Ruhl Walker Architects

The custom prefab house we designed in Lincoln is nearing completion, and the owners are getting excited about moving out of their temporary apartment and into their new, sun-filled dream house! The cedar tongue and groove siding looks fantastic; it has a temporary protective coating and will be stained in the spring after studying some color options. There is a lot of frantic activity inside also, with the quarter sawn red oak flooring being finished this week, tile and trim almost complete, the stainless steel cable railings being installed, and the Pedini kitchen getting final adjustments.

Drawing, designing, and dreaming are all gratifying aspects of being an architect, but we also really love when the projects we’ve designed begin actual construction. That is after all the primary goal of what we do all day in the studio! We work with some fantastic general contractors, and working closely with them until the day our clients move in is an exciting, collaborative process. Check out the projects below, and we’ll keep posting updates in the coming weeks.

The renovation of this Boston rowhouse includes opening up the middle for a dramatic, three-story living space, with natural light eventually pouring down from a large skylight above.

A couple we met when we designed new faculty housing at St. Mark’s School in Southborough, MA, asked us to design a small addition to their two-room house in the Berkshires. The new space will provide additional living space as well as a bedroom and bathroom; the existing house with only an open sleeping loft, lacked the kind of privacy needed with older children. The flat roof of the addition is accessed from an exterior stair tower, and will eventually have a railing around it for small rooftop gatherings for star-gazing and enjoying views extending deep into Vermont.

A view of a steel stair above the front entrance of a new house in Lincoln. The stair treads and partial risers will be solid red oak, and the stair landing will have red oak flooring and red oak veneered plywood below.

Major earthwork is evident at this substantial renovation project in Chelmsford. Here you see the beginnings of an excavation that will become a landscaped garden and terrace cut into the ground in order to bring daylight into new lower level living spaces. Natural light is so critical! Only small parts of the existing house will remain untouched when the project is finished later this year.

We are really excited about several new projects in the early stages of design, including new houses, two new lofts, and a master plan for a small school in northern New Hampshire. We will share some more information about each of these projects in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, check out the images and information below.

We are thrilled to be able to update you all on the progress being made at our modern custom prefab house in Lincoln, MA. All of the double height windows are installed at the two-storey-high living room and stair hall, eight 6×6 steel columns have been carefully inserted around the double height spaces, the Nanawall doors are installed between the dining room and screened porch, the roof and skylights are complete and water tight, and there has been a ton of plumbing, electrical, HVAC (geothermal), and listening room work performed inside. Exterior siding will start being installed this week, so everyone is hoping for continued un-seasonably-warm weather, and looking forward to the green zip-system sheathing to be covered in cedar! FOMA (Friends of Modern Architecture in Lincoln) should be pleased that the house is suitably modern, as they required during permitting; how wonderful (and unusual!) for a town to take a stand against cookie-cutter-McMansions! Check out the photos below, and let us know what you think!

In 2007, Ruhl Walker Architects was hired to design six faculty houses for St. Mark’s School in Southborough, MA, prevailing over three architectural firms with much deeper portfolios of previous institutional work.  We may have been the most surprised of anyone, but our decades of experience designing environmentally responsible single family houses, our initial concept that attempted to design not just a few small houses but also a coherent landscape and campus strategy, and our unusual design team – which included the prefabricator, Empyrean, as well as our “green” mechanical engineer, Sergio Siani of Norian / Siani, whose practice was all about sustainable design before such a thing existed in the press – managed to win the day .  How else was someone going to meet St. Mark’s “impossible” schedule – less than a year for design and construction – and “impossible” budget, without a prefabricator on board from day one?  And sustainability is a key element of the Head of School’s mandate to transform the 150+ year old campus. We embarked on this “impossible” project with open minds, and thanks to our fabulous team as well as an excellent general contractor – Cutler Associates of Worcester, MA – a super Owner’s Rep – Lee Sollenberger of Design Technique of Newburyport, MA – and a decisive Building Committee, were able to finish the project (see on our portfolio website) under budget and several months early.

As the faculty houses were being completed, St. Mark’s was also embarking on an ambitious master planning process. The planning goals included further campus consolidation and sustainability initiatives, in particular upgrading their main campus building, a meandering structure dating back to 1866 that includes classroom and administrative space, a chapel, dining and cooking facilities, dorm rooms, and faculty apartments.  In order to be able to begin renovating and upgrading the existing living spaces without reducing the size of the student body or number of faculty, additional faculty and student housing had to be built elsewhere on campus.  A previously undeveloped site within an existing row of faculty houses was identified, and the decision was made to reassemble our team to design a new two-family faculty house.  Due to the small size of the project, the decision was made to do the mechanical design as a design/build effort, but Rebecca Bachand of UBLA joined us again for the landscape design. 

The schedule we were presented was substantially tighter than the first project, along with an even more challenging budget.  So this time around, we decided to pursue custom modular construction rather than panelized construction, so that we could have the living spaces fabricated over the winter in a factory while site work was being completed, and this decision proved to be fortunate as we accumulated historic quantities of snow. Last week the eight modules were delivered to the site by Simplex Homes just as the local general contractor was putting the finishing touches on the foundation.  The modules came complete with all windows, interior wall finish and trim, rough and finish electrical and plumbing, kitchen and bath cabinetry, essentially everything except exterior siding and interior flooring. And we are on schedule to have the units ready for move-in by June.

Here are some images from the module “set”:

Module #2 being craned into place, including the kitchen and half bath.	Module #5 being set onto first floor module #1.
Module #6 being set onto 2nd floor, unfortunately backwards…	Module #2 just before being removed and turned 180 degrees…
Module #2, with kitchen on left and stair in the middle.	Prepping for Module #7 and #8.
Nor’easter blowing through a week after the set.

This house started as a substantial renovation of an existing 50′s vintage modern house in Lincoln, MA.  Because the original program included a large laundry list of renovations to the existing house systems, once we began working with general contractors on a budget for the renovation project it became clear that the cost of renovating was going to be comparable to the cost of building a new house.  In the interest of making as energy efficient a house as possible, maximizing long term value for the owners, and minimizing short term disruption to the owners, the decision was made to pursue a new house on the existing foundation, with the new house being built by a modular prefabricator for substantial time and cost savings. Both of the owners write software and manage companies from home, so minimizing disruption is critically important; pursuing modular construction will help minimize the time the owners will have to be out of their house during construction.  The basement level will be reconfigured to accommodate a new, expanded garage, an exercise room, mudroom, wood working shop, bathroom, and mechancial and storage rooms.  The main level will have a large, open living / dining room, screened porch with fireplace, enlarged kitchen with pantry, master suite, guest bedroom, and south-facing courtyard / roof deck.  On an upper level will be an A/V room, a large home office, and a bathroom. During the Permitting process, a group called Friends of Modern Architecture in Lincoln was consulted by the Town, to make sure that the modern house that was being partially demolished would be replaced with a suitably contemporary replacement, and we of course passed the test.  The house will be prefabricated by Haven Homes and site fabricated by Sea Dar Construction of Boston.  Landscape design will be by Matthew Cunningham. The house is currently in design, with shop drawings being prepared by Haven Homes, and custom interior and exterior detailing by Ruhl Walker Architects. Construction is expected to be completed by October.

Digital model image of the new house, built on the existing foundation.	Digital model image of east elevation with zen garden.
Building section showing steel stair, perforated stair wall, and living room fireplace.	Wall at stair.
Landscape plan by Matthew Cunningham.	Inspiration for landscape elements.
The existing home.