Design Vault Ep. 23 Private Residence with Ross Padluck
ABOUT THE ARCHITECT:
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Ross Padluck is a Partner at Kligerman Architecture & Design. He joined the firm under Ike Kligerman Barkley in 2010. Ross’ passion for architecture began with a childhood fascination of historic New England homes. Before joining the firm, Ross worked at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and Superstructures. He matriculated at the New York Institute of Technology for a bachelor degree in architecture, where he accepted the AIA Henry Adams Medal as valedictorian of the School of Architecture. His work at Kligerman Architecture & design has been featured in Architectural Digest, Luxe, Interiors and Gallerie.
Daniela is also an educator. Since the early 1980’s she has taught at Yale University as a TA, University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University, and has developed and taught Bryn Mawr College’s design studio program. She often serves on juries for professional awards in architectural design and construction quality, as well as serving on academic reviews.
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ABOUT THE PROJECT:
The house is located on a narrow, urban lot. The vernacular of the neighborhood includes many homes from the 1920s that utilize various elements of brick and stone cladding combined with tile roofs and decorative windows.
We drew our inspiration from the Italian Art Deco movement as well as the German Expressionists. We studied the work of Piero Portaluppi, who was preeminent in Italy in the 1920s and 1930s. His architecture is a streamlined Deco Classicism with creative forms and decorative elements. We also looked at German architects such as Fritz Hoger and Henrich Muller, who were creative very experimental forms with brick.
For the exterior design of this home, the goal was to create a very detailed exterior that complemented the established vernacular of the neighborhood while still standing on its own. We created a monochrome color palette of rich colors by using Hunt Valley colored brick from Glen Gery, lilac sandstone, black windows, toned stucco, black slate, and copper. All of the brick designs on the house were made with using standardized special shapes from the catalog, and pairing the shapes together to create unique combinations. This results in the gentle undulation of the columns between the front windows, and the corduroy texture of the chimney. The crown above the entry arch was created all from standard bricks, and is supported by the solid sandstone column, affectionately referred to as the Chess Piece by the masons.
The leaded glass panels in the windows utilized wavy restoration glass and clear roundels. The delicateness of the leaded glass panels is contrasted by the weight and mass of the brick piers. The roof dormers are clad in copper. We kept the detailing on the dormers tight, they appear as objects perched on the roof, invoking the work of the Germans in the 20s.
All of the detailing on the house is subtle. The brick is the star of the design. We’ve molded and shaped and cut it to create a masonry skin, similar to how we use wood shingles. All of these elements gently pull together to create a home that commands a quiet, solid presence on the block.
TRANSCRIPT
00;00;00;02 - 00;00;05;09
Doug Pat (DP)
Let's go inside the vault. The design vault.
00;00;05;11 - 00;00;30;15
Ross Padluck (RP)
What we did on the inside was opened the living room, the dining room and the family room in the back with these pocketing doors so that when the doors are closed, you can have these very private moments in the house. But when they're entertaining, the series of pocket doors opens up. So the property is really open from the front terrace into the living room, dining room and the yard in the back so you can kind of open the house up front to back, or you could close it down from more intimate settings.
00;00;30;17 - 00;03;44;04
DP
This is my guest, Ross Padluck. I'll share more about him shortly. In this episode from the Design Vault, we highlight an Italian art Deco private residence designed by Ross. The private residence we're discussing today is located on a narrow urban lot in a neighborhood which includes many homes from the 1920s. These homes feature various elements of brick and stone cladding combined with tile roofs and decorative windows.
The new home was inspired by the Italian art deco movement, as well as the German Expressionist. It draws from the work of Piero Portaluppi, a preeminent architect of streamlined art deco classicism in Italy in the 1920s and thirties. Other inspirations include German architects Fritz Hogar and Heinrich Muller, well-known for creative and experimental forms constructed with brick.
The exterior of the home is composed of details that decidedly complement the vernacular of the neighborhood. The construction palette of masonry includes brick, lilac sandstone, black windows, black slate and copper. Interestingly, the brick shapes, which appear to be custom, are actually all standard Glen-Gery modules. The course work is detailed and unique. The leaded glass panels in the windows are restoration glass and the roof dormers are clad in copper.
