Architects need to bring quality design to the masses

NO CUTTING CORNERS: Andreozzi Architects owner David Andreozzi says that the wrong decision on an architect can  hurt your home’s resale value. / COURTESY VISKO HATFIELD
NO CUTTING CORNERS: Andreozzi Architects owner David Andreozzi says that the wrong decision on an architect can hurt your home’s resale value. / COURTESY VISKO HATFIELD

Barrington Architect David Andreozzi wants his profession to get beyond the focus on “starchitects,” trophy homes and massive institutional projects. The Rhode Island native wants to bring quality design principles to a larger part of the population that may not realize its value. So Andreozzi is leading a group of fellow architects in the national Custom Residential Architects Network – part of the American Institute of Architects – in an effort to communicate the value of what they do for clients.
In a series of online videos and through a YouTube channel, Andreozzi hopes to refocus the public, and perhaps those within his profession, on what makes residential architects important.

PBN: It looks like the American Institute of Architects is repositioning itself – is what your group doing reflective of this shift?
ANDREOZZI: Rather than being an organization that everyone looks to to provide information from the top down, they realized they actually have to create people and fraternities at the grassroots to build content and build it up from the bottom. I spent the first 10 years of my professional life with a real disconnect from the AIA. I paid dues to have the initials next to my name, but as a residential architect I received little support. Around 10 years ago a movement started and we said there is an opportunity to do something for ourselves. It started with the Congress of Residential Architecture, people started talking in symposiums and we said we need to educate people and architects on the importance of good design. … We started this group called CRAN [Custom Residential Architects Network] and within six years we have become one of the most robust knowledge communities in the AIA.

PBN: So is there really a deep divide in architecture between the residential and institutional-commercial people? ANDREOZZI: The interesting paradox is 86 percent of architects do some residential architecture. … Large organizations were driving all the commercial content, while the majority are residential architects. We boarded the ship and have taken hold and are slowly clawing our way up.

PBN: So what is the central message you are hoping to convey with CRAN in general and these videos specifically?
ANDREOZZI: People who are adding on or remodeling think, «constant ****SSLq»Oh I’ll just go to the kitchen designer down the street.’ But if you make a bad decision, you may hurt your home’s resale value and lose your nest egg. When you need surgery, you go to a doctor and when you are in legal trouble, you go to an attorney. When you are making an investment or decisions about the resale value of your house, you need to go to an architect who is going to add to or protect your investment. It is not about choosing a rock star who is going to be a famous architect and get you an award. And it is not about getting your house in a magazine.

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PBN: Do you see more people looking to design-build shops or thinking they can do it themselves with a contractor?
ANDREOZZI: One of the problems with technology is it has become easier for people to make design decisions and take on that burden of risk themselves and not realize they are doing it. It is not the same as doing surgery on yourself, but it is almost like going to someone who doesn’t have a medical degree, but is cheaper. With technology it is easy for a basement draftsmen or kitchen designer to say “I can do that.” People don’t understand an architect has to go to school for six years, has to have a three-year internship and then in my case I had to take a four-day exam. All of that has to occur before I can become an architect. … The argument is always that it costs more for an architect. Well that’s true but you never think about that when investing the money for a real estate agent, but it is the same analogy. PBN: Does this play at all into the discussion, like in many professions, of whether in the future there will be more architects or fewer and whether the industry will ever bounce back from the recession. Is there a sense of where the profession is headed?
ANDREOZZI: Well there is the whole economy issue – the economy of the Northeast and the economy of Rhode Island, which is so much worse than elsewhere – that I won’t even go into. But I think one of the things architecture has never been able to do is create architect-designed houses for the masses. Most of us as custom residential architects are designing for the 1-or-2 percent who want custom residential architecture. And that is a lot of people. But how can you then get good, designed architecture to the masses like the iPhone gets to the masses? … That is what I do think will change in the next two decades. How, I don’t know.

PBN: So, is this an example of things diverging post-war, where you had low-quality construction on the low end and then on the high end good quality but very expensive and opulent?
ANDREOZZI: Yes, this has been our thesis. You need to be building smaller with higher quality and that is where our ethos is. If you can afford $400,000 to $600,000, whatever your budget is, forget about the columns and forget about the oversized great rooms and bonus rooms. Think about the most efficient way you can live as a family and design idiosyncratic to your family and focus on the best quality possible. •INTERVIEW
David Andreozzi
POSITION: Owner of Andreozzi Architects
BACKGROUND: Son of a carpenter and contractor, Andreozzi discovered architecture while studying furniture design at Rhode Island School of Design. He started his first architectural practice in Pawtucket in 1988 and has since moved the office to Barrington.
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s in architecture from RISD, 1985
FIRST JOB: Working for his father on construction sites as a teenager
RESIDENCE: Bristol
AGE: 52

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