No new build of ours at Heller Built begins without close collaboration between our team, our client, and the architects, designers, and landscape architects that all help bring a new home to life. By collaborating with a full team of highly qualified professionals from day one, we can help support every step of the design + build process, get a more accurate estimate of timelines and budgets, and see how each design or material decision will impact the project as a whole.
It’s this degree of collaboration across disciplines that allows seamless communication between client, designer, and builder from day one, and allows each contributor to focus on the highest execution of their craft later on in the build process.
At Hidden Gate Farm, one of our custom new builds currently in progress, we’ve worked closely from the start with our client, architect, landscape architect, and design teams to plan not one family home, but an entire equine estate complete with a covered riding arena, scenic pastures, luxury stables, and a beautiful main residence that combines the timeless design influences of New England with Kentucky’s horse country.
Recently, we walked the property with architect Baron Gibson of Gibson Taylor Thompson and our own Austin Heller to talk about what it takes to design and build a custom estate, beginning with this collaborative planning process.
“WHEN YOU’VE GOT THE CIVIL ENGINEER, THE GENERAL CONTRACTOR, THE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT, AND THE CLIENT ON THE CALL, THEN YOU’RE ABLE TO REALLY ARRIVE AT A GOOD PLACE EARLY ON.”
– BARON GIBSON, gibson taylor thompson architects
Gibson: There’s so many things to consider when starting a new farm master plan. Obviously, for us, the first challenge was: where do we locate the house? That in itself took several weeks of just walking the site, meeting via Zoom, meeting in person, looking at surveys… There was about a month of us taking squares, and dropping them on the site to say, ok, if the house is located here, where could the riding arena be? I think we had two or three solid options, and ultimately we landed on locating the house centrally. I think that it gives [the home] a great adjacency to all the other pieces of the program that are on site – the riding arena, the barn, the equipment storage building, and the existing house.
Gibson: There’s so many things to consider when starting a new farm master plan. Obviously, for us, the first challenge was: where do we locate the house? That in itself took several weeks of just walking the site, meeting via Zoom, meeting in person, looking at surveys… There was about a month of us taking squares, and dropping them on the site to say, ok, if the house is located here, where could the riding arena be? I think we had two or three solid options, and ultimately we landed on locating the house centrally. I think that it gives [the home] a great adjacency to all the other pieces of the program that are on site – the riding arena, the barn, the equipment storage building, and the existing house.
Heller: Every structure, building, for the most part has gone exactly where it was designed from the beginning. And I think the other thing is just highlighting the fact that you all were able to do this, basically remotely, with the client, which makes it harder obviously. I think It’s an impressive feat, and it shows the level of communication, the ability to use technology, working with other members of the design team, landscape architects, us – I think that’s a big deal and a difficult task that we really executed well.
Gibson: When you’ve got the civil engineer, the general contractor, the landscape architect, and the client on the call, and everyone’s willing to listen, to work collaboratively, then you’re able to really arrive at a good place early on, rather than moving on [too early] to schematic design and then down the line, you’re making changes.
Heller: I think people get intimidated by that amount of involvement on front end, from the client’s perspective, and I totally get that and respect that, but what might not be understood at first is the efficiency of working with specialists. The landscape architect and the architect can help with the overall farm design, and I can help make decisions on budgetary consequences immediately. We can work together, and that influences the design in a positive way.
Gibson: It can be an overwhelming process, and I think the idea of the design team is to take some of that stress away. Somebody, at the end of the day, is going to have to make decisions, and they should never be made the day something needs to get done. Decisions should be made during the design process, when you’ve got good consultants around you. It makes a large project a lot easier than it would be otherwise. All the work that you put in on the front end pays dividends during the installation.
“ALL THE WORK THAT YOU PUT IN ON THE FRONT END PAYS DIVIDENDS DURING THE INSTALLATION”
– BARON GIBSON
Heller: The way I like to talk about it is: If we can get all of that high-level planning done on the front-end, we can then focus in on the details together – [the architect] can create really special drawings, the interior designer can help with the selections – we get everything packaged together, it’s all known. And then when we’re building, we can really focus on the things that make a home special, that make a farm special. We can really get into the craft and make sure everything is done to the best of our ability.
We also spoke about the design inspiration for the estate, and how the design team, client, and us as builders were able to come together on a comprehensive design plan that complemented the estate’s natural beauty while seamlessly incorporating our clients’ vision for their new home.
Gibson: First and foremost, we want to understand the clients’ desires. Everybody has pinterest nowadays. I want to see their pinterest board, I want to see what inspires them architecturally. What is it that drives that client to like that architecture? I don’t believe good architecture has a specific style. I think good architecture is responsive to the site. It can be balanced, symmetrical, it’s well-proportioned, the materials are carefully selected – I think that if you achieve those things in a modern application, a traditional application, or a transitional application, the end result is going to be good.
“I DON’T BELIEVE GOOD ARCHITECTURE HAS A SPECIFIC STYLE. I THINK GOOD ARCHITECTURE IS RESPONSIVE TO THE SITE.”
– BARON GIBSON
Gibson: For this specific project, it was really about the client’s inspiration, which included neocolonial, shingle-style inspiration. Obviously, being in Kentucky, it’s a very traditional place with a lot of history and old Kentucky homes. So [the question is]: how do we blend those two so that what we design isn’t going to look out of place in the Kentucky rolling hills? I think we’ve landed in a good place by using painted cedar shakes, with traditional Kentucky masonry materials that ground that design here in Lexington. I think one of the best parts of this process is being able to collaborate with you guys, and being able to talk about: how are we going to build this? How do we turn this idea into reality?
Heller: I feel like our role is to look at any detail that you want to accomplish and say: let’s talk about how we can do that. It’s about maximizing the details and doing them in an efficient way.
Gibson: It shows – you walk around this site and see that the details are executed to perfection and that is something that is hard to achieve. I think that that collaboration allows us to maximize what we can do.
Heller: I think our role as the builder is to execute the details that the architect and the client have put on paper, discussed, and have spent a lot of time thinking through. It’s my role with the design team to execute those details. If we’ve talked about budget, if the architect and builder have talked about construction details, then it’s my responsibility to make everything look exactly the way it does on paper.