28 i u m m e i (tie * 4

r&mw

SuperModel Homes TM

BY KEITH KRUMWIED E

"We offer borne* ,uni lifestyles ... "' design options ... and thousands of deco- home will live as well as it looks."" The clothed m co-opted value sv stems that 1 rator selections." After selecting .1 home sales experience transforms a more or less construct visions ol the good life, free ON HIGHWAY 290, IN NORTHWEST HOUSTON, plan, buyers meet their designer to final typical suburban home into an "innova- from everyday struggles. superstores otter cvcryd.iv low prices tor i/i tuiislu s and fixtures and an assigned tive design" achieved through "incompa- Cities — as marketplaces, the tradi- everything needed to stock the average 1 1 1 a Personal Builder * who supervises con- rable choice" with "inspired service." " tional domain ol marketing — are now American home and fuel the average struction of their "custom" home. The The buyer is not just purchasing a house, literally constructed through marketing. American lifestyle. Wal-Mart, Home buyer can check construction status daily hut a perfectly crafted and carefully mar- Planning is dead. And not just in Depot, target, Academy Sports and via a personal, password-protected keted lifestyli I liuiston, which is notorious for its lack Outdoor, and others populate a big-box 1 lomebuyer web site. ot /oning, hut is frankly 110 better or landscape of high volumes and deep dis- In the build on Your I ot program, a Marketing as Planning worse than any other sprawling American counts, hi 1997, a new player entered the critical component of the New I lome Marketing is everything — and not just at metropolis. Notwithstanding the recent 1 1 big-box game. David Weekley Homes * 1 1 1 1 Center * , buyers can even choose to David Weeklev Homes * . It shapes both popularity ol lifestyle magazines — opened the David Weekley New Home 1 1 build their David Weekley * home any- our products and our relationships to Wiill/hiper'. Surface, Nest— that sell Center™, a 17,000-squarc-foot super- where in I louston. Weekley — the largest products. It effectively and efficiently visions ol jet-set urbanity in plush, scxed- store.1 This "one-sfop home shop'' homebiiilder in lex.is. and the second transforms our world through formulas up environs, the suburban dream and its turned the superstore concept inside out: largest in the U.S. — sells almost I ,()()<) that connect consumers and producers in attendant value structure still drives most It sold nor household goods hut the hous- homes per year in the city/ That volume complex socio-economic equations, deter- current marketing. Since World War 11, es themselves; not the small goods, hut creates an economy of scale that allows mining not only the style of individuals' the private, bucolic realm ol the single- the container. Weekley to compete across multiple sales lives but the appearance and performance family home set among like-minded 1 1 David Weekley * positions his home brackets.'' More important, it creates an of their collective environment — the city neighbors has symbolized comfort, suc- superstore to he, like its big-box neigh- economic position that allows the builder — as well. As everything is reduced to cess. ,u]A security 111 an otherwise unsta- bors, a category killer. The New Home to work on individual, scattered lots. The marketable product, it becomes increas- ble (anil presumably unsightly I world. 1 1 ( enter * capitalizes on hig-box innova- necessary economies ot scale, previously ingly difficult to distinguish any values not I hat suburban image, once limited to a tions, adding personal service to con- available only in large subdivisions where directly related to increased financial city's edges, increasingly invades all terri- sumer choice and competitive prn.es. houses are constructed in a factory-like return. In cities, the results are clear: tories, both rural and urban. The subur- "Designed to sen ice the aeedt of cus- manner, are now distributed lot by lot Collective civic interests — cultural, social. ban product workl now shapes virtual!) tomers irom start to finish,"' il incorpo- across f lousion. Essentially, every neigh- or environmental — are swept under by all private development (lor the most rates almost every conceivable component borhood becomes a potential David waves of private development, immune to part, the only game in townl, turning of the home-buying process; a map room Weekley'*' subdivision. any value save the bottom line. every place, except perhaps Manhattan. of Weekley communities, on-site model Marketing offers the consumer an This is not to say that other values into a Suburb, l o r the marketer as for the homes, a show room of finishes and fix- entire philosophy of living at the New disappear. In fact, they're