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Steve_ Shaffer

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The Homes Of Some Golf Architects-Hanse,Hurdzan&Coore
« on: March 07, 2020, 11:37:02 AM »



Golf Course Designers Bring the Details Home

Three of today’s most talented architects have chosen nontraditional residences with intriguing features.




https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/06/realestate/golf-course-designers-homes.html
« Last Edit: March 07, 2020, 12:24:24 PM by Steve_ Shaffer »
"Some of us worship in churches, some in synagogues, some on golf courses ... "  Adlai Stevenson
Hyman Roth to Michael Corleone: "We're bigger than US Steel."
Ben Hogan “The most important shot in golf is the next one”

Jeff Schley

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Re: The Homes Of Some Golf Architects
« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2020, 11:49:08 AM »
Boy I would not have expected the NYT to run such a niche article, but it is interesting to us for sure.  I really like Gil Hanse's place, what character it has as a former Amish barn from 1831.
"To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice your gifts."
- Steve Prefontaine

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +3/-1
Re: The Homes Of Some Golf Architects-Hanse,Hurdzan&Coore
« Reply #2 on: March 07, 2020, 01:26:28 PM »
It's odd that the author name-dropped me in the piece as "not available," since I was never contacted.  (I suppose he might have tried my office while I was in Australia, and I just never heard about it.)


I would have declined to participate, anyway, as my home is an unremarkable middle class home and clearly not what they were looking for.  I do routings at home on occasion, fighting with our cats for space on the dining room table.  But 90% of my work is done on site somewhere, so I don't need a fancy work space to keep up on Golf Club Atlas.



Funniest quote was Dr Hurdzan proclaiming himself to be "an A-lister".

Kalen Braley

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Re: The Homes Of Some Golf Architects-Hanse,Hurdzan&Coore
« Reply #3 on: March 07, 2020, 01:39:47 PM »
Tom,

I could just imagine.  Reminded me of a meme I saw a few weeks back!  ;D



jeffwarne

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Re: The Homes Of Some Golf Architects-Hanse,Hurdzan&Coore
« Reply #4 on: March 07, 2020, 07:35:31 PM »
I'd say being unavailable was a good thing Tom.
Most articles miss the mark for anyone remotely familiar with a subject.

Pretty sure this part could've been written a bit differently..
He achieved international fame — or infamy — when Erin Hills in Wisconsin hosted the 2017 U.S. Open. The course was officially opened in 1999, and had soft greens, wide fairways and fescue to trap errant shots. The winning score was 16 under par, which tied for the lowest winning score ever at a U.S. Open. Criticism followed.
[/size][/color]
[/size]The second line is just awkward and misleading but then it is "the failing New York Times"[/color]
"Let's slow the damned greens down a bit, not take the character out of them." Tom Doak
"Take their focus off the grass and put it squarely on interesting golf." Don Mahaffey

Joel_Stewart

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Re: The Homes Of Some Golf Architects-Hanse,Hurdzan&Coore
« Reply #5 on: March 09, 2020, 12:24:13 AM »
Was it just me or was there no photo of Bill Coores home?

Ryan Hillenbrand

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Re: The Homes Of Some Golf Architects-Hanse,Hurdzan&Coore
« Reply #6 on: March 09, 2020, 06:22:55 PM »
Was it just me or was there no photo of Bill Coores home?


I know Coore is a minimalist, but apparently he just lives in a cactus

Ryan Hillenbrand

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Re: The Homes Of Some Golf Architects-Hanse,Hurdzan&Coore
« Reply #7 on: March 09, 2020, 06:24:12 PM »
Plus, didn't the article say Coore was a native Texan? I thought he was from North Carolina?

Peter Pallotta

Re: The Homes Of Some Golf Architects-Hanse,Hurdzan&Coore
« Reply #8 on: March 09, 2020, 07:42:10 PM »
Was it just me or was there no photo of Bill Coores home?

