Residential Tuesday 2008.0624

Tue Jun 24 17:05:58 PDT 2008

Dear Designers, Builders, and Dwellers,

Residential Tuesday brings you top housing news and analysis weekly
in this free email newsletter from the editors of ArchitectureWeek.

What if gas prices, the mortgage crisis, and housing price slump are 
actually all connected?

	A suburban household in Denver typically consumes more than
	1,000 gallons of gas a year, estimates Matthew E. Kahn, an
	economist at U.C.L.A., and Edward L. Glaeser at Harvard.
	Given that the price of a gallon roughly doubled from $2
	during the last three years, that means such households must
	now come up with an extra $2,000 on average a year.

	"For a middle class family, that's a chunk of their income,"
	said Mr. Kahn.

	Dollars spent at the gas station leave fewer for mortgage
	payments. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's
	Economy.com, calculated that the jump in gas prices from $2
	a gallon to $4 has taken $50 a month from the typical
	suburban commuter driving 25 miles a day.

	That is enough to subtract $8,340 from the amont of a
	30-year fixed rate mortgage that a suburban family could be
	expected to manage. A commuter who travels 50 miles a day
	would surrender enough dollars to shrink a potential
	mortgage by $16,680.

Rethinking the Country Life as Energy Costs Rise 
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/25/business/25exurbs.html?hp=&pagewanted=all

For extra credit (in the school of hard knocks...)
* What happens when increasing impacts of climate change are added to the mix?  
* What can a smart and prudent designer and builder do about it?

Residential Design and Building News
------------------------------------
House Has 'Charm of a Shipping Container' - Stuff, 2008.0625
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4595605a11.html

Waterlogged Levee under Pressure from Mississippi - Examiner, 2008.0624
http://www.examiner.com/a-1456603~Waterlogged_levee_under_pressure_from_Mississippi.html

Rich and Green in Moscow: Russian Eco-Design - International Herald Tribune, 2008.0624
http://blogs.iht.com/tribtalk/travel/globespotters/?p=456

Re-Imagining the House - Palo Alto, 2008.0624
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=8459

On the Path to a Housing Rebound - Fortune, 2008.0624
http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/24/news/economy/tully_housing.fortune/?postversion=2008062413

California Home Building Down 37% from Year Ago - San Francisco Chronicle, 2008.0624
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/23/BU0A11DR76.DTL

Home Prices Sink. Time to Buy Home Builders? - US News & World Report, 2008.0624
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/the-ticker/2008/06/24/home-prices-sink-time-to-buy-home-builders.html

Home Building in Scotland 'Could Drop by 20%' - BBC News, 2008.0623
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7469712.stm

Renewed: A Licence to Shatter Lives - Sydney Morning Herald, 2008.0623
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/renewed-a-licence-to-shatter-lives/2008/06/22/1214073053702.html

Shaky Job Market Threatens Housing Recovery - Market Watch, 2008.0623
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/real-estate-housing-slump-shaping/story.aspx?guid={2932BBD7-4139-4A56-9155-DA6941690F44}&dist=hplatest

Intensification Versus 'Uglification' - Ottawa Citizen, 2008.0623
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=57f7a703-2a12-4de0-95e9-d452b6f15100

Battle to Protect Views of Hampstead Heath from Super-Rich - The Times (UK), 2008.0623
http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article4193011.ece

A Building Giant Gambled His Empire - Sydney Morning Herald, 2008.0622
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/punting-problem/2008/06/21/1214009167340.html

UK Housebuilders Suffer 60% Slump in Starts as Mortgage Market Tightens - Guardian Unlimited, 2008.0621
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jun/21/housingmarket.mortgages

Stein: The Irrational Exuberance of Bubble Investing - Opinion at Salt Lake Tribune, 2008.0620
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_9651998

Apartment Customization Goes Beyond Choosing Colors - New York Sun, 2008.0619
http://www.nysun.com/real-estate/apartment-customization-goes-beyond-choosing/80316/

Getting Green Products Right - ArchitectureWeek, 2008.0618
http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2008/0618/environment_1-1.html
	Green project requirements can be found just about
	anywhere in the contract documents. This is also true
	for green building product requirements that are an
	important part of any green building project.
	Just like green project requirements, green building
	product requirements can be included in the contract
	documents either explicitly or implicitly.

