By Sean O’Keefe
Architect, academic and design explorer Brad Tomecek hasn’t been satisfied with the status quo from the start. It’s part of his mojo, and it’s paying off. So much so that his peers at the American Institute of Architects recently recognized him as a Fellow (FAIA). Fellowship is bestowed by the Institute on AIA-member architects who have made outstanding contributions to the profession through design excellence, contributions in the field of architectural education, or to the advancement of the profession. Asked what his peers would have seen in a review of his 20-year career, Tomecek suggests his body of work has been about pushing the limits and making the conceptual real.
“I like the gritty exploration of design,” says Tomecek. “Perhaps it’s the academic in me and why I have taught. I like trying to find new ways of putting things together. In architecture, there are lots of ways to improve upon what we do – be it sustainability, design aesthetic, or the sensory experience of space.”
Tomecek has been an Instructor at the University of Colorado since 2001, and in business for himself since 2003, when he co-founded his first firm. After a decade as a partner in a pair, in 2013 he went on to found Tomecek Studio, a practice focused on celebrating the unique qualities of each assignment.
“Things can be too polished for me, not creative enough. I like to think of myself at the center of a creative exploration of what’s possible,” says Tomecek. Spread throughout the Mountain West, Tomecek Studio’s portfolio consists primarily of custom residential succinctly understood as either urban homes or nature dwellings. He keeps close quarters with a studio team of just six in Denver’s Highlands neighborhood. Among the many distinct interpretations of space and place Tomecek and his team have crafted, a family compound in the Black Hills of South Dakota personifies his perspective on the importance of a client-centric process.
The commission came to the studio the way many of them do for Tomecek, seemingly out of the blue. The brief was a little unusual, which is typical as well.
“The Black Hills compound was designed for a brother and sister who own the property. The brother was already living there quite comfortably with no real interest in changing things. The sister lived in Florida and wanted to build a guest house retreat on the property, so they could host annual family gatherings.”
Tomecek reveals that the brother would be the full-time resident, caretaker, and the greatest benefactor of the residential upgrade his sister coveted. Having more than one client always complicates things. Dual houses, several unique outbuildings, and local labor shortages made the commission interesting, which, of course, is just how Tomecek likes it.
“The sister was the thrust of the commission, so her home was to be the most contemporary. The brother’s lifestyle was more down to earth. He has horses and cows, and he’s big into four-wheeling. He likes pulling engines out of cars on the weekend. So, the barn/workshop space added greatly to his environment.”
Asked how he went about merging what seems to be a mishmash of disjointed orders, Tomecek reveals a surprisingly simple harmonizer of design style – that of time.
“In trying to make something cohesive of these three diverging functional programs – everyday living, luxury living, and barn/workshop – we developed a design language that evolves from traditional to contemporary and from contemporary to conceptual across the three buildings,” says Tomecek.
Beginning with the barn, Tomecek went with one of the most rudimentary forms known in American agrarian architecture, the pole barn.
“The most traditional form on the site is the pole barn,” he shares. “This type of construction involves putting posts into the ground below the frost line and then framing the building horizontally. To modernize it, we used translucent panels in the doors and cupolas, so the space is filled with natural light during the day and becomes a beacon when illuminated at night.”
The barn connects to the main house via a breezeway, giving the homeowner immediate access to his work-as-play lifestyle.
“Though the brother was along for the ride, I can’t think of anything worse than building a new, custom home for someone and when it’s done, they don’t like it. So, we take very seriously providing a great space, tailored to the specific owner and their lifestyle,” says Tomecek of the task of right-fitting the brother’s abode. “The main house incorporates a gabled form, which is traditional. However, we brought it forward with contemporary detailing. We eliminated overhangs, concealed the drainage, and used geometric shapes in the form.”
In giving the main house a refined roofline and limited fenestration, the whole of the compound takes a step forward. Consequently, at the guest house cottage, Tomecek was able to shift gears and go fully conceptual.