touted, es- consumer, the suburban sylvan ideal dis- 1 1 tures, and even a mortgage and title com- I Ionic C enter * . The homes are presented poused, and, ot course, capitalized upon places .1 dirty urban reality. pany to .issist in financing and closing the as the product of "over 20 years ot every day. You can't market anything — Never mind that as cities expand our deal. This combination of service and research into how people live."" Accor- save perhaps stocks or bonds — by trans- parents' suburban becomes our urban, as 1 1 selection generates an atmosphere of ding to sales literature, l.ifcDcsign * , parently presenting its effect on the pro- ours will must likelv he mil children's. In exclusivity by ottering what seems to be a Week lev "s residential ethos, is "an art, .1 diner's profits. Added, apparently mar- Houston, arguably the country's most Customized experience. science, a unique ingredient in each home ket-tree values — patriotism, family. suburban city, recent private development 11 1 lomebuyers can choose from over we build that enhances its value." Main Street Americana, neighborlmess — has reconcetved the older, more urban 1 1 1 1 1(1(1 tlooi plans and, through consultation life Design * spins David Weekley * provide the necessary camouflage to core — including yesterda) 's suburbs — with a Weekley designer, "personalize product out ol the ordinary cycles of sub- shepherd products safch to market. All as a new territory ripe for suburban colo- their home [in one of more than 25 dif- urban marketing and into the world of 111 inner ot goods ami scr\ ices, from phar nization. In the constant search lor new ferent subdivisions! with hundreds of custom construction, "ensuring that your in.Kcutteals to cities, are commonly fields ol operation, private developers are C i I t S 4 2 (I (I 2 s u m m e i 29

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62007 HAM • Horiww,

now backfilling the Inner Loop with p dtow section The furnishings and household development products and lifestyles horn I ^a-ous ;; G e o rq^; : belongings indicate thai the home's lic- on its outer shores. Small city lots are tional family is a young couple with an stuffed with oversized McMansions or infant and a toddler. The smallest bed- multiple townhouses boasting suhurhan- Parisian boulevard! room is furnished as a nursery. Stuffed scaled interiors; candy-colored strip cen- animals fill the crib, and a changing table ters complete with synthetic stucco pedi- is slocked with I biggies. The second bed- ments and plenty ol pav ing are placed room, a little girl's, houses "Patsy's along every busy street. Even when new Puppet Playhouse," with the puppet typologies for housing are introduced or actors hung from the theater's ceiling and rediscovered —townhouses, lolls, or world's largest company, constantly become more generic, it becomes harder an audience of dolls on the bed. The apartments over retail — they are clothed manipulates its floor stock in response to lor a builder to gam a competitive edge. FlexSpace** is certainly the young father's in the neo-traditional garb ol their subur- real-time demographic profiling. As cus- Better product placement (exclusivity) or domain — at least until another child ban COUSinS and often exhibit the same tomers check out, their purchases are cor- discount pricing (economy) offer advan- comes along. The room is outfitted with negligent behavior in regard to the public related item by item with oilier purchases tages, but both tend to reduce the poten- fishing poles, nets, aquatic taxidermy, and realm. Adjoining townhouses huddle in in.iJi m evi i\ othci store in the system tial size of the market. It is possible, how- fishing-related prints, t i n the desk sits ,i gated, insular enclaves or line block after Armed with that information, Wal-Mart ever, to offer an essentially generic product flat-screen computer by Props™, an elec- block with a continuous wall ot garage adjusts the distribution of its products under the guise of exclusivity, and to offer tronics company that apparently reduces doors facing the street. As development both globally aitd locally. In a similar the appearance of distinction with the overhead by dispensing with circuitry. seeks new shell space in the Innei Loop, manner, but without benefit of manage- assurance of affordability. The master bedroom |or "owner's the complex mixture ol buildings and ment, real-estate product in I louston is That, of course, is the magic of retreat," as it is known in most contem- programs that defines a vibrant urban constantly repositioned for better market David Weekley's big box. porary residential developers' plans) is setting is replaced with the bland homo- performance. The city's streets — its least distinguished by