Arthur Dallas Stenger first began building homes in the 1940s in Austin, mostly on Arthur Lane in the Barton Hills area, which was named after his father (the first Arthur Dallas Stenger), who was also an architect. Though Stenger attended architecture school at the University of Texas after returning home from World War II, he never graduated. He did get his architecture license as an undergraduate, and began building homes for post war Austinites.

Though FHA loans had design restrictions built into them, it didn’t stop Stenger from creating unique homes that were moderately priced, even if he had to help the homeowners find loans. He also worked differently from other builders, by purchasing land (mostly in the Barton Hills and Pemberton Heights areas), finding a buyer, and building a home without making his clients sign contracts. There was no pressure for the buyer to take the house upon completion, though clients rarely backed out after seeing the home.

A Stenger home will stand out, with signature low peaked roofs, clad with concrete, wood rock and other organic materials. He also used rock and stone quarried from the home site as siding or built into the fireplace, helping the house fit easily within its surroundings. Stenger had a love for long, low slung fireplaces reminiscent of 50s lounges, so every home he built included a wood burning fireplace, though not particularly necessary in the heart of Texas.

The houses also have many of the amenities that Austin’s big modern building boom now cherish, with walls of windows and clerestory windows hanging just below the exposed roofline, and tinted concrete floors, now pricing out around 10 dollars a square foot. He also used the organic building theory of “bringing the outside in,” by running exterior stonework through the house and into its interior.

Though Barton Hills was featured as “the world’s largest air-conditioned subdivision” in the 1956 Parade of Homes, Stenger didn’t build his homes with central air. Instead, he built large windows to catch morning light, and not the hot sun light of mid afternoon, and a floor plan to allow for a breezy pass through ventilation when the windows were opened.

In 1957, when Stenger’s friend, radio host John Henry Faulk, ended up blacklisted as a communist in the McCarthy era, he built and financed a home for him, knowing his friend was swamped with legal fees. He took his other clients financial situations into account as well, helping offset furniture costs with several built ins, and pricing his houses between $18,000 and $22,000, though today they can range from $400,000 to $600,000.

Stenger built around 100 unique homes in the Austin area, building his last for his wife Jean in 1999, a few years before he died in 2002 at the age of 82. Today’s battle lies between those seeking out Stenger houses for their originality and great use of space, and others who prefer to tear down these houses to build larger homes, since the locations are highly sought after for their land alone.

By: Ki Gray

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When building your own custom home, perhaps the biggest problem people have to face is getting finances for starting and finalizing the project. This implies purchasing the piece of land, paying the architect for the plan, purchasing the tools and construction materials you need, taking into consideration the design issues and so on.

The best, but not the happiest way for someone to obtain finances for these types of projects is a loan. It’s not music to your ears, but, still, it’s the best possible way when you need lots and lots of money quickly. There are loaners who offer finance possibilities for building custom homes, but they have severe rules when helping you building your own custom home by offering you the money you need for this.

The disadvantages for this are quite worth to be taken into consideration: they want the house to be completed in time and on budget. A very good solution for you in order to get rid of the extra cost issues that appear on the run is to go for a construction cost estimation solution. This way, you will know exactly how much money you need and what quantity of construction materials is required. Although this can be a bit costly, it’s very efficient when building a home with a fixed sum of money – the one that the lender offers you.

Should you have a bank account with some saved money, it’s not very wise from you to spend it all on building up the house. You have to struggle to keep the price score down so as to finalize the project successfully. Remember that there are registered a few custom home construction disasters due to the lacking finances for project completion. So, analyze all the offers lenders have on the custom home construction loans and then take the wisest decision.

By: Iuliana Vornicu

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One of the biggest myths of modern modular home building technology is that you cannot design a modular modular home with distinctive, custom architectural style. The myth goes on to claim that modular homes are boxy and designed alike. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. My experience with one rather demanding client and their newly designed custom home, specifically crafted by their architect with modular technology easily debunks this myth.

As a builder of fine housing, both site built and modular built, I see many homes that are built without regard for architectural style. Some of these homes may be modular, yet others are conventionally built houses, often referred to as stick-built houses. Certainly, when critics view stick-built houses that lack architectural appeal, they simply blame the architect. However, when critics view modular homes that lack architectural appeal, they seem to overly generalize the modular housing industry and conclude that somehow, the factory engineering or manufacturing process restricts architectural style.

I typically see architects employ the following features to design beautiful homes of distinction:
• creative and interesting floor plans
• distinctive roof lines
• steep roof pitches
• off-center gables and/or reverse gables
• rafter tails
• exterior elevations with angular bump outs
• boxed windows
• natural stone
• wood siding
• highly detailed trim

To de-bunk the myth, proof must be offered that enough of these features can be designed within modular parameters.

Our clients’ architect first met with my partner and me to learn the general design and engineering parameters employed by the manufacturer. We spent approximately four hours reviewing modular dimensions and design parameters that would not only guide the architectural design but assure the design would be the most cost efficient. Armed with this information, the clients and their architect retreated into design sessions. After about six weeks, we received a call from the client requesting us to re-assemble to review the architect’s preliminary designs.

To our pleasant surprise, the architect’s design was both beautiful and efficient. The main house will contain in excess of 5,000 square feet; there will be an attached pool house, also to be built with modular technology. The architect used the modular configurations to create a very custom floor plan on the interior and exterior. On the interior, marriage walls were cleverly integrated into closet areas, hallways and service areas. Nine foot finished ceiling heights have been specified for the first floor, which will be built in the factory. The master bedroom will have a cathedral ceiling. On the exterior, the architect incorporated off-center roof ridges with rafter tails. The factory will build the roof ridges to the architect’s specifications, and we will simply add the rafter tails on site, as the house is set. To create a truly distinctive architectural style, one that would highly complement the roof lines, the architect specified casement windows for the front of the house, with many transom windows. There are numerous bump outs and bay windows; some will be installed during the factory manufacturing process, while others will be installed by us on site. The architect will be specifying stone and cedar-like exterior materials, all of which we will install on site.

Now to ask, has this myth been busted? Having seen the finished plan, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the architect has crafted an architectural style worthy of the term “custom”. Further proof has been the many compliments we routinely receive from other prospective clients that view these house plans. The architect is looking forward to his next custom design with our modular technology, as are we looking forward to again, supporting his next custom design. So, I guess you can say this myth has been busted: one can design a modular home with distinctive, custom architectural style!

By: Richard Wojewodzki

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