ALB Designs
Designing for Quality of Life
By Tonya Poole
Long before Sarah Susanka's popular book The Not So Big House hit the shelves, licensed architect Anne Laird-Blanton, AIA, and her team at ALB Designs in San Rafael were hot on the trail of what they feel is the best approach to high-quality, timeless design: taking the time to get to know the often intimate details of her clients' lifestyles, preferences and the way they use each space in their home every day to create a design that complements and serves their lives without spending time and resources on unnecessary space.
"I'll sit down with each of my clients and ask them questions about how they use each room in their home," says Laird-Blanton. "I'll ask if the living room is really a place where the whole family congregates to watch TV, play games and just hang out together. Or is it a space that the adults use primarily for entertaining and conversation? Their answers give us insight into how to best design with their unique lifestyles in mind, and to make the room intuitively functional for that particular family."
The floor plan of this remodeled San Francisco Victorian flat is dramatically opened up, and yet storage is everywhere; custom Anegre cabinets, built-in window seats and bookshelf guard rails. (Photos courtesy of ALB Designs)
Questions like these are important to the team at ALB Designs' central vision - that a home can, and should, blend beauty, comfort and functionality without overstating itself and without wasting space otherwise devoted to little more than the "wow" factor popular in many custom homes today. The team believes that working together to develop a deep understanding of what the concept of home means to each client, how it fits into and enhances their daily lives and what they ultimately want most from living in it is the key to designing a space that makes the best possible use of every detail, every corner of a home.
"Livability is our most important focus," says Laird-Blanton. "If a project's ideals are grounded in grand space and square footage too large to be a practical use of space, it's not likely to be a good fit for us. We don't believe in expanding a home's square footage in ways that it won't be truly valuable."
A second-story addition, a new roof design and gabled bays transformed a 1950s subdivision box into an attractive home for a family of four. (Photos courtesy of ALB Designs)
Working primarily with a middle-income clientele, the team's projects range from very basic, tightly budgeted designs to more elaborate, finely detailed work designed with the same efficiency and value of space in mind. "We aren't serving the Bay Area's wealthiest clients," she says. "I'm happiest when I'm tackling the challenges of a small- or mid-range budget and coming up with some outstanding ideas for the best ways to use that. In the end, we use space and resources wisely to give them a home that doesn't look or feel like it was budgeted. And I absolutely love to see my clients delight in those results."
Laird-Blanton's love of residential architecture and its impact on quality of life goes back to her days in college, studying human services and later, architecture - to form a varied background that lends itself naturally to studying the way people live. Early experience working with community housing redevelopment projects in New Jersey and New York helped teach her how to use resources care- fully, and to design with the efficiencies of client lifestyles in mind. She later came to the Bay Area and worked with area architects on a variety of projects before opening her own practice in 1988, focusing on smart architectural design as an organic complement to the lives of her clients. "Few things can impact a life as fundamentally as the way their home feels and functions can," she says. "I knew I wanted to be a part of that."
A new residence in the Oakland hills takes advantage of Bay views and a gently sloping site with a contemporary craftsman design. (Photos courtesy of ALB Designs)
PARTNERSHIP BY DESIGN
Committed to working with contractors through an integrated, complementary team approach, Laird-Blanton and her team at ALB Designs strive to blend the "big picture" vision of architecture with the fine detailing of the building trades for what she believes creates a stronger, healthier home overall. They work together to form and maintain a relationship of mutual respect and value, both dedicated to the ultimate goal of client satisfaction and exchanging the knowledge, tools and ideas that help to shape the best possible results.
A small and elegant master bath is detailed with a glass counter, marble shower enclosure, glass tile tub surround and polished chrome accents. (Photos courtesy of ALB Designs)
"I encourage the contractors I'm working with to call me, or any of us here, so that we can move forward with solutions together," says Laird-Blanton. "The process is one of checks and balances - what they know helps me work more effectively, and what I know helps them do the same. Neither side has all the answers. We each have something important to learn from one another, and we each bring unique and valuable skills to our projects every day. By doing so, we're giving our clients every available resource, and that's how we earn, and keep, client trust. That's incredibly important."
To contact ALB Designs, call the office at (415) 457-2545, drop by the office at 10 G Street in San Rafael or visit them online at albdesigns.com
December 2005 Builder Architect Edition Issue
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