be if they need to rotate a garage front entry to a side entry they can mainly do that out of their local hardware store. Where I see the modifications getting major would be expanding the house from a 2000 square-foot lot to a 2500 square-foot lot and they're literally changing every bedroom size and lots of times another major change is in the master suite. Sometimes they come in and say, "I don't like this bathroom", they want something bigger -one trend for example: having a walk-in shower, or a big soaker-tub with a chandelier above it.

Where do you see housing design being in three, five, ten years from now? Any thing drastic on the horizon?

Bob: I don't think there's anything too drastic, I think in the years we'll see a lot of smaller homes but that’s probably the biggest thing.

With the high cost of energy in many parts of the country, is there any increase in demand in energy efficient homes? Do you think solar homes will make a comeback?

Bob: I haven't seen anything. I haven't seen anybody concerned up to this point. Our codes are a lot more energy efficient than they used to be, we've gone from 2x4 construction that was virtually the standard for I don't know how many years, to a 2x6 that ups our insulation value up to almost double from what it was or at least one-and-a-half times.

What advice would you give a prospective home plan buyer on how to pick their dream house? What things are most often overlooked and where should they start?

Bob: I think the most often overlooked thing is when they are going though sets of plans on the Internet, they tend to look at their elevation and the picture of the house and how it appeals to them. When they should be looking at the floor plans, that's probably the biggest mistake I've seen. Look at the floor plans thoroughly until you can't look at them anymore.

We have a section on our website where we list the designer's personal favorite design. Do you care to share your personal favorite design?

Bob: No, I don't. I've designed so many houses over the years I haven't come up with one that I just feel I can go out and build myself over and over again.

Thank you Bob for your insight and participation.

Next Issue: To be announced

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