Many years ago a scroll of rough sketches came over my then new thermo fax. After the first glance I stopped breathing. It was an awesome structure with a roof system more intricate and complex than anything we had ever done – hips and valleys, intersections and skews. As soon as I resumed breathing, I […]

First day of class 1971, Architectural Drawing I, 9th graders At the beginning of my introductory lecture I asked if anyone knew what one could expect to spend for a new home (at the time $26,000 or so). The quick responders were all within $6,000 of the mark. Then Clay Ammon (name not changed to […]

Over the past forty years I’ve built on average one house per decade for myself. Actually, the fourth house was for a client whom I managed to persuade to marry me before I was finished with the design phase. I built each house fully believing that I would live in it forever — or at […]