The Envelope, Please

Architects like to win design awards. No surprise there; design is what they do, and everyone likes to hear that his work is something special. The fact that one’s professional peers and potential clients also might hear doesn’t hurt either. It is no wonder, then, that most Custom Home Design Award entries each year are submitted by architects. But CUSTOM HOME is a magazine for builders, too, and the payoff for them is less clear. Award entries are judged on the basis of floor plans and photographs, which display the finished product in flattering detail but reveal nothing about the accuracy of the builder’s bid, the timeliness of the construction schedule, or the ultimate satisfaction of the client. Given this focus on excellence in design rather than in construction, do custom builders get any kind of bounce when one of their houses takes an award? Is a design award a marketing asset, a recruiting tool, or just a passing bit of good news? To find out, we dug into our database of award winners from years past and spoke with some of the builders. All of them said that winning an award had been a plus for their businesses. Of greater interest, however, are the specific benefits they report. Talking with these builders gives not only a sense of what they take away from building a noteworthy custom home, but also a glimpse into the motivations that brought them there in the first place.

Those motivations are worth a look, too, because building high-design projects is far from the easiest way to go. “They’re difficult houses,” says Walter Pilz, who won a Custom Home Design Award in 2002. “They take a lot out of you, mentally.” Working at the top of the design heap is no path to riches, either. Comparing his one-off residential projects with those of plan-book builders—and to his own commercial projects—Pilz says, “Believe it or not, you make less money.” Because such projects are more elaborate, though, it takes only one to keep his single crew occupied for more than a year. Without chasing after work, Pilz says, “I stay busy all the time.” And each time one of his houses hits the jackpot in a design award program, he gains credibility. When potential clients see photographs of his work on their architect’s wall, he says, “They think, ‘If he can do that, he can do our house.’” Moreover, the creative challenge of building difficult houses is part of what keeps Pilz and his employees engaged in their work. Cranking out undistinguished buildings is no way to spend your day, he says, which may help explain the shortage of young people choosing construction careers. “The kind of people I have, they have pride in what they do. They learn a lot from it.”

Paul Jeffs credits building award-winning projects with broadening his firm’s professional horizons. Jeffs launched his company with a group of other college-educated craftsmen who were in the business, he says, “for love.” As their skills improved, though, that enthusiasm began to wane. “We had done enough of the traditional work to feel that we had mastered it,” Jeffs says. An association with architect Mark McInturff, a perennial award winner, spiced up the mix. Over the years, Jeffs has built 37 of McInturff’s signature Modernist projects, “enough that I got to be well known.” Regular exposure in print has been Jeffs’ only advertising, and the recognition has been a morale builder for the firm. More importantly, local architects now have “a mental note that I’m a guy who can handle any weird, Modern thing that comes along.” The resulting flow of work reflects that reputation. Easy, straightforward projects seldom win awards, and the houses that Jeffs has made his niche give his people plenty to chew on. “We like to keep challenged. We don’t want to become complacent,” he says. “I’ve got some really skilled, intelligent, well-educated guys. I have to keep it fresh for them or they’ll find something else to do.”

Jim Sykes built CUSTOM HOME’s 2002 Project of the Year, a technologically advanced building by noted green architect William McDonough. He reports a definite lift from being associated with demanding, high-profile projects. “If you’re published in a national magazine, it gives you something to bring to the bargaining table,” he says. “It establishes your bona fides, as it were.” The point is not to bring in more business—“We’ve got all we can say grace over right now,” he says—but to be on the short list when the right kind of project comes along. “I am not in the business of just building any house,” Sykes says. “It has to be a one-of-a-kind house that has some interest for us to do it.” The McDonough house, with its combination of wood and concrete structural framing, sod roof, and extensive rainwater management systems—surely qualifies. Like all of Sykes’favored projects, it involved the full cast of characters: civil and structural engineers, architect, landscape architect, and interior designer. “All of those entities—and the owners’ desires—have to be brought together to complete one of these projects,” Sykes says. And signing your name on one makes it easier to land the next.

Custom builder John Lerchen has seen the process from both sides, collecting an AIA Chicago design award in 2001 and later serving as a CUSTOM HOME Design Awards judge. The builders of award-winning homes, he says, enjoy “success through association,” a difficult-to-quantify but real boost that comes from being compared favorably with one’s peers. “It’s press, and you’re out there, and your name is being repeated, which is always good.” Clients may not follow residential design awards as they do the Oscars, but knowing that a builder has experience with “important” homes can put their minds at ease. “They’re going to be more comfortable with a builder who has been down that path.” And while design awards are no substitute for steady work and fair compensation, Lerchen agrees that they can boost employee morale. “Everybody wants to be associated with a winner,” he says, even those who never set foot on a job-site. “It’s icing on the cake. And it’s good for recruiting.”

Like the other builders we spoke with, however, Lerchen is driven to build award-worthy houses by more than the hope of such benefits. “Part of it is ego,” he says, but there are deeper motivations, too. “In our market, clients come to the builder first, and I tell them right off the bat that we’ll only work with architects.” The right architect, he tells clients, will maximize the value of the house they ultimately build. And Lerchen’s concept of value extends all the way from resale potential “into how they manage their life and family.” The typical upscale “builder’s special” in his market—“five bedrooms, each with its own phone, TV, and cable modem”—is worse than mundane, he believes. Its overemphasis on private spaces and passive entertainment can actually drive people apart. “It contributes to the breakdown of the family,” he says. Good architects go far beyond such formulaic approaches, designing houses that enhance family life. Some of the best of them end up winning design awards. But for Lerchen, as for the other builders we spoke with, the award is not the point. A house that holds its builder’s interest and treats its owners well is the real prize.

Are design awards for builders too? Tell the editors of CUSTOM HOME what’s on your mind. Send your comments and questions to Bruce Snider at bsnider@hanleywood.com.