continued from page 50 status,” Phillips explains, “and
optimistic about its future.” The firm’s specialty is
multifamily residential and urban mixed-use projects, which often employ passive solar heating and
other green strategies. Some projects are high-end
condos, others are subsidized low-income housing.
Interface has no finished buildings yet, but two are
under construction.
The project that interests me is still in its infancy. The 100K House is a collaboration of Interface, a 29-year-old fledgling developer named
Chad Ludeman, and a local custom-home builder,
Level 5. Ludeman, the prime mover in this venture, is also the most untested player. His company, Postgreen, was only nine months old when
I met him in November. Decidedly scruffy, with
long hair and a beard, he seemed at first glance like
someone who’d be more likely to start a food co-op
than lead a development venture. After talking
with him for a while, though, it became clear that
he’d done his homework. Until recently, he was a
marketing manager for a tech company, but he
wanted to run his own business. “I need to get out
of my job,” Ludeman recalls telling his wife. “I
need to do this now, or I’ll go crazy.”
Ludeman embarked on a research project, trying
to figure out a way to build affordable, green Modern houses in his own neighborhood. He financed
the new business by selling the house he and his
wife had rehabbed. Ludeman decided he didn’t
want to go the fashionable prefab route but preferred to start a “stock-houses program” that would
allow buyers to choose from a small inventory of
designs, much like KB Homes or Toll Brothers. He
thought his best bet was to use structural insulated
panels (SIPs), a common cut-to-order wall, floor, or
roof component. And he wanted to build these
houses on a budget of $100,000. They would be
small— 1,000 to 1,200 square feet. (The average American house hit 2,300 square feet last year.) Ludeman’s blog—yes, he’s blogging his way through the
process—lists some arguments for the small dimensions: “Homeowners will be able to say things like,
‘I can fit five of my houses in your McMansion,’ or
‘My house is smaller than your garage.’”
Assuming they make it through Philly’s permit
process, the collaborators are planning to put their
first two 100K Houses on a lot in Kensington in
early 2008. The houses will be Modern in style
and built with recycled materials, state-of-the-art
insulation and seals, passive solar heating, and
Energy Star appliances, all points eligible for LEED-for-homes certification. “More aggressive greening is offered as an add-on,” Phillips notes. The
houses will be oriented so that a photovoltaic array
could be added in the future. One of them will be
roughly 1,035 square feet with two bedrooms, which
Ludeman hopes to price at about $215,000. The
other will be a slightly larger two-bedroom that
will sell for $245,000. “Hopefully, I’ll make a lit-
tle bit of money so that my wife doesn’t tell me
I have to close down my business,” he says.
These houses won’t be the first examples of Modern architecture in the area. Gentrification has
brought Modernism to the Northern Liberties and
beyond. Apartments in the American Loft tower, a
flashy new 11-story condo designed by Winka Dub-beldam, go from $300,000 to $1.5 million. Nevertheless, affordable, Modern, and green would be
a breakthrough. Phillips says old row houses in
the area can be bought for as little as $149,000,
but prices for new Modernist houses with green
amenities start at $500,000.
“Lack of density breeds
a rural mentality,” Brian
Phillips says. “They forget
they’re in a city.”
In my own cross-country search for low-cost
Modern houses, most of the examples I dug up
were in rural areas or in Texas cities where urban
is a relative term. I never found anything in my
range in the densely settled cities of the Northeast.
But this $100K scheme seems perfect for Philly:
the tiny row house is still the dominant vernacular
form there, and the city is swimming in vacant lots.
Phillips says that much of this open space has
been repossessed by the city, which only seems to
want to “take down dangerous buildings, clean up
lots, and put up fences.” As Interface associate
architect May Narisaranukul puts it, “Everyone is
used to the vacancy.” In one residential project
where the firm specified storefronts to encourage
vitality—Jane Jacobs 101—it actually had to draw
up a set of cartoons depicting normal urban activities (gallery openings! coffee bars!) to explain
the advantages of street life to a suspicious community. “People think storefronts encourage crime,”
Narisaranukul says with a shrug. “Lack of density
breeds a rural mentality,” Phillips says. “They
forget they’re in a city.”
At this point I can’t say whether Ludeman’s
inexperience as a developer will turn out to be
an asset or a liability, but his lack of cynicism is
certainly refreshing. And Phillips has what seems
to be a realistic perspective of the scheme: “It’s
not about profitability but about getting the darn
thing done.” I like the fact that they’re going to
build the first two houses and “do forensics” on
them, and only then will they expand and put up a
Web site that would allow future buyers to pick
a model from the stock program. I also like that
this is about houses, not housing. After all, maybe
the way to tackle those 25,000 vacant lots is to fill
them the s°ame way they were created, one house at a time. #