The details of the house are mannerist yet subtle, and the brick is creatively patterned in coursed to give the house a unique personality. Hi, I'm Doug Pat and this is Design Vault. Ross Padluck is a registered architect and partner at Kligerman Architecture & Design in New York City. Ross has a Bachelor of Architecture degree from New York Institute of Technology, where he received AIA Henry Adams medal as valedictorian of the School of Architecture.
Ross’s passion for architecture started young. Back then, he remembers being fascinated with the historic homes of New England. He joined Kligerman Architecture & Design in 2010. His work has been featured in Architectural Digest, Lux Interiors, and Gallery. His firm is known for design, rooted in tradition, but modern in its sculptural forms, precise details, material integrity and liberal use of glass.
The firm still creates presentations by hand and uses the latest digital technologies, including 3D printers and VR. So welcome, Ross. It's nice to have you with us today. So tell us a little bit about Kligerman Architecture & Design in New York City. So where are you guys located in the city? What size is the firm? How long has it been around and what type of work do you do?
00;03;44;06 - 00;04;29;13
RP
Well, thank you for having me. Kligerman Architecture & Design, we’re actually just up the street from the Brickworks Studio. We're on the corner of 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue across the street from the library. We're in 505th Avenue, which is a Shreve, Lamb and Harmon Building which is, I guess, considered the sister building to the Empire State Building. They were built at the same time with the same architect and 505th was completed first before the Empire State Building.
And at the time it was the tallest building in the world. Before it was surpassed by its sister, the Empire State Building. We're about a 40 person architecture and interiors firm. We do high end residential architecture, mostly single family. We were known as Ike Kligerman Barkley when I joined the firm. We went through an ownership transition last year when I became a partner.
00;04;29;20 - 00;04;39;06
DP
Well, interestingly, as an aside, I do high end residential architecture. I worked with a gentleman named Joe Moore for about 20 years. He's up in the Greenwich area.
00;04;39;14 - 00;04;40;27
RP
Okay. That's a great neighborhood.
00;04;41;02 - 00;04;48;24
DP
Yeah, that's really cool. So tell us a little bit about yourself. So how long have you been practicing architecture and what's your role in the office as partner?
00;04;49;01 - 00;05;20;11
RP
I always knew I wanted to be an architect. Since I was in preschool. I was sort of drawing houses and building them out of blocks when I was in preschool. So it was just a natural career. And I come from a family of architects, so it just sort of all made sense. My first job actually, I started of working for an architect when I was 14 years old.
Yeah, I did. After school drafting for an architect in high school and kind of had various internships and stuff from there at Kligerman, as a partner there, I run a studio, oversee probably about a dozen projects at the moment.
00;05;20;18 - 00;05;24;27
DP
Tell me about your family. Family of architects. That's interesting. Both mom and dad?
00;05;25;01 - 00;05;41;03
RP
No, my uncle is an architect who was a kind of huge influence and resource on me. And I have a cousin who's an architect and one is an engineer. I have another cousin who's a graphic designer. So there's this sort of creative energy in the family. My grandmother was a painter, too.
00;05;41;06 - 00;05;43;27
DP
That's really cool. I mean, architects are pretty rare.
00;05;44;01 - 00;05;50;05
RP
It's kind of a not a common profession in families, but it sort of comes naturally to us, I guess.
00;05;50;12 - 00;05;56;01
DP
Very cool. So let's dig in here and talk about the home. So how did your office get the project?
00;05;56;07 - 00;06;05;15
RP
So it's a community that we've done a lot of work in over the years. We have a long history of doing work in that community and it was a referral from another client that we got the project.
00;06;05;17 - 00;06;07;09
DP
So you didn't know the clients?
00;06;07;09 - 00;06;10;09
RP
Did not know them, but they were friends of one of our other clients.
00;06;10;16 - 00;06;13;06
DP
And what about the location? So was there a house there?
