Sept. 16, 2008 – Evolution 101

One of the joys of the design/build philosophy and a strong relationship with a client is the living nature of the work; meaning the creative process is unshackled, communication is rich and the project is free to evolve as the process unfolds.
So it went this month with my young friends Katie and Colleen and their Ithaca treehouse.

Some time spent admiring a new house being built near their Ithaca home triggered new dreams for Katie and Colleen, and then meant some time back at the design table.

Beginning early last summer, Katie, Colleen and I met, talked and toured several times to explore what they might want in a treehouse. We drew pictures, took pictures and piled up pages of notes on everything from mood to materials. I left an idea wall up in their house for a while, with drawings of several variations from several views as well as a clipboard for more sketches and ideas. Watching people begin to believe they can make what they can imagine is a wonderful part of the process.
By summer’s end we had a good idea of where we were going, and a set of drawings to go with that vision. We sent those plans out to the Charley Greenwood, our consulting engineer. In a few weeks he sent back his recommendations and prescriptions for a sound treehouse, and some ideas that added significant strength and versatility to the plan.
As you read in a previous entry to this blog (see Aug. 20, 2008 – Fresh look), Charley’s changes let us make to slight changes to the overall platform – expanding it about a foot on two sides and wrapping around two trunks that became part of the new support system. Not a lot of square footage, but a nice plus for feel and design freedom. That was a freedom that Katie and Colleen explored, and the new summer brought notions of not just a playhouse, but a house of their own in the trees. We talked for a while in July and early August as work was getting set to resume on their treehouse, then I produced some outlines of the revised structure that their dreams were brewing. I told them to think about materials and finish details – they both love to walk and drive around their hometown and take pictures of things they like – and we’d talk again once the platform was complete.
And so we did.

This newly constructed home on Ithaca's West Hill inspired new treehouse visions, and we took some time this month to add new elements to our design.

With a pair of big grins, the girls began the conversation with a question that makes every builder smile.
“What, exactly, is possible?” Katie asked.
I told them anything within the bounds of physics was worth a shot, and their smiles got broader.
It turned out their mom got a new car in the spring, one with a much higher seat position for the girls. On the family’s near daily drives into the City of Ithaca, they noticed a new house being built below the road and tucked into the hillside over Cayuga Lake. It wasn’t very large or very ornate, but the color and style caught the girl’s fancy and they’d been waiting to ask if I would take a look. The answer, of course, was “of course.”

We drove over on a rainy afternoon and looked at the new house from the streets above and below. The structure, a modest two-story mix of cape and cottage architecture, featured cedar siding, thick blue trim, dark brown architectural shingles and an entry porch the girls just loved. They adored the look from the gable ends, where the rake was wide and the shadows deep.
“Can it look like that,” Katie said, as Colleen, the older sister, nodded encouragement.
I told them it could look like anything they want, provided they could help me distil what they want out of what they see. We went back to their house, printed out some pictures, grabbed some pencils and started the distillation process.

After we talked about the best of what was and the best of what was wanted, a new outline of the Ithaca treehouse emerged.

What emerged wasn’t a wholesale undoing of the treehouse we planned a year ago and updated a few months back, just a rich redressing of the structure in the mood they loved from “their house,” with one important addition – we shifted the roofline to offer a single, long northern face and used that plane to create a new porch roof for the main entry. The longer and smoother roof should offer a cleaner profile to the winter winds that run from the northeast in this part of the country, just a fringe benefit of the change, and might even allow the addition of a skylight – if Katie’s and Colleen’s mom gives the nod of approval. Moving the roof over to cover the porch also allows us to frame the treehouse around one of the willow’s trunks, always a nice touch for a treehouse and the best of both worlds in this case since the tree gets to pop through the roof but remains outdoors and open to the weather, as it should be.
In then end, it’s not a whole lot of added materials and work, and finding and fleshing out the new vision just added a little time to the project. If the time is there to give, and everyone wants to spend it, that’s never a problem. One key to the design/build process is that design never ends until the building is done. It’s a philosophy that works exceptionally well with treehouses, and my last few weeks with Katie and Colleen re-enforced that point for me very firmly.
The big change comes when the first person crosses the bridge and enters the treehouse, and in the elevated excitement level for two girls who once again discovered they can create what they can dream.