All summer long, first-year graduate students at the Yale School of Architecture have been blogging about their progress building an affordable, accessible owner-renter residence in New Haven. Next Monday we will post the final installment of the Building Project blog. Click here to read the entire series thus far—and, as always, leave your thoughts in the comments form below.

Photos: courtesy the Vlock First Year Building Project

Wow, the house looks great—what a lot can change in four weeks!

My reaction when I visited the Yale Vlock Building Project site early this week was one of surprise and enthusiasm. I am not a member of the crew working to finish the house over the summer, and have been away from the project since the end of June. I was impressed with what my industrious and exhausted classmates have been able to accomplish in the last month: siding, flooring, plywood sheathing, and dozens of details. One team designed and built custom cabinetry with the help of Breakfast Woodworks; it was ready and waiting to be installed when I visited. “Jimmy”—barely a rough concept when I left—has emerged in the fine points of the design: plywood sheathing details and the hotly debated choice of a bright red color for the exterior porch spaces. Read more…

Every Monday until August, first-year graduate students at the Yale School of Architecture are blogging about their progress building an affordable, accessible owner-renter residence in New Haven. Click here to read the previous posts.

My hammer-swinging experience previously being limited to the occasional bookshelf assembly and picture-hanger installation, I had little idea of what to expect when I arrived at the Yale Vlock Building Project site last Thursday afternoon. While building began last Monday, our class of 49 students is now divided into four construction teams, each working a different three-day, five-hour shift. And though I had spoken with other classmates about the progress made earlier in the week, including updates on the foundation and floor framing, I hadn’t actually visited since the groundbreaking ceremony, when excited neighborhood kids had monopolized the hardhats. Read more…