00;06;13;13 - 00;06;23;24
RP
There was a house there. It was sort of a turn of the century house that had been badly renovated in the eighties. You know, we were growing family and it was time for a new house. So they turned to us to design it.
00;06;23;28 - 00;06;32;13
DP
So the location, there are lots of homes from the 1920s era and are they still there and simply getting renovated or is it turning over?
00;06;32;16 - 00;07;03;27
RP
There's not many left, the kind of vernacular of that neighborhood. There were a lot of homes built in that sort of 1920s timeframe that were kind of brick and stone and had slag glass windows and tile roofs like you mentioned. And there's kind of very Spanish and Moorish ornate feeling to them. Unfortunately, a lot of them have been torn down.
They've been replaced with newer and larger homes, but there's still a few left in the neighborhood. And the neighborhood is sort of maintains that character, even though the homes have been replaced of the sort of 1920s buildings.
00;07;04;00 - 00;07;16;20
DP
So that ultimately did impact the esthetic of the home that you design. We'll talk about that in a little bit. So what was the scope of the project? That is, what were the programmatic requirements for the project?
00;07;16;23 - 00;07;31;06
RP
It's a single-family home, so it had to have entertaining space and living space on the first floor for them. They do a lot of in-house, entertaining large parties and then enough space for the clients and their children on a very small lot.
00;07;31;09 - 00;07;39;08
DP
Yeah. So what were the project restrictions in terms of the height of the building and the size of the building on the lot? Were they pretty stringent?
00;07;39;08 - 00;07;55;03
RP
Yeah. The zoning in that neighborhood is pretty restrictive, so you have to fit a lot into a very small envelope. So you have to be really creative of how you use floor space and how you configure the building envelope to fit within the zoning requirements and the floor area restrictions.
00;07;55;05 - 00;08;01;13
DP
And you couldn't go over two and a half stories or okay, so I nailed that. That was the restriction. Two and a half stories?
00;08;01;13 - 00;08;07;03
RP
There's actually not a restriction of stories, it's a restriction of height. So that's what limits how far you can go.
00;08;07;10 - 00;08;10;02
DP
And FAR restrictions, is that what they call them.
00;08;10;02 - 00;08;13;02
RP
Yea, floor area ratio, it's pretty tight there.
00;08;13;04 - 00;08;41;24
DP
So let's talk a little bit about the building design. Stylistically, we talked a little bit about this already, the Italian art deco influence and of course the reference that I made earlier to the German architects. Interestingly, I was looking at Portal Whoopi's work online. I know it sounds a little bizarre, but it almost seemed like a modern cross between Palladio and Boulay, right?
I mean, it's just the symmetry is gorgeous. Some of the buildings that this man designed were unbelievable.
00;08;41;26 - 00;09;16;27
RP
Yeah, they're really incredible. I've had the fortune of being in a few of them in Italy, and Porto Lippi was sort of off the radar up until a couple of years ago. And now it's, you know, there's all these books out about them and everyone's sort of looking at it. But he just did really incredible sort of forward thinking work in Italy in that timeframe that was still sort of rooted in tradition, not too dissimilar from the work that we do at the firm.
So it sort of just seemed like a natural influence for us. A lot of his work was urban, a lot of it was in Milan, so it sort of had that urbanity to it like this house does.
00;09;17;04 - 00;09;22;27
DP
So tell us a little bit about the building plan. Looks relatively straightforward, like a large rectangle.
00;09;23;05 - 00;09;52;11
RP
Yeah, the sort of narrow rectangular lots. So there's not much you could do with it. What we did on the inside was opened the living room, the dining room and the family room in the back with these pocketing doors so that when the doors are closed, you can have these very private moments in the house. But when they're entertaining, the series of pocket doors opens up.
So the property is really open from the front terrace into the living room, dining room and the yard in the back so you could kind of open the house up front to back or you could close it down from more intimate settings.
00;09;52;14 - 00;10;00;17
DP
That's a really nice idea for a relatively narrow house. Who came up with that idea where the client's like, Whoa you guys showed it to them and they thought, Wow, this is really neat.
00;10;00;24 - 00;10;05;14
RP
You know, they were really kind of happy with it. We sort of hit it on the first shot, I guess you could say.