any character geneity of the newest exurban subdivi- shelves — are constantly restocked. New SuperModel Homes trans except, ol course, a tastl foi the IM sions and snips. product replaces old, as suburban settings behind the New Home Center on good life. A food tray with a plastic Writing about Houston in \^~H, are displayed for sale throughout the city. David Weekley Court sit three "Idea fruit-and-croissant breakfast sirs on the British architecture and design critic The real estate products in Houston I lonies" that demonstrate "|iist how king-size bed. Clearly, this is just the Keyner banham noted that the city "has and other m.i|or cities are increasingly David Weekley's designs become buyers' beginning for the Wilkins family. 1 no native-grown culture with which to similar. That sameness has its uses. dreams." - Each home is styled — or, Available for between $152,000 and explain itself to the world. It has no fus- Mortgage banking and real estate devel- more precisely, life-styled — to show the $212,000, depending on location, the ion to explain ilscll to itself even."11 An opment protocols demand a certain level advantages of purchasing a Weekley house is the first step in a three-tiered enthusiastic observer of American build- of design uniformity to best guarantee Home. The smallest, the Wilkins, is rela- rise to the top ol the home market. ing culture and cities, Banham, in a one- the maximum marker share available. tively modest by current Houston stan- I he second model on the David day tour of the city, astutely observed the Mortgages are traded as commodities, dards; one story, two baths, three bed Weekley Court, the Collingsworth, meas- SM "open game" ol land values, combined and a uniform product makes mortgage rooms plus Flex$pace — a Weekley ures almost 2,l>0<> square feet. It costs with the lack ol any geographic impedi- transfer easier. If each house were deeply term tor spacc-wc-don't-know-what-lo- anywhere from a modest JI'M.OOO for ments or zoning, that then, as now, drives different, then something other than a do-with-yet. The Wilkins' not-so-subtle the Urban model from the Build on Your the speculative production m this city. spreadsheet would be required to assess l-reneh theme in blue and yellow carries Lot program to $485,000 for a Custom but he missed the game's importance: It is and communicate its market value as through to the color-coordinated soeks Classic version located at Cole's Crossing, the culture with which we explain our- covered by the mortgage. and shirts hanging to dry in the laundry described as "an exit from the fast lane selves to ourselves. Ever since the Allen Design distinctions offer no competi- room. lit the kitchen, prints of Parisian ... where the milkman still delivers."'1 (In brothers gambled on the marketability of tive advantage in the housing market. A street scenes line the walls, and a cook- fact, buyers receive six mouths ol free a bend in buffalo Bayou, Houston's unique product, however innovative or hook titled Backroad Bistros, Farmhouse milk delivery! A step up from the "native-grown culture" has been real- intelligent, introduces an unacceptable fare lies open near a wicker breadbasket Wilkins, the Collingsworth introduces the estate speculation. And marketing. level of financial risk tor developers and overflowing with baguettes. increasingly popular "children's retreat" banks alike. Success sells, and difference The Wilkins is not the smallest plan between bedrooms two and three. It's Big-Box Urbanism is dangerous. With design reduced to in David Weekley's arsenal. In fact, at described as "a special place just tor the Market mg-as-planuiiig structures replicating previous successes, the ques- approximately 2,200 square feet, it's kids, where they can do their homework, I louston as a vast retail environment — tion becomes how to distinguish an almost 600 square feet larger than some- play games, or watch TV while mom and not just a city of big boxes, but the mv undistinguished housing product. thing called the Eastdale. But the Wilkins dad enjoy some quiet time with a movie as a big box. Wal-Mart, not only the As all real estate products — houses, is clearly the starter house in the Idea or reading by the family room fire." N world's largest retailer but also the townhouses. subdivisions, retail centers — I ionics trio. The room holds an easel and several 30 i v m w e i \ 2 n it 1 Cite 5 4