“For the sister’s house, we designed a flat roof, open plan that floats above the ground and launches out into the landscape,” says Tomecek of the sister’s retreat. “We provided lots of transparency, by using window openings in an irregular cadence derived from the surrounding trees and finished the interior in clean whites and warm woods.”
Of unifying intent, Tomecek points to light as the common denominator among the compound’s constituents.
“There is an exploration of light in each building as well,” he continues. “Though simple, the translucent doors, wall panel, and cupolas of the barn introduce quite a bit of light. In the main house, the owner is enjoying views of the property he’s lived his whole life on but has never seen before. We have a stair tower that looks like a chimney but is instead a lightwell that disperses light throughout the kitchen and bedroom.”
Like the progression from traditional to contemporary evident in each asset’s form and fenestration, at the guest house, Tomecek’s imagination was unbridled.
“At the guest house, we have this dissolving envelope created by a striation in the windows to make the building’s perimeter vanish into the forest. So, this is a super conceptual interpretation of space and place.”
Like client and site, specific situational considerations come into play in custom home design, that few homeowners could ever anticipate. Tomecek sees it as part of his responsibility to clients to understand the market conditions impacting the building industry and guide the project toward thoughtful solutions within the design process.
“When we started planning these homes with the clients, there was an oil boom in North Dakota that caused a tremendous shortage of local skilled labor,” shares Tomecek. “To counter market conditions, we designed these homes around modular construction methodologies. This allowed most of both houses to be built in a factory in sections and delivered to the site in units.”
Like a collection of custom-made building blocks, the main house was divided into four modules and the guest house two. Each set was built in Spanish Fork, Utah, and trucked some 700 miles to the outskirts of Rapid City, crossing the continental divide along the way. At the property, they are affixed to site-built foundations, connected to pre-stubbed utility lines, and made ready for occupancy.
“With modular construction, you are adding another piece to the owner, architect and site contractor puzzle. The architect’s role is to understand the scope gaps between what is built in the factory and what is being done on-site to make sure everyone is speaking the same language,” says Tomecek of a significant shift in process compared to typical site-built construction. He points out the tremendous positives for the finished product in having the home built largely in a factory. “Modular builders have a dedicated professional workforce with a benefits package operating inside under controlled conditions, where they build semi-repetitiously. All of that improves quality. They are excellent at waste reduction, and they recycle leftovers in-house in a variety of ways.”
Tomecek is sincere when he suggests there are some potential drawbacks to building modularly. Any alternative construction methodology is going to have some hindrances. Those of modular construction begin with site accessibility on a road that can be trucked. There are size maximums on what can be put on a truck, which adds a constraint to the dimensions of any one module along with supplemental considerations for the thoughtful, situationally aware designer.
“Good architecture should look effortless when it’s done,” says Tomecek of a maxim he teaches. “We don’t like marriage lines where modules come together. Likewise, over time all buildings expand and contract. That movement can result in seamlines. We’ve learned to conceal those opportunities in the back of closets and out of sight, so when it happens, they are hidden.”
One notion to dispel is the idea that alternative building methodologies like modular are about economy. Certainly, the cost of trucking six sections of house through three states isn’t insignificant and is something that should be carefully considered before deciding to go modular. However, in any new home, fundamentally, it’s the building materials, systems, finishes and fixtures chosen that define construction costs, whether it’s designed custom or production.
“I think there is an inclination that modular is subpar, which is not the case. Quality always depends on the materials chosen and the people doing the work, not the mode of assembly,” says Tomecek. To illustrate his point, he returns to his clientele in Rapid City and his expectation that architecture should approach every site and situation as unique.
“When we visited the site the first time, I noticed an ad-hoc chicken coop on the property. They wanted to get rid of it. I wanted to make something worth looking at,” says Tomecek of the program’s most unique user group – chickens. “So, I researched chickens; how they live, nest, perch and produce eggs. In a new user type, I discover new circulations and modes of use, new light, heat and ventilation challenges. Architecture is about relentless curiosity, and I’ll never stop exploring.”
