JEREMIAH ECK
Four principles
For nearly 20 years, Boston architect Jeremiah Eck has taught classes and preached against poorly designed and sited houses. But it wasn’t until Eck and his wife had to search for a new home about three years ago that reality struck.
Eck said he was “amazed” how many homes, especially those built within the last 20 to 30 years, lacked character and the design elements that make them livable and distinctive.
After searching for about a year, Eck purchased an older home in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Newton that he felt had “nice spaces.”
“It was unique. It was sited well. It had some shapes that on the exterior reflected the interior,” said Eck, who gutted the home but saved the basic structure.
His home and about 50 others are featured in the pages of Eck’s book, “The Distinctive Home: A Vision of Timeless Design.”
Published by The Taunton Press, the book features houses designed by American and Canadian residential architects that Eck believes reflect the four principles that make a distinctive house. In his book, Eck writes that such houses strike a balance between site, floor plan, exterior elements and the details.
“The principles actually are not just for architects. They’re for builders and homeowners as well,” he said.
“I’m trying to reintroduce the language that I think used to be [the] predominant language” years ago, he said.
In an interview in his Boston office last week, Eck emphasized that while those principles are not new and were not invented by him, fewer homebuilders today pay attention to them. The architect explained that it’s easier, and often less expensive, for builders to ignore good architectural design.
Most houses today are built without the input of an architect, agreed Elizabeth S. Padjen, an architect and editor of ArchitectureBoston, a bimonthly magazine. “The housing industry has become just that – it’s an industry. So design choices are made for a variety of reasons that ultimately may not be in the best interest of the homebuyer,” she said.
But Eck’s book shows that “there’s more to making a good house,” and that a house is an expression of someone’s “personal aspirations” and values, said Padjen.
The book shows homebuyers that their choices are “not limited to the neo-Victorian McMansions that are being provided by the housing industry,” she added.
“The importance of this book is that it lets people understand that they have choices in terms of houses that they want to build or buy,” said Padjen. “It [Eck’s book] tells people that there are options and choices and it gives people the models for them.”
‘Simple Rules’
Released earlier this year, Eck’s book comes at a time when the architect’s role has diminished nationally in the design and construction of houses. Some 1.5 million single-family homes were built in the United States last year, and during the last three decades more than 50 percent of all single-family housing has been built.
“There are an extraordinary number of houses built every year, but architects are involved in a very, very tiny fraction of those houses,” said Eck.
“I think [architects are] no longer in the equation,” said Eck. “I think … builders, bankers and brokers basically control the process of building a house today. And for better or for worse, we have given up on some of these simple rules that I think would make for better houses.”
Many homeowners also don’t understand the value of using an architect when building or a renovating a house. “I don’t think people know what architects can do for them,” he said.
“How is it we can put half a million dollars or three-quarters of a million dollars into something that we don’t know anything about, except the fact that some broker says we ought to buy it?” said Eck. “I’m not blaming anybody for that. I just think we ought to be more aware of it. It just seems to me it makes good common sense.”
Even groups that are supposed to represent the interests of architects haven’t paid a tremendous amount of attention to residential architecture. That’s starting to change, according to Eck, and his book is one sign of a shifting focus.
Eck’s book is the first book published in a new joint imprint series by the American Institute of Architects and The Taunton Press, which publishes magazines like Fine Homebuilding and Fine Gardening.
“The AIA, finally after all this time, is beginning to take the issue of ‘house’ seriously,” said Eck. “For years, they catered to the members that were commercial and institutional architects. Meanwhile, 80 percent of all the members of American Institute of Architects are firms of five and under. Most of those firms do residential work, but they didn’t seem to pay much attention to it.”
Locally, the Boston Society of Architects is also starting to look more closely at residential architecture, according to Eck, who will give a talk about residential architecture at a BSA-sponsored event this fall at the Boston Public Library. He also will speak at the society’s annual BuildBoston expo.
In recent months, Eck has traveled to Seattle, San Diego and Spokane to promote his book and “preach the word.”
The book features houses, contemporary and traditional, from all around the country. About a third of the houses featured were designed by Eck and the rest were designed by architects whose homes, Eck says, “we all like to live in.”
“That’s the whole point here: Are these houses we’d like to live in? In the end, this is about making comfortable houses and nothing else,” he said.
Most of the architects included in the book have helped Eck teach a course that he leads every summer at Harvard University. So far, 25,000 copies have been sold and the book is headed into its second printing.
Eck has spent most of his 20-year career focused on residential work. His firm, Jeremiah Eck Architects, focuses mostly on residential architecture and private school work. Of the residential work, 60 percent is new construction, while the rest is renovation work. His firm has designed homes in 13 states, mostly on the East Coast.
Recently, when Eck spoke at a builders’ meeting, he was disappointed by the attitudes of some in the industry.
“[Builders are] so wrapped up in production and how to get it done quickly,” said Eck. “The speaker before me actually said to the audience, ‘Don’t give your homeowners too many options because the more options you give them the more time it will take and the less money you will make.’ And I thought to myself, I wish all the homeowners in the world could be here and hear this guy talk.”
Eck said he felt “a little sad for the builders” because it seems like they have “lost their capacity to be craftsmen.”
But Eck pointed out that he has seen “marvelous” homes built by master builders, not architects.
“I really believe that we need to sort of cross the chasm between this extraordinary number of houses that are built each year and the number that are actually well designed. I’m not going to argue that this is just about architects. It’s really for all of us.”