board names, along w i t h a colorful array Weekley I lomes 1 s|. (The Kramer, for Props1 M product line — a computer, obsessed w i t h architecture, when architec- ol kid-friendly furniture. instance, measures 4,500 square leei, and stereo, and television. ture is so clearly not the issue in Weekley's [Tie display model corresponds per- is available at Cole's Crossing for about The kids' bedrooms in the Winchester world? W h y not medicine? Or law? fectly w i t h the idealized life of Weefcley's 1500,000.) But a m o n g the three Idea are the most fully developed spaces m the because, as British artist Richard literature, t h e kids in this house, rung I lomes, the Winchester represents the top Idea I lomes. These children are ambitious I l.unilton once observed, "Design is a sales two on the ladder to domestic btiss, are o f the ladder, the ultimate in the three and hard w o r k i n g , w i t h clearly defined weapon."i' The designer is a marketing slightly older than those at the W i l k i n s steps-to-success, D a v i d Weekley N e w dreams and ambitions, bedroom four is aid, I latnilton argued; the fact thai some- and are starting to display personality Home Center"" 1 supermodel series. the romantic traveler's r o o m , w i t h model one thought about the design of a product traits w i t h their bedroom furnishings. I he As you enter the Winchester, you're biplanes, sailing ships, and hot-air bal- is more valuable lo sales than ihe product young girl in bedroom three is still greeted by the butler — a flat, stiff butler loons accompanied by Victorian-era paint- itself. David Weekley wields his sales obsessed w i t h dolls (an antique baby car- cur out of w o o d and painted to resemble ed wooden figures. In I he closet, t w o weapon well, capitalizing on architectures nage sirs in her r o o m ) , while the young a servant f r o m Masterpiece Theatre. I le leather suitcases await duty. cultural cachel more than architects do. hoy in bedroom t w o is in the midst of a stands in the lover, holding a sen 111:•. n.n bedroom number t w o (if only the Weekley distinguishes his product politically correct cowboys-and-lndians with four crystal brandy snifters. W i t h occupants had names!! is home to the limn other speculative residential con- phase. (I lis wallpaper shows an integrated this aristocratic flourish, the scene is set future archeologist. Prehistoric-looking struction w i t h a marketing campaign that Southwestern camp w i t h teepees and a A dinner party is about to take place. models ol insects, a book on lossils, a emphasizes his company's design intelli- chuck wagon). Apparently (he boy also I n tin- lett ul the foyer, the table is set, and globe, and an African d r u m sit a m o n g gence MU\ sensitivity at every t u r n . W i t h dreams ol g r o w i n g up to be David delicious-looking (albeit artificial I desserts rattan furniture. M o s q u i t o netting drapes typical immodesty, the website stales. Week ley1*'1. On his desk, beside a toma- are lined up on the sideboard. To the right. the canopy bed, and a Rtiiders of the "LifeDcsign'N l blends the fundamentals ol hawk and beneath a Buffalo Kill poster, dark-stained w o o d wainscoting and built- Lost Ark poster hangs next to the door. design, architecture, engineering, physics, sits a Props™ computer w i t h a sales in bookcases line the walls of the library, The lasr r o o m , bedroom number three psychology, and sociology to create a report displayed on its frozen screen. which ie.nines an antique drop-front writ- at the front of the house, belongs lo a home thai looks better — and lives better According to the report. Props'111 products ing desk and a crystal decanter tilled w i t h young w o m a n obsessed w i th architecture. — than all the rest."" ' A n d at the N e w provide a critical sales advantage to the faux Scotch. I urioiisly, l.eon l Iris's Anna- She appears little interested in the teenaged 1 Untie C e n r c r m , architecture, a symbol of home seller; for the past lour quarters, geddon claims a prominent place on the 1 lappings that annoy adults; o u h a leu suca ss and one of market capitalism's ulti- sales of model homes w i t h l'rops 1 M elec- bookshelf. Has David Weekley™ imagined desultory clippings of heartthrobs and a mate luxury goods, is made available in a tronics have outperformed those w i t h o u t . rhe neutron-bomb scenario as well? homecoming ribbon are displayed on a retail format — the big box superstore — The Collingsworth's FlexSpace5** is As in the other homes, the kitchen is small tack board. This young w o m a n familiar to every American shopper an optional attic r o o m complete w i t h the picture ol g o o d , healthy living. Plastic- focuses on her goals. A wire model ol the If Bernard Rudofsky's Architecture dormers. Perhaps the cowboy-lovin g son artichokes w a i t i n g to be prepared on the laffel Tower stands next to the bed. Without Architect* were on the shelf next chose its -.aloon furnishings: swinging cutting board, fresh herbs dry on a rack, Framed photographs of classical details to Architecture from Without in die aspir- doors, saddle