I know Coore is a minimalist, but apparently he just lives in a cactus

The house is so well blended into the environment and so beautifully tied into the natural surrounds that it actually disappears. It's invisible.
Only at a certain time of the day, when the sunlight is at just the right angle, can you tell there's a house there -- but only because of the shadow it casts.
It's like an almost imperceptible ground contour 40 yards short of the green on a Par 5 -- you simply can't believe that it makes the hole strategic, until someone tells you it does!   
« Last Edit: March 09, 2020, 08:28:31 PM by Peter Pallotta »

Ian Andrew

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Re: The Homes Of Some Golf Architects-Hanse,Hurdzan&Coore
« Reply #9 on: March 09, 2020, 08:09:18 PM »
The author didn't have a lot of choices. The rest of us C-list architects only make enough to live in double wide trailers. Our's is considered "highfalutin" because we have an "add-a room," it's like a screened in porch where we keep the fridge, but the trailer's only a single wide so it ain't that fancy. I can still work on drawins' in my underwear. 
"Appreciate the constructive; ignore the destructive." -- John Douglas

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +3/-1
Re: The Homes Of Some Golf Architects-Hanse,Hurdzan&Coore
« Reply #10 on: March 09, 2020, 09:56:14 PM »
The author didn't have a lot of choices. The rest of us C-list architects only make enough to live in double wide trailers. Our's is considered "highfalutin" because we have an "add-a room," it's like a screened in porch where we keep the fridge, but the trailer's only a single wide so it ain't that fancy. I can still work on drawins' in my underwear.


I've been in your house, and I'm pretty sure it's worth more than mine.   ;)

Anthony Butler

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Re: The Homes Of Some Golf Architects-Hanse,Hurdzan&Coore
« Reply #11 on: March 11, 2020, 07:41:24 PM »
The author didn't have a lot of choices. The rest of us C-list architects only make enough to live in double wide trailers. Our's is considered "highfalutin" because we have an "add-a room," it's like a screened in porch where we keep the fridge, but the trailer's only a single wide so it ain't that fancy. I can still work on drawins' in my underwear.


I've been in your house, and I'm pretty sure it's worth more than mine.   ;)

In 1997, I was in Jack Nicklaus’ office off Rt. 1 in Nth Palm Beach.


After learning I was Australian, he walked me over to the window of his office and pointed at a house way down by the Intercoastal Waterway. Apparently this was the main house on Greg Norman’s compound. Mr. Nicksuls suggested I should just ‘drop by’ later that day.

By way of encouraging me to visit he said... “It’s a beautiful house.  I wish I could afford something that nice...” 

To this day, I have no idea if he was being sincere or if this was his idea of a joke.
« Last Edit: March 11, 2020, 07:45:13 PM by Anthony Butler »
Next!

Jeff_Brauer

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Re: The Homes Of Some Golf Architects-Hanse,Hurdzan&Coore
« Reply #12 on: March 12, 2020, 08:54:21 AM »

A bit OT, but there has always been at least in some minds, the idea that a designer ought to live and office in somewhat well designed architectural spaces.  How could a designer not need to be surrounded by good design?  Lots of architects have spent tons to achieve a look of prestige when clients come calling.  I remember paying about $12 per sf annually when I had an office, and finding out another paid $84 per annual SF "to keep up appearances."  ouch.


That said, I think the Pete Dye model may have changed that, and working out of the house also became common after 2008, both for cost and because of technology - I can drop box drawings anywhere, and use Skype or similar if I need face to face time to get the plans drawn.  FWIW, when gas hit $4 a gallon in about 2012, I gave up a nice office and moved to the house, figuring gas wouldn't ever go down again.  (Obviously, I was wrong) I also correctly noted that very few clients really go to the office, as I usually have to go to them.


And, also a bit OT, as I finally moved out of a semi custom suburban tract house to a new zero lot line community. No one in the golf biz wants to mow lawns as they age...…  I bought the builder's close out model so I would (finally) live in a well decorated house.  But, it's in a nice community in an older suburb.  I love giving the directions from the airport to visitors - turn at the Home Depot, go by the warehouses, past the strip clubs, past the oil refinery, past the last strip club, past the concrete plant, and under the railroad tracks.  When you get to the city dump, turn left and I am a few streets in. ;)   It's pretty hard to make a first impression under those circumstances.
Jeff Brauer, ASGCA Director of Outreach

Niall C

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Re: The Homes Of Some Golf Architects-Hanse,Hurdzan&Coore
« Reply #13 on: March 12, 2020, 10:22:31 AM »
Jeff

On the bright side, at least you're close to all the local amenities.

