11/02/10 – Los Angeles – Large Single Family >2500 sqft

February 11th, 2010 | 14 Comments

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Visit the Nominees for the Slowest townhouse in Los Angeles

Hartsbrook @ Parkview Meadows – Residence 2 by Lennar Homes
The Mondrian Project by Lee Homes
Residence 1 @ Carillon in San Clemente by Standard Pacific Homes

Jenny

I voted for the Carillon in San Clemente. While all these homes seem a bit ludicrous in size and I’m not overly comfortable with that, I liked what this one was doing with the little courtyard and making use of the hallway upstairs etc. It actually looked like an architect had been involved in its design. That master bathroom though, wow, I am sure it is about the same size as my living room.
Jenny

John/Matthew,

I just wanted to get some clarification on your approach to orientation. Generally in Sydney we try an get all our main living areas facing north (remember the sun is in the other half of the sky for us) with appropriate eaves/pergolas/landscaping/awnings etc. to provide the necessary shading in summer but still allow winter sun in. We try to get blank walls where appropriate on the western side and services etc. towards the south. I always think that eastern sun in a bedroom and kitchen can be nice but that’s just me.

In listening to some of your analysis of the plans you seem to be steering people away from having living areas facing south. Is this considered to be way too hot or can it be managed.

Any comments would be gratefully received.

Cheers,

Jenny
jim baer

matthew

my bad… i realized this morning that one of the restaurant rows is SMITH street, not Court…. :-(
BradW

I think many people engaged on this site have a strong philosophical bias against large houses. To help you overcome this, imagine you are a defense lawyer, you know your client is probably guilty but you are ethically bound to defend him/her to the best of your ability. My client this week was Donald Trump and I still think his houses in that unsurpassed location are the best by far – certainly better than this sorry lot of nominations! :)

Anyway, seriously, to the voting.

The Hartsbrook floor plan does not match the exterior facade. Frankly, I cannot believe this was nominated…John what the heck were you thinking.

The Mondrian is a fine project in a good location. I had seen it a few weeks ago and considered submitted it in the small homes < 2500 sqft category. And that is the problem here – it just isn't big enough to explore large home issues.

The Carillon in San Clemente is quintessentially Californian. The courtyard organization gives the house a warm intimate feel. It gets my vote but with reservations – the dining room location is odd – it would make a better study – and my preference is not to walk through the ensuite to get to the master closet.

I must admit I was disappointed in the nominations this week. No real compelling stories.
BradW

BTW – check out yesterday’s late postings – some nice designs

Paul C – I agree – it was great to see the hand drawn plans
Paul C

John,
The Lennar Home “plan” is clearly different from the exterior and photos posted for residence 2 as noted by Brad W. As well, I guestimate the size of the plan shown to be in the 1700-1900 sq.ft. range, not over 2500.
Mid America Mom

HI jenny I am on my way out… but LA is in a hot part of the states and south orient is where we get the most heat gain. So the suggestion is to get away from windows there or to shade them (which looking at all these LA plans- looks not to be done). Hope that helps. For those of us in colder climates like Canada we WANT the south sun in the northern hemisphere.

Hope that helps!
MollyK

Anyone looking for information on Orientation of Res.1 @ Carillon can find a lot on the web site. Once you are on the web page click on “Location” (on the left). It will bring up a map in the right-hand corner. You can choose several views, including a satellite image of a lot which I assume is representative of the Orientation for this house.
Paul C

Jenny,
In short, the enlightened approach you describe vice vie addressing solar orientation (eaves, pergolas etc) is the same “up” here, except essentially reversed.
MollyK

Did my own analysis of nominees and, like BradW and Paul C, was concerned about the discrepancy with Hartsbrook (Lennar Homes). The plan is quite nice (my own score of 16) but doesn’t seem to meet 2500 sq ft qualification. I’m not willing to risk the vote.
Mondrian (Lee Homes) was misleading (my own score of 13). The chosen house (on the end lot) is facing the “park”–it’s a recreational park with a baseball and soccer field. The area on the site plan says “park” so I assumed something more scenic and was wrong. The home’s orientation (end lot remember) will get intense SW sun in the afternoon on the principle living areas. No trees or other houses to block it based on site plan. Even with the staircase acting as a divider (per John) I do not like the circulation pattern and the entries are not good. There is no dining room–the space designated as dining is not big enough to be considered a nook. Any table placed there would be directly in the circulation path. There were good features like the flex room w/terrace and good sized bedrooms and baths. Living area nice as well. Kitchen triangle not so good but otherwise nice layout.
BradW, I want you to know I forced myself to look at Carillon (Standard Pacific)without supersize bias and found that I scored it a 20! You really have to look at it functionally and aesthetically. It is certainly southern California–some far-out paradise. Its Orientation based on the lot site provided on the website revealed that the SW heat would not hit the bedrooms or principle living areas with any lasting effect. Living area is large BUT allows for 2 seating areas. Bedrooms were not oversized, except maybe for master closet. The master bath was good–consider the tub dividing two work zones like an island does in a kitchen. Only a couple of problems: HATED location of dining room but the room itself met the criteria (see the small print under Dining on SlowHome Test); and concerned about the frequency of use of the Casita and having to go outside to get inside the main house.
Based on my walk-through of the plans Carillon gets my vote (with reservations too).
My frustration is finding good floorplans without any site/location information and feeling slighted when the score comes up short. Felt like my entries from LivingHomes ended up that way even when I admitted I took liberties with the Orientation score. Wonder what we’ll find in Toronto?!
Terri

I agree with MollyK’s assessment of these plans. The Carillon does seem the most liveable (plus it’s definitely over 2500 SF when the other two are close to not being that size–Mondrian advertises up to 2600SF and Hartsbrook doesn’t look any larger).
I don’t like some features of Carillon either. The dining room location seems absurd to me, but the Great Room is so large it could easily fit a dining table at the kitchen end and have seating for the living across the way, with room to spare. The upstairs front bedroom has a strange arrangement for the walk-in closet, IMO, I think it could have been better placed on the bathroom side of the room.

However, I couldn’t vote for it because I looked at the satellite image of the neighbourhood, and even if someone works in that general area, there’s going to be a lot of driving to just get there. That area if full of housing subdivisions, house after house on cul de sacs–all over the countryside–the kind of arrangement that (to me) screams FAST. How walkable is this place? I’m talking about evenings and weekends now…That kind of place seems extremely unwalkable to me. Unless you like looking at nothing but houses and cars.

The Mondrian, at least, seems to offer some kind of central spaces between the houses (isn’t that what those yellow ovals are?–correct me if I’m wrong, please). Sure, that may be a ball park next to the place, but that could be a good thing–get people out either playing or watching the Great American Game.

All in all, these are all not very inspiring homes to vote on, though.
Mid America Mom

The Lennar does seem small but just maybe they are just square footage… I bet if we look in another market area for them – we will see the same plan.

The Lee homes is quite interesting and I like it much but that entry just bugs me. I admit have this aversion to a raised ranch aka/ 2 floor split levels.

The last plan so outdoor feeling. That nook looks tight and if I think of that dining as a DEN then I like the plan much more.

Will be interesting….
Mid America Mom

What I will say is that I like this line up better than last week, more in line as to what they are doing in that market area. Those last week were too small except the one at 1800. And these are mass builders- those, I think we all agree, need the most slow home help and if a decent plan the most encouragement ;)
MollyK

Terri,
Went back and checked my walkscore for Carillon. It was wrong which drops 3 points off my total putting it a 17. I’m actually relieved…I didn’t want to accept that such a big house with a BIG footprint could be THAT slow! What a relief! Glad I read your comments so carefully.