Architect Barry Price on Creativity + Process
Award-winning architect Barry Price talks about creativity, passive house design, and how building guitars made him a better architect.
After working for large commercial architecture firms in Los Angeles, and taking a detour as a landscaper and luthier, architect Barry Price put down roots in Woodstock, New York. Inspired by the natural beauty of the Hudson Valley, he has since dedicated his work to creating singularly beautiful homes and properties that take inspiration from the beauty of the landscape. Organic to Barry’s work is an innate deference to the environment: its vernacular building forms, colors and textures of forest and mountain, tree bark, fieldstone, rock ledges and outcroppings.
His designs are not your typical cabin in the woods. Barry’s designs elevate his structures from mere buildings to works of Architecture, integrating modernism with high-performance building techniques and regional materials to achieve enduring compositions of light, space, and line.
What role does creativity play in your life?
It has always been central to me, one of the reasons I was drawn to Architecture. As it turns out, design is a small part of what I do every day, so when I have the opportunity to focus on purely creative tasks, I really embrace them. At the same time, there is no time to be precious about them when they happen, so having the capacity to be spontaneously creative is a really important part of what I do.
You used to be a luthier.… Can you talk about that? How did you get interested in that work? What did it satisfy in you? How has it informed your work today?
Early on, I was frustrated with the opportunities I was finding in Architecture, and when an opportunity availed itself to apprentice, I jumped on it. I was living in Los Angeles, but working on high rise buildings, and didn’t feel like I was working ‘of the place.’ I could have been doing that anywhere. I then spent two years working in a small shop in Topanga Canyon, and felt much more like I was doing something specific to where I was. So, it was satisfying on a variety of levels. Ultimately it was like a sabbatical for me. I was able to return to Architecture energized, more sensitive to the qualities of wood, and the tolerances of making things. It was a great palette cleanser before starting my practice.
How do creativity and business work together for you now?
Good question. While I have to approach my work as a business, I try not to. I see it as a passion, and I like to think of my office as a ’studio’ rather than an ‘office.’ I think about money, and the value of what I do, but, ultimately, I need to feel challenged and validated by my participation in a project. I can say that it’s more important than money, because I’ve been fortunate to be able to support myself, but I’d like to think it is true. Having said that, I have developed a deep appreciation for the business aspects, including tracking data and metrics, fostering good communication, and embracing the opportunities that technology can offer to create more time for creativity.
Does the Hudson Valley landscape and environment inspire you and your work?
You know well enough from my bio that it does. Per the Luthier answer above, I really like to feel like my work is connected to where I am. The Hudson Valley continues to offer me that inspiration. My relationship with the work continues to evolve, and my respect for the land makes it harder and harder to want to ‘disturb’ a piece of land with a building. So, this is something I have to weigh carefully when I consider my opportunities to be involved in any project, and I look for alignment of principles with my clients and construction team.
What is your process? How do you translate your customers' needs and desires?
No short answer here. A few aspects:
1. Versions: Some Architects like to develop a series of solutions and work through the appropriate one with the clients. In general, I tend to go right for the solution on a bit of a serpentine path, developing options for certain aspects as we go. The only thing I know is that there is not a particular/prescribed approach. You have to get a feel for a client’s capacity to visualize space and read drawings and then cater the process to the best of your abilities. No matter what you do, it is a large leap from a computer screen or 24 x 36 sheet of paper to a building, and there is a leap of faith no matter what.
2. Media: While most of my work is done digitally, I was trained to draw by hand, and that is still where I am most comfortable. In the early stages, computer 3d modeling has become more convenient and versatile in lieu of cardboard or wood study models. I miss making those models, but people have a tendency to look down on them, like a train set, which is not how we perceive houses. The computer allows you to represent even abstract forms from the perspective that they’ll be seen.
3. Decisions: Designing a building is all about decisions, and every time you make a decision, you are closing a lot of doors down the line in terms of related options. So, there is a bit of work involved—guiding people through decisions, letting them know what they are committing to and what they are leaving behind—in what tries to be a linear process. It’s inevitably 2 steps forward, one step back.
I could go on, but you probably get the idea.
What does your website add to your business? Has your site and online presence evolved over time?
My website is irreplaceable as a promotion tool. It allows me to discuss the specifics of the inquiry when I get a call—no background as to what I’ve done is required. People can tell me which projects they like, and for what reasons, and that helps to focus the conversation quickly. My inquiries are either via the website or referrals, both integral. The other thing I have come to appreciate the website for is that