MoseleyATL's Profile

As a an avid and longtime reader of AT, I have to chime in. This post only reminds me of how little fact checking is done by blogs. You see, I'm not only the co-designer (along with M. Scott Ball) of the house in question, but I was also the homeowner and the person standing in the doorway above.

While our friend Todd Dominey has every right to make comments about the house, I would invite him to go back and read the September 2003 issue of Dwell before he makes uninformed assumptions about the designs original intent or casts dispersions at the staff of Dwell (fyi, Jeannette Hodge-Abbink was the creative director at the time, and on site for the entire shoot).

As our GC on the project was the Community Housing Resource Center in Atlanta (chrcatlanta.org), there were limitations on what was to be finished out, and what was to be subcontracted. If Mr. Dominey were to read the article, he would be reminded that the house was designed and built in phases as a case study on sustainable, cost effective design. $32 per square foot doesn't allow for a ton of 'polish'. The plan was to do the bare minimum of construction and finish work, allowing me to secure a certificate of occupancy and move in. Then, the house would be finished as my budget and time allowed. If Mr. Dominey had done his research, he would have realized that the only subcontractors on the entire house were Electrical, Plumbing and Concrete/foundation. Every other OUNCE of work done was done by myself, CHRC staff, or our beloved interns from the Design/Build Studio at Southern Tech.

With regards to the exterior opening wall, after several iterations of front elevations, it didn't fit quite as we had hoped. It is in fact, two SIPs scissored together by hand on site. Structurally Insulated Panels weren't made to do that. Sorry they weren't snug, Todd. So when it came time to actually live in the house, I went to Home Depot and bought off the rack pipe insulation. The "gray, sponge-like, and in long strands" material he saw that "upon inspection, it appeared to be some type of insulation you'd pick up at a place like Home Depot" was truly that. Very astute of Mr. Dominey to recognize it as such.

I personally apologize to Dominey for not being a better at setting tile. I regret that the light fixture I fabricated and he referred to as having "a paper cup for a shade" (it was a plastic cup, thank you very much) wasn't to his liking. But believe it or not, Dwell once -and dare I say they seem to have found their way out of the dark- cared about design on a budget. Handmade light fixtures, "misaligned windows" and railing made from electrical conduit (sorry Todd, city permits didn't require me to remove the barcode) allowed me to close on a 2000 sf house with a 1000 sf basement 5 miles from downtown Atlanta for approx $100k in construction cost.

Am I taking this a bit personally? Sure. I would say Dominey's comments border on careless. Has he spoken to M. Scott Ball or myself? Did he reach out to Dwell? Was Dominey there the day of the shoot? Does he know that in 2003 Dwell went out of their way to use photographers that did not specialize in architecture so they could avoid the 'design mag' look? Does he know that Mark Steinmetz is renowned for black and white fine art portraits? This was by no means over-stylized Architectural Digest tripe.

How about that writer Donovan Finn and I are old friends and we stumbled upon some good luck to get the story in Dwell to begin with? Does he really know what went down the day of the shoot? I was asked to call 2 friends over during the middle of the day to add 'life'. They made me clean the house. Abbink bought a Twister mat. And oh yeah, I had to cut the grass and put the cat upstairs (he made the article of course).

How's that for 'corporate media'?

PS - The house sold today. Thanks, Todd.