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Location: not sure, but there's a hell of a lot of water around here!
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The 3% more than likely pertains to custom designed/built homes. I've built a few, both here and in Monterey, where the cost of the design, plus engineer stamp and applicable permits/variances, would build you a very nice HPM prepackaged kit home in Hawaii.......
It's not really important to the topic, I know, but this statement confuses me.
Then who draws up blueprints?
All the tract homes here have architect drawings..... so I'm confused. Though there are tons of jokes about the architects not being cost conscious...... they design, and the contractor's have them take out all the expensive stuff.
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Land in Hawaii is extremely expensive, especially if you want a prime location. For that house in Manoa, the land alone is worth $900,000 (and it’s only ¼ of an acre). If you want a truly custom home you have to spend millions.
I have friends who have gorgeous homes in Lanikai and Portlock, but the vast majority of people can’t afford them.
With prices so high the fundamental law of real estate applies: Location, location, location. Buyers choose location first and then often have to skimp on design and construction.
The market in Hawaii is so unusual you can’t compare it to most places on the mainland. You’d have to look at other island communities like Martha’s Vineyard—another place where you’ll pay $1+ million for what many would consider a shack.
I wonder how many current Hawaiian architects can still draw by hand? When my parents planned their house, the architect sat with them at my grandparents kitchen table. Sketching right there every room, perspectives, draperies, furniture, garden, trees, the whole bit. They kept these sketches till today.
I can still draw by hand, but it will cost more since it takes longer so most folks opt for computer drawn plans. I'm not an architect, however, I'm merely a draftsperson. I would suspect many of the older architects can draw by hand and all architects/draftspeople should be able to since occasionally you have to correct or alter existing blueprints.
An architect designed home is drawn by someone who has gone to an architect's school and had an internship in the field before taking the architect test and getting an architect's license. It's very similar to the type of schooling that doctors go through. They have spent years learning about "design" and "Architect Designed" is their mantra. They are much more likely to follow style as opposed to function than a mere draftsperson. Generally cost is very low on their design criteria list and frequently their fee is a percentage of the finished cost of the structure so doing it inexpensively can actually cut into their profit. Some architects are ungawdly expensive and pay very little attention to what the homeowner actually wants. However, I think those are in the minority. I'd hope that most architects out there aren't so over the top about their personal style and will help the homeowners get the house they want at a cost they can afford. Although when choosing an architect, picking one you can work with and one who has a style you like does a lot to make the process work smoothly.
For less expensive construction, or if you already know what house you want, then you can use a draftsman (of whatever gender) and have the plans approved and signed by an architect or structural engineer. Sometimes architects will have a structural engineer sign off on parts of their drawings if they aren't sure about the strength required for that portion of the building.
For the actual printing of the blueprints, frequently these days they are just printed out on a big printer called a "plotter". AutoCad is one of the standard architectural drawing programs out there, although it's not an easy program to learn. A .pdf file can be printed and the paper size can be up to 3' x 4' although the Building Department is getting fussier about the size of drawings to be submitted. They now have a minimum size and the standard "full size" of printed blue prints is 2' x 3'.
I don't think they use the ammonia process for printing much anymore at all. That was what made blue blueprints, wasn't it? All the background would be blue with white lines on it with an ammonia process, wouldn't it? There was some sort of light sensitive paper that was used for a long time. You'd put the original on top of one of those sheets and it would go into a big machine and there would be light and then the print would come out as black lines on white. The originals would be pencil or ink on vellum or mylar. Vellum and mylar are translucent "papers", although mylar is actually plastic. For some purposes, they would use ink on starched linen. Land plats in Maui in the mid-80's was the last time I personally drew on starched linen. That was using a crowsquill nib dipped in an ink pot, too. Talk about archaic!
As for why the design of houses in Hawaii seems so bland, part of it might be the relative newness of housing in Hawaii. Prior to the 1800's there weren't that many houses in Hawaii that were all that durable. So, if you look around for structures built prior to 1800, there aren't going to be very many of them at all. Depending on where you're comparing it to, that could be a significant portion of the architectural landscape or not. So, we basically only have about 120 years or so of house styles in Hawaii and that's going to impact the "blandness" by lack of really old buildings sprinkled into the mix.
There is also a lack of a variety of building materials here to work with. Just because something was available on the mainland doesn't mean it was economically feasible for most folks to build with it here. So, houses tended to be similar to one another because they were built using similar materials. You also had the same construction crew for many of the houses. Other than the lack of good stone, there's a lack of good stone masons around here so there's very little stone architecture, etc. etc. There's some on Oahu made with coral blocks, I'm sure the EPA would go nuts if you tried doing that today.
We also have a society which values fitting in, so there will be social pressures not to build something outre.
There is also now the Building Code which requires certain things which can lead to a similarity of construction.
If you want different construction, there's always Puna, though. So maybe "blandness" in Hawaii architecture depends on your location.
Maybe others like hotcatz, jung and other longtime ol' farts of hawaii can testify that yes maybe home architecture in hawaii is boring but that wasn't the case with other buildings from earlier times. For those who remember Hawai'i has a rich history and reputation in the past regarding the designs and splendor of her Movie Houses. Some come to mind, the toyo, waikiki 3, the Hawaii just to name a few.
Heres some pictures of the toyo. The waikiki 3 and others you can find online.
I think the good news for Oahu at least - is the 22 planned new towers in Kakaako - otherwise, it is sort of a bland area and needs some rejuvenation. 6 towers approved so far - much more to come. Finally.
An architect designed home is drawn by someone who has gone to an architect's school and had an internship in the field before taking the architect test and getting an architect's license. It's very similar to the type of schooling that doctors go through.
This made me laugh. Reminds me of the In-N-Out commercial: "It takes longer to become a manager of an In-N-Out than it does to become a doctor."
Why are there no In-N-Outs in Hawaii? I'd much rather have an In-N-Out than exciting architecture.
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