00;10;05;21 - 00;10;08;28
DP
So how large was the team that was working with you on the.
00;10;09;00 - 00;10;11;25
RP
It was me and at the time, John Ike.
00;10;11;27 - 00;10;19;17
DP
So let's talk a little bit about the facade, which is very interesting. All brick, who decided on brick?
00;10;19;23 - 00;10;31;19
RP
It's the vernacular in that neighborhood. Just about every house uses brick or stone or a combination of them. The natural choice to use. So we wouldn't recommend anything else in that neighborhood.
00;10;31;26 - 00;10;33;02
DP
And what about the color?
00;10;33;05 - 00;10;39;26
RP
So we wanted to create something that was a little richer, a little darker, a little moodier. And that's how we ended up with that color.
00;10;39;28 - 00;10;59;28
DP
I want to back up a little bit. I always ask our guests about the town reviews, like how long that process took was a challenging historical neighborhood, that sort of thing. What did you guys go through in terms of presentation? So you meet with the client, you show more schematic design. Then ultimately you've got to go to the town and get this thing approved.
00;11;00;07 - 00;11;05;15
RP
There wasn't any sort of historic or architectural review board there, so it was just the building department.
00;11;05;21 - 00;11;12;22
DP
And in terms of zoning requirements, the building had to be relatively narrow rights for the setbacks. Were they restrictive or?
00;11;12;25 - 00;11;24;10
RP
Restrictive on the sides? The biggest challenge is the floor area, which is very restrictive. You kind of have to fit a lot into a very small footprint. So there's very little wasted space in the floorplan.
00;11;24;12 - 00;11;42;01
DP
So let's talk about the facade. What I loved about this house was the figuring in the brick, right? So there were all stock sizes and shapes used by your company and was that intentional? You didn't want to spend extra money having these custom shapes made?
00;11;42;04 - 00;12;16;04
RP
Yeah, we wanted to have that in mind of trying to do this with stock shapes. We wanted to do an all-brick house, which is inherently a little more expensive. And instead of doing custom shapes, we looked through the Glen-Gery catalog to see what was available, sort of quote unquote in stock that wasn't custom made. And then we took these different shapes and create a different patterns and modules with them.
And that's how we created those sort of columns that are between the windows. And we created that corduroy texture that's on the chimney all out of Glen-Gery shapes.
00;12;16;06 - 00;12;27;19
DP
Yeah, I found that really beautiful. The piers in between the windows are figured, right? So when you guys design that, did you ultimately do mock ups in the fields to see what these things looked like?
00;12;27;25 - 00;12;40;03
RP
We 3D printed the brick shapes and then sort of put them together almost like Legos to see what makes sense and what makes an interesting shape. And we did mockups on our 3D printer with those brick shapes to kind of lay it out.
00;12;40;10 - 00;12;52;27
DP
And what about some of this interesting coursing that I found as I looked around the exterior elevations, for example, at the entrance, right? The coursing above that entrance is almost done in a star shape or a crown like shape.
00;12;53;04 - 00;13;16;03
RP
Yeah, it's sort of a star shape or a crown, as you say. And we had originally designed that in stone, and the owner had wanted the house to feel a lot more monochrome. So I said, Well, why don't we do it in Brick? And it sort of created that crown shape out of, it's just modular standard brick that's laid at different angles and it sort of radiates around the arch to create that pattern.
00;13;16;10 - 00;13;19;06
DP
To remind me some of the other details on the house.
00;13;19;13 - 00;13;58;12
RP
The house is about that arch. It's the entrance. It's very subtle because it's all done out of the brick. It doesn't really stand out, but it's a detail that you notice right away just the way the mortar joints are run to create that pattern. And then we have, as I mentioned, the special piers between the windows, which are created of three different pieces of brick special shapes that create that.
And there is the chimney, which is the corduroy texture. We also used some of the sill pieces to create a water table or sort of base around the house. And then we experimented with different patterns of brick running bonds and stock bonds to create different patterns and sections of the house to break up the mass of it a little bit.
