Retreat: A New Cottage Home Plan

Here is the latest design I've developed as part of a product line for a home plan site. It's a lot of character packed into a fairly compact floor plan.

Click and drag on the image to spin it around.

Name this House Plan:

I'm creating some stock residential plans to be sold online. I've been messing around with the presentation style to create something that is appealing and real, and yet not so photo real that you can't imagine it on your own site, whether it be in the woods or on a beach.

Here is the first model. Suggest a name in the comment box.


Click and drag on the image to spin it around.

A peek at the drafting board: Grand River Endodontics

Today I'm trying out some new technology on the blog, a 3d Virtual Reality Model of a new dental suite build out. If you have the Quicktime plug in you should be able to click and hold on the image and spin it around to get different views.

The plans are submitted to the city for permit approvals. I can't wait to see it built.


Click and drag on the image to spin it around.

Industrial Proposal VR

Another VR Object file for a recent industrial building proposal.


Click and drag on the image to spin it around.

Are you building a place worth caring about?

I ought to make this video a prerequisite for any patron who wants me to design a building. I've been doing some design work for urban projects lately, and I've never seen urban design explained better than in this 2004 talk by James Kunstler at the TED Conference for Technology Entertainment and Design. If I could choose only one thing anyone would ever learn or hear about architecture in today's America, it would be this talk. It's funny, it's pointed, it's patriotic, and it's insightful. If you're ever going to design, build, buy, visit, live in or drive past a building, then this talk is for you. (He does tactfully drop the F-Bomb, just so you've been warned.)

Dental Suite

I've been working on a design for a new dental suite to be built into an old brick building. Here is the animation I did to illustrate the sequence of spaces.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

I'm currently in Washington DC for the AIA Grassroots national leadership conference. I spent the morning in a seminar regarding the upcoming International Green Construction Code. Have listened to congressional speakers on the economy, Haiti reconstruction via the state department, and spent the evening touring the city around the White House, Washington Monument, and other monuments.


Sight seeing is done for the evening; I'm off to turn out a late-night preliminary design. Stay Tuned!

Pascucci Marble & Granite Facility

The new Pascucci Marble & Granite facility is finished and open for business. The 22,000 square foot building houses their new tile and countertop showroom, offices, and warehouse space for the stone slabs, including a 5 ton bridge crane. They're located at 4260 Broadmoor, just north of 44th street.

The base value of architecture...

In Shanghai, a 13 story apartment building literally fell over on it's face. Apparently they used inadequate pilings and liquefied the soil via the excavation. "Large quantities of earth were removed and dumped in a landfill next to a nearby creek; the weight of the earth caused the river bank to collapse, which, in turn, allowed water to seep into the ground, creating a muddy foundation for the building that toppled."

Architecture in the US is so good at the fundamentals of construction that the discussion of the value of architecture often surrounds topics such as style, design, tectonics, being green, etc.
But when an event like this happens, it's a very straightforward reminder of the core value of architecture. Architects are licensed under oath to protect the "Health, Safety, and Welfare of the Public" so that our buildings don't end up like this one.

Full Story Here from the Wall Street Journal

The One Percent.org

Maxam Architecture has joined "The One Percent.org" A site dedicated to connecting architects with non-profit organizations in need of pro-bono work. From their website...

"If every architecture professional in the U.S. committed 1% of their time to pro bono service, it would add up to 5,000,000 hours annually - the equivalent of a 2,500-person firm, working full-time for the public good."

I'm looking forward to opportunities to do some good with these organizations and work on unique projects and designs I might not otherwise get the opportunity to implement and express.

A peek at the drafting board... Dental Building

A peek at the drafting board... Office Building

Happy Holidays from Maxam Architecture!

I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.
-- Shirley Temple

Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.
-- Oren Arnold

In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it 'Christmas' and went to church; the Jews called it 'Hanukka' and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say 'Merry Christmas!' or 'Happy Hanukkah!' or (to the atheists) 'Look out for the wall!'"
-- Dave Barry "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide"

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store? What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?
-- Dr. Seuss

Industrial Office Building - Variations on a design

Lesson: Design Fail Floathouse

Good design starts with good diagnosis and solving problems at the appropriate level. Recently the 'Float House' designed by UCLA students taught by Thomas Mayne of Morphosis has been getting a lot of attention from the media. The basic premise is that it's a sustainable eco-friendly house that can float in case of a flood. It's built in New Orleans lower 9th ward which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Apparently this is in conjunction with Brad Pitts efforts and advocacy organization Make It Right to promote sustainable affordable housing for lower 9th ward residents.

I admire the effort, aesthetics, and good intention of the design; however anyone who lost a yacht or houseboat in Katrina can tell you that simple buoyancy doesn't make a house able to survive that sort of natural disaster. Plenty of boats are totaled in hurricanes, and they're certainly better designed to handle high winds, waves, and overturning than a boxy yet buoyant house.

So is this good design or just good sounding intentions? Beware sweet sounding design speak and sleek imagery. Ultimately the lower 9th wards problem is one of geography and urban planning. The lesson here is that good design solves problems on the appropriate level. In Michigan we simply don't build below the 100 year floodplain level. It's a regional solution to a regional problem enforced by zoning and DEQ policy. Solve urban planning issues on the level of urban planning, architectural problems at the level of architecture, and interior design problems at the level of interior design. Anything else is a band-aid over a bullet wound which won't solve, but merely hide the real problem.

Trends Magazine

The Waalkes home is going to be featured in an upcoming issue of Trends Magazine, a New Zeeland based international publication for kitchen, furniture and home design. Can't wait to see it go to press.

Heritage Hill Porch

Construction photo's of a little project to rebuild a curved porch at 312 Lyon in Heritage Hill. Nice work by contractor Paul McGuinness.

New Website Launched!

The new and improved Maxam Architecture website is live! New features include an updated portfolio, the "Ask the Architect" section, and "New Project Starter Forms" where the basic questions to get a new project underway are available in an easy web form.

Option 1 Credit Union: Under Construction

Drawings are complete and construction has begun for the Option 1 Credit Union project with First Companies. It's a new tenant improvement for an Option 1 branch in the Metro Health Village. Stay tuned for future updates as the project is completed.

Young Designers

Rachel VanDyke asked me to be the guest critic for her Design II students at Northpoint Christian High. They did a unit on Architecture, with an assignment to design theoretical homes. They had some excellent work, both with their physical and computer models. We met at mid-term and for their final critique. It was great to see how their work and their thinking about the projects developed. Here are a few images from the final critique. Congratulations to all the students on their work; and to Rachel for doing an excellent job of teaching a very challenging subject.