Niall

Jeff_Brauer

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Re: The Homes Of Some Golf Architects-Hanse,Hurdzan&Coore
« Reply #14 on: March 12, 2020, 10:52:18 AM »

LOL.  Not a strip club kind of guy, but when driving by them with my wife, I make the car veer towards the entry, and tell her "Must be out of habit!"


I do enjoy being near the Home Depot, as it usually takes me two trips or more to obtain all the parts I need for any attempt at home repairs......
Jeff Brauer, ASGCA Director of Outreach

Matthew Rose

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Re: The Homes Of Some Golf Architects-Hanse,Hurdzan&Coore
« Reply #15 on: March 12, 2020, 10:56:03 AM »
I'd spend too much time petting the cats :)
American-Australian. Trackman Course Guy. Fatalistic sports fan. Drummer. Bass player. Father. Cat lover.

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +3/-1
Re: The Homes Of Some Golf Architects-Hanse,Hurdzan&Coore
« Reply #16 on: March 12, 2020, 02:36:39 PM »

A bit OT, but there has always been at least in some minds, the idea that a designer ought to live and office in somewhat well designed architectural spaces.  How could a designer not need to be surrounded by good design?  Lots of architects have spent tons to achieve a look of prestige when clients come calling.  I remember paying about $12 per sf annually when I had an office, and finding out another paid $84 per annual SF "to keep up appearances."  ouch.



Many years ago, a potential client came to our office in Traverse City, and we didn't even have enough chairs for all of us to sit down and meet with him and his golf pro.


He told me much later that the previous architect he'd interviewed had a very ostentatious and expensive desk in his office, and when he saw our operation, he decided to hire us right then, partly out of pity and partly because we didn't waste $$$ on overhead.


I've only had three or four potential clients even come to Traverse City to meet at my office in the last 25 years, though, so I don't think I've lost much business on this basis.

Tom Allen

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Re: The Homes Of Some Golf Architects-Hanse,Hurdzan&Coore
« Reply #17 on: March 13, 2020, 10:17:50 AM »
...

I do enjoy being near the Home Depot, as it usually takes me two trips or more to obtain all the parts I need for any attempt at home repairs......


Just two?  Any small home project for me automatically equals THREE trips to the local Lowe's.  ;)

Tim Martin

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Re: The Homes Of Some Golf Architects-Hanse,Hurdzan&Coore
« Reply #18 on: March 13, 2020, 10:34:50 AM »
Hanse owns a Summer home on Fishers Island. “Smart” is the adjective I would use to describe same.

Jeff_Brauer

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Re: The Homes Of Some Golf Architects-Hanse,Hurdzan&Coore
« Reply #19 on: March 13, 2020, 10:47:19 AM »
...

I do enjoy being near the Home Depot, as it usually takes me two trips or more to obtain all the parts I need for any attempt at home repairs......


Just two?  Any small home project for me automatically equals THREE trips to the local Lowe's.  ;)



See highlights above!


Tom Doak,


After securing the Opryland commission, the owners told me the story of another architect pulling up, getting out of a fancy car, possibly rented for the occasion, putting on a fancy jacket, primping, etc.  He didn't know they could see it all from their window, and they had made up their mind before he stepped in the door he wasn't their guy.


I started in a one room office in a secretarial suite, then needed a standard office, which was sub 1000 Sf.  We had to combine spaces (i.e., print room in closet, my office for conferences which was occasionally too small).  When a corner space opened up, we enlarged to about 2500 SF (for a staff of up to 8 at that time) and we included a separate print room, with door to hallway so fumes could get out, more drafting space and a conference room.  I thought the conference room, right of the front door was essential mostly because I didn't want clients or prospects wandering through the drafting room looking at what we had on the boards.  It doubled as our library, Monday morning office meeting and daily lunch room, so it seemed worth the space.


That said, we were always pretty informal.  One consultant almost tripped over my then infant son sleeping on the carpet, as I had to bring him to work for some reason or another, as my wife also worked.  In the end, you can't pretend to be something you are not, as the ruse is usually obvious.  You get some jobs by being the biggest firm in the world, but you miss out on some, as well.
Jeff Brauer, ASGCA Director of Outreach