00;13;58;19 - 00;14;01;11
DP
And the dormer is done in copper, which is really cool.
00;14;01;16 - 00;14;15;03
RP
I like when Dormers feel like objects on a roof. I don't like when the metal roof comes out. So we created them to feel, you know, like these copper boxes sitting on the roof, which is a very German kind of mannerism of going about that.
00;14;15;05 - 00;14;23;16
DP
So on a project like this, it's obviously really important to find a good mason. So you guys clearly found somebody liked. What was that process like?
00;14;23;22 - 00;14;37;18
RP
We worked very hand-in-hand with the Mason to create that. You know, we're very specific about all these different patterns and layouts. So it was a lot of site visits and working one on one to make sure our vision came to reality on the house.
00;14;37;20 - 00;14;47;28
DP
So you were talking about having a 3D printer and making these that must have been a really fun process, right? I mean, that's like the awesome stuff that architects get to do.
00;14;48;01 - 00;15;02;08
RP
Yeah, it is. The 3D printer itself is kind of a pain to use. It's finicky, but once you get it to actually do what you want it to do, being able to just sort of create these shapes and put them together was really satisfying. That's sort of how we create our vision.
00;15;02;08 - 00;15;04;20
DP
Did you guys do the building in Revit?
00;15;04;26 - 00;15;09;13
RP
The building was actually done in CAD, believe it or not, all 2D.
00;15;09;17 - 00;15;11;00
DP
So no 3D renderings?
00;15;11;02 - 00;15;12;27
RP
Nope. Except for hand renderings.
00;15;12;29 - 00;15;14;29
DP
Is that pretty typical for your office?
00;15;15;02 - 00;15;38;11
RP
Most of our projects are in Revit now. For me, the intricacies of the house, I felt more confident doing it in 2D. It's just the way my brain thinks. I still think of old school drafting and that's kind of what CAD does. And the house was small enough that it was manageable. A lot of our other houses that are much larger than this, it makes sense to do them in Revit, but I felt kind of old school doing it in CAD, but it worked out.
00;15;38;19 - 00;15;42;14
DP
And did the clients get to see these little models, the little modules or?
00;15;42;18 - 00;15;50;21
RP
Absolutely. We showed them, you know, this is the pattern and these are the different shapes of brick and they got a kick out of it, but they were excited.
00;15;50;24 - 00;15;59;05
DP
Yeah, very cool. So, we talked about the size of your team. There were two people that worked on the project essentially and start to finish. How long does that take for your office?
00;15;59;13 - 00;16;19;23
RP
Search to finish a house of the skills is about three years. We're about a year for design from when a client first hires us to get through schematic design construction documents, permitting, all of that. And then construction is about two years, which seems like a long time. But our houses are very custom and we're doing very one off sort of things.
00;16;19;28 - 00;16;22;05
RP
It takes time, but it's worth it in the end.
00;16;22;07 - 00;16;31;08
DP
Yeah, you know, that process can be pretty interesting for people that haven't done it before, the clients. Have these clients been through a custom home before?
00;16;31;14 - 00;16;38;06
RP
Not to this scale. They had renovated a home before, but they hadn't built a home like this before, so it was a first time for them.
00;16;38;09 - 00;16;40;17
DP
Well, I'm sure that we're very happy, the house is beautiful.
00;16;40;24 - 00;16;44;01
RP
Thank you. They were very happy. So we did our job.
00;16;44;03 - 00;16;50;10
DP
Awesome. So the column in the front. Very cool. Reminds me a lot of Frank Furnace.
00;16;50;16 - 00;16;50;28
RP
Yes.
00;16;50;28 - 00;16;53;11
DP
Whose idea was that? Where did that come from?
00;16;53;17 - 00;17;15;21
RP
That was mine. We wanted to create something special on that corner. Since it is the main entrance to the house. And it was inspired by a lot of the work that Portaluppi did, where he uses more classical elements and we didn't want to do another piece of brick there. It was time to do some stone. It is solid lilac sandstone that's supporting that brick arch.
00;17;15;24 - 00;17;18;00
DP
So was that difficult to have made?