Concrete Revival as Steel Hits the Roof - Stuff, 2008.0619
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4588672a13.html

Sekisui House Announces the Zero Emission House - Sekisui House Press Release, 2008.0618
http://www.japancorp.net/Article.Asp?Art_ID=18691

Why the Home-Building Slump Is Good News - Los Angeles Times, 2008.0618
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laland/2008/06/why-the-homebui.html

Home Sizes Shrink Amid Souring Economy - Las Vegas Business Press, 2008.0618
http://www.lvbusinesspress.com/articles/2008/06/18/news/iq_22087710.txt

Cost of Building Materials Skyrockets - Oakland Business Review (Michigan), 2008.0617
http://www.mlive.com/businessreview/oakland/index.ssf/2008/06/cost_of_building_materials_sky.html

People and Places
    by Nancy Novitski
    http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2008/0618/news_1-1.html
	RTKL Associates Inc. in Baltimore, Maryland - Gary Lee
	Partners in Chicago, Illinois - Carmody Groarke in London,
	England, United Kingdom - VOA Associates Incorporated in
	Rancho Mirage, California - RED Design Group in Karawaci,
	Indonesia - Environment Associates, Architects and
	Consultants in Austin, Texas - Rudolph and Sletten, Inc. in
	San Francisco, California - SmithGroup in Lansing, Michigan
	- Glenn Howells Architects in Birmingham, England, United
	Kingdom - Perkins + Will in New York, New York - Meltzer/
	Mandl Architects in Brooklyn, New York - gkkworks in Granada
	Hills, California...
        ... short stories continue online:
        http://www.ArchWeek.com/2008/0618/news_1-1.html

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Product News - Slope Skylights & Glazing Systems from Acurlite
	 http://www.archweek.com/2008/0618/products_update.html

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Building a New Way to Estimate - New York Construction, 2008.0618
http://newyork.construction.com/features/archive/2008/06_feature1a.asp

UI Technology Preview for Autodesk Inventor 2009 - Autodesk Press Release, 2008.0617
http://labs.autodesk.com/technologies/inventor2009_ui/

Using MS Sharepoint in a Major Construction Effort - Network World, 2008.0616
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/061608-using-ms-sharepoint-in-a.html

Right Hemisphere Ships Deep Exploration Software 5.5 - Right Hemisphere Press Release, 2008.0616
http://oceania.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=423652

ArchiCAD 12 Released - Graphisoft Press Release, 2008.0616
http://www.graphisoft.com/company/press_zone/ac12.html

Map Services Hit the Streets - ArchitectureWeek, 2008.0611
http://www.archweek.com/2008/0611/tools_1-1.html
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This Week's Quiz -	
	The three main fibers used in carpets are wool, olefin,
	and nylon. Nylon is probably the most commonly used
	fiber. Why would you consider or not consider wool or
	olefin in its place?
     http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2008/0618/quiz.html

Architecture Answer - for last issue's quiz...
	True or false (for lumber in the United States):
	A. Joists are customarily specified in terms of nominal
	   sizes, but calculations to determine the allowable span
	   and required modulus of elasticity are based on actual size.
	B. A "two-by-four" is typically half an inch less deep
	   and a "two-by-eight" is typically three-quarters of an
	   inch less deep than the nominal size (actual depths are
	   3.5 inches and 7.25 inches, respectively).
     http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2008/0618/answer.html

Classic Home 031 - Sun porch bungalow by J. T. Tubby
     http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2008/0618/classic_home.html

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Contents, RSS, and Surface of the Week - 
     Chinese moon gate in garden wall (DW-108)
     http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2008/0618/contents.html

Five years ago in ArchitectureWeek:
	Providence Reclaims Rivers, by Becky McWilliams
	http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2003/0618/design_1-1.html

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Kevin Matthews
Editor in Chief
ArchitectureWeek

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