barstools, cowboy boots, a and a can of Cihirardelli coffee sits on the hang on the walls, along w i t h a surrealist ing architect's room, then the mechanism full-sized John Wayne cardboard placard, counter. A cornucopia overflows wirli montage of the interior of a Gothic cathe- and message w o u l d be more transparent. and c a r t o o n c o w b o y w a l l covering. wheat on the island next to the range. dral overlaid on an Aigct-like urban street David Weekley I M is selling choice without Several resin-filled, loam-topped beer O n the other side of the spacious lam scene. A slipcover on the chair al the draft- risk, exclusivity w i t h o u t expense, "architec- mugs and a few b o w l s of stale popcorn ily room, the owner's retreat is finished in ing table matches a T'rank Lloyd Wrighr- ture" without the hassles associated w i t h an sit next to unplayed hands at the poker French neo-classical style. The wallpaper inspired bedspread, The shelves are architect, hut all the real decisions have table. It's as it a neutron b o m b has erased shows a classical frieze, and framed beaux stocked Willi hooks on architecture (along already been made — by the market. • all the occupants w i t h o u t disturbing their Arts prints hang on the walls. A breakfast with, oddly, a copy ol \\i>inmy Dearest). domestic dreams. tray rests on the ottoman, complete w i t h a Assorted Frank l.loyd Wright volumes By n o w , you feel as t h o u g h y o u ' re fresh bowl of plastic strawberries, a plastic- keep company w i th a book of late 20th- spying on strangely perfect Stcpford lanu croissant — from the Wilkins bakery, per- century skyscrapers, a technical drafting 1. New Home Marketing Company, iu'v In several rooms, ( m h r o i d c r cd pil haps? — and an empty coffee cup. A photo book. .\\\i\ Diana Agrest's Architecture www.nrwhintK-swii.liii.i.ci mi lows sport clever sayings: " I f you want o n the dresser shows smiling grandparents from Without. A drawing tube sits on the 2. AJitiritpu.il New Home i eaten opened outside li.ill.is in |.mit.in 211(11 .mil in Austin in |,inu.irv the best se u in the house, move the d u g " ; with three teenaged children. Through a shelf in the closet, and nosy shoppers w h o 2(1(12. "My favorite t h i n g to make for dinner is corner w i n d o w , a person relaxing in the sit- open the drawer next to the desk find a 3. www.J.ividW(.'i'klL-vliip|iti-s.coni/iilic.,isp 4. IhiJ. reservations"; and "I may have my faults, ting area could look out onto ... an over- collection ol drafting supplies. 5. www.il.ivnJuTi'klcy In inics v i mi/ new sip ii mi t,icis..isp bur being w r o n g is not one of t h e m . " The flowing dumpster in the parking lot next More than any other r o o m in the h. www.d.lvidweek ley In line's.e'nni/se.ireh..isp. unseen Weekley set decorator seems to be door, The trash is conspicuously out ol Idea Homes at David Weektey's N e w Searching rlis online database, tine ImJs houses ranging from ,i 1,700-squore-fooi $122,000 house 111 asking, "I l o w could anyone w h o lives place in this perfect w o r l d . Tor a moment, Home Center , this last one — filled I,, j 4,500-square l.pp.i 1525,000 house. this well be w r o n g ? " rhe illusion is broken. with architectural ambition — is the most ~, www.d.iviJwi'L'kk'vhnincs.c'inii/davidtesBon.asp 8. Ibid. The Collingsworths may not be The three upstairs bedrooms sur- strongly lliemed, M o v i n g through the 9. www.d.ividwi,rWryliiiiiu-s/.ihi>iirus..isp wrong, but they're not as right as their round the requisite children's retreat. This homes on David Weekley Court, it is II). Ihid. 11. ll.iiili.im, Keynes "( ollect $2,000,000," New neighbors. The Winchester measures retreat is clearly the d o m a i n of teenagers, ODl b u s h o w carefully the domestic envi- Society, Time 1'v. I""S. p, SOS. i,401l square lect and is priced as l o w as The board game Clue (it was the butler in ronment is crafted to articulate a progres- 12. www,d;widwi'ckleyhmiH's.ci>iii/iilK..isp 1I. wwu.d,iviJwe<-k]i'yli(>nk's.umi/l!iimimimty..isp? $227,000 on your o w n " U r b a n " lot. The the tu\ ci w nli ihe brandy sniftei! is hid sion through three stages in the life of a ( omtmuMysl 1490000 biggest of the three Idea H o m e s , the den in the closet. C o m m a n d i n g far more successful family. Bin ilns last room — the H. www,d,icidiUTkk-yhiiiiies.cpnii/}sriv.i,ytP!irpethi-r..np 15. Haraik Richard "Persuading Image," 1*5', Winchester still ranks a significant notch attention, a bookshelf/desk unit along the end of all the family's striving? — is con- Collected Word* 19S3-198Z, p. 135. below the biggest, most expensive David wall displays what must he the complete fusing. W h y is this fictional young w o m a n 16. www.davidweefclcyhotnes.com/lifedeaign.aip