00;17;18;02 - 00;17;25;01
RP
We had it custom made, unlike the brick, we did have the column custom made. It was milled in Canada.
00;17;25;03 - 00;17;36;04
DP
Did your team learn anything interesting through the design and construction process? It's clearly a pretty unique home, so there were a few new things for you guys, I would assume.
00;17;36;11 - 00;17;55;25
RP
Yeah, I think working through the brick shapes and the course thing, we try and get Windows to line up with brick coursing or if the windows are off, you adjust the stone sills to make up for the difference in brick. And I think we learned a lot about just making sure that the brick lines up everywhere.
00;17;55;28 - 00;18;06;19
DP
So were there any instances of we drew it this way, but then you get in the field and you're working with a mason, They're like, no, you know, we're not going to be on course here and we're going to have to adjust things.
00;18;06;19 - 00;18;32;16
RP
There were a few instances where the cursing under the windows was ever so slightly off, but we were able to adjust that with the stone sills and make it work. I was very exact when I drew it to make sure that everything mathematically worked out just because the design was so important to us and to the clients, we really wanted to make sure you could actually build it the way we intended it.
The drawings were pretty precise, and that led to a fairly smooth construction process.
00;18;32;18 - 00;19;03;09
DP
That's great. It is one of the most important things to me. After the house has been designed, we sign up the GC, we get rolling on the project, the project managers get to know one another. This would be the architect and the project manager for the general contractor. Those first couple meetings between those two people are really important because at that point you get to spend a lot of time explaining, okay, this is why I drew it this way and I need you to keep this in mind when we build it, right?
00;19;03;16 - 00;19;25;09
RP
Yeah. We were fortunate to have a really good contractor. He was really a craftsman. Very hands on approach, like we have with design and construction. He understood our design goals for the house and the quality goals, he really paid attention to the details and worked with us throughout construction to make sure the vision was carried out.
00;19;25;11 - 00;19;37;20
DP
So Ross, before you go, you've been an architect for a little while now. Based on what you know about being an architect today, do you have any words of advice for your younger self or even young architects getting started?
00;19;37;22 - 00;20;11;11
RP
I do. You know, the advice is to stick with it. A lot of people that I went to school with did not end up pursuing a career in architecture. For me, it's something I love doing. I'm very passionate about it and it's not an easy educational process. It's not an easy career. I think a lot of people get discouraged by that, but if you love it and you care about it, just stick with it because it's very rewarding and we get to do really unique and special things.
There's not a day that goes by that I don't regret my career choice.
00;20;11;16 - 00;20;24;07
DP
Well, that's really cool. Being a high-end residential architect can be extremely challenging, but also very rewarding long term because you're working on a singular typology and you can get really good at it.
00;20;24;11 - 00;20;56;25
RP
Yeah, well, you're designing for the end user and you're spending their money. So it's a high stakes process, but it's also very creative and you get to work with unique materials and work with craftsmen and people who are really good at what they do. So in that respect, yeah, it's really rewarding and we're creating things that people and families are going to use for the rest of their lives.
They're going to live in them. They're going to have their friends over. As challenging as it can be to work in that environment, we're just creating such special things. It's wonderful.
00;20;56;27 - 00;21;02;03
DP
Yeah, I like to say that we've got to know a lot about a lot to be a high-end residential architect.
00;21;02;05 - 00;21;13;16
RP
Yeah, you have to be an architect. You've got to be a plumber. An extra installer, a lawyer, an accountant, a marriage counselor. You have to be everything. A materials scientist.
00;21;13;17 - 00;21;27;01
DP
I like that. Marriage counselor. Marriage counselor, for sure. My goodness. So Ross, it's been great to have you here. Thanks for your time. Where can people go to learn more about Kligerman Architecture & Design and yourself?
00;21;27;03 - 00;21;31;21
RP
Check out our klingermanad.com. And you can also look at our Instagram account [@kligerman.ad].
00;21;31;24 - 00;21;34;00
DP
And do you have your own Instagram account as well?
00;21;34;01 - 00;21;38;06
RP
Yes, that's @RossPadluck.
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