Housing Giants - March 1, 2009 - (Page 9) FEATURE ‘Epitome of a Team Player’ When DaviD Kosco was a fifth grader in Elyria, Ohio (a Cleveland suburb), he came home one night with a homework assignment to draw the floor plan of his house. His father raided a hidden trove of drafting tools, then helped him measure rooms and draw the floor plan to scale. That was all it took to hook young Mr. Kosco. “He taught me how all those tools worked — a set of compasses, T-square, slide rule, scale and triangles. From that point forward, all I wanted to do was draw houses,” Kosco says now. “I’d finish my homework every night and go right back to designing.” He’s still at it, and today Kosco is one of the most influential designers in America’s production housing industry — a shooting star with Bassenian/Lagoni Architects, the Newport Beach, Calif., firm credited with launching design trends that often spread like wildfire across the country. He’s someone you should know, because what comes off his drawing board in the next six months may tilt the shape and direction of the housing industry recovery. It’s happened before. When economic recession hit in 1989 and housing sales crashed for three years, Bassenian/Lagoni made its reputation by pioneering small-lot detached housing forms that helped jump-start the California market in the early 1990s. Builders needed small, affordable homes at greater densities to get prices down. But they also needed to stir the imagination of entrylevel buyers. Dave Kosco played a major role with production-built homes that proved design excitement and value engineering can co-exist. “Our approach to design was then and is today collaborative,” Kosco offers. “It’s just the way Aram Bassenian and Carl Lagoni work. Clients are part of the design team. That’s something I learned from Carl as a kid just out of college. “Carl mentored me, and I’ve mentored others,” Kosco says. “We have fun. Many of my clients have told me the most fun they have in home building is the time they spend in our offices, working on design. The results are better because we all learn from each other.” In the mid-1990s, Bassenian/ Lagoni gave move-ups a reason to jump back into the market by pioneering Tuscan architectural styles in Southern California that eventually captivated much of the Sun Belt. Once again, Kosco was in the middle of it — leading design teams with prominent Dave Kosco’s clients reveal that while his architectural achievements may bring them in the door, it’s the calm, collaborative relationships he fosters that bring them back for more. They have pride of authorship in the product that testifies they are indeed part of the design team. Gordon Statler was design director for Coleman Homes in Bakersfield, Calif., when Kosco first broke into the business in the late 1980s. He now holds the same position in Tom Coleman’s new company in Boise, Idaho. (Coleman sold his California company to Lennar three years ago.) “Dave Kosco has a smaller ego than any architect I’ve ever met,” Statler says. “He understands that the product has to be buildable. He just has a way about him — the epitome of a team player.” Statler says the products he and Kosco designed 20 years ago sold fast then and stand the test of time now. “It’s entry-level housing, but it’s impressive to people who know what they’re looking at — what it cost to build and what we were able to sell it for,” he says. “Dave has a unique ability to understand what his clients want and achieve it within the framework of costs that also work.” Statler is once again a client. “We’re working on another line of small homes. We don’t always agree, but the product is always better, even when we clash.” iN HiS OWN WORDS Dave Kosco reflects on one project that “caught on like wildfire.” 09 03.01.09 hoUsinG GianTs www.housingGiants.com http://www.bassenianlagoni.com http://www.housingGiants.com
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