House and Home Magazine is south Louisiana's original home-and-garden magazine, with free circulation in the greater Baton Rouge and Lafayette areas. Published monthly since 1997 by Renaissance Publishing Group, LLC, House and Home's readers have enjoyed more than 100 full-color issues that celebrate the finest expression of south Louisiana style, design, culture and living. In April 2010, the Nauck's house was awarded a publication in House and Home's kitchen design awards issue. In May 2010, House and Home would further recognize the Nauck house with an entry in their best-in-show, "whole house" publication. Finally, in November 2010, in celebration of the magazine's 13th year, two of the Nauck house photos were acknowledge as the staff's top thirteen favorite images.

As a problem solving exercise, this project presented a plethora of challenges. The homeowners had never gone through the design process before taking on this project. The couple had only lived in two houses since they were first married. They wanted the new house to follow cultural traditions from their home country that would heavily influence design decisions, called Vastu Shastra, but they still wanted to have all the amenities of a middle class American home. Thankfully the clients were willing to go through the full design process instead of jumping straight into making construction drawings which so often seems to be the case. Using a collection of photographs to develop an aesthetic palette, our design process explored massing options in plan and in elevation that would evolve into the final floor plans. Some 3d modeling was also used to offer some pre-visualizations of the built home.

Photos of the house without the watermark are so expensive. I'l post them as soon as I can spring for them. For now, you can review the proofs with me.

If designing a house for my self is the first reason I went to architecture school, designing a house for my father is definitely the second. When my uncle’s residential contractor company, HCH, acquired several acres to develop, I told my dad to ask for the most difficult parcel available. The lot we had was surrounded by two ponds, two massive live oak trees, and an 18’ drop in slope right where the house should go. After hundreds of yards of dirt were added and we met over lots of dinners, we settled on a ‘C’ shaped house that would terrace the landscape. Using collaged drawings and diagrams, and a constantly changing 3d model, the finished design takes full advantage of the beautiful landscape on all sides. The house took almost a year to build but our efforts paid off; the house has been published in local residential design magazines and won my uncle’s contracting company, HCH, a local builder’s award.

In spring 2008, Lamar Advertising decided to relocate its existing corporate headquarters to 5321 Corporate Boulevard, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. A renovation project, 5321 Corporate is conceived as a transformation from heavy, impenetrable brutalism to strength, grace, movement, and optimism. The existing 115,000 square foot facility would need to be renovated to accommodate all current Lamar corporate employees and allow for reasonable future growth. The interior design would foster an open work environment with a variety of multipurpose meeting rooms and communal areas. Even the executive offices and conference rooms would be located in the same general vicinity as the conventional office space. Central to the clients’ design requirements, the design would need to be neat and unassuming. Ford|Dickinson’s proposal sought to smooth out a shift in the urban grid.

The second complete project I'd get to work on was a house deep in a subdivision of Prairieville, Louisiana. Having seen my first project in the Parade of Homes, the owner wanted their project to be similar to the Oneal house. The main requirements of the design were that the house resembles the neighboring buildings (which were not yet built or even designed yet), that the house open itself up to view the woods behind the house (whereas at the Oneal house the design is self-contained), and that the master bedroom be located away from the main house (as it was in the Oneal house). As a problem solving exercise, my biggest task was bringing the home owners to a point where they understood why there house could not be just like the Oneals’ home.

When Highland Custom Homes, a Baton Rouge custom residential housing contractor group, was looking to subdivide some land for development, I worked with them to come up with several proposals to take to the department of public works office. The final plot plan resulted in four parcels of land available for new residence. Two of the lots would be claimed from the get go; one of the lots would go to HCH figure head, Al Nauck, and the other, more difficult lot would be used to design my father’s house. With two lots left to be sold, HCH asked me to produce sample designs for new houses to be built on the vacant property.

To see my father's house, click here.

In 2004 when Hurricane Ivan made landfall in Gulf Shores, Alabama, it would be the 10th most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. In 2005 when Hurricane Katrina destroyed buildings and gnarled the buffer islands all along the Gulf of Mexico, it would go down as the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the US. The only project of fall semester, fifth year studio, asked students to design a new facility for the Mississippi Park’s Department to replace the heavily damaged Nature Center in Ocean Springs, MS. The building would house exhibits about the local ecosystem and the gulf islands national seashore program, offer a place of refuge for park rangers and visitors, and would be an exemplar of how a structure in such a hostile environment should not only survive, but flourish through the use of efficient building techniques in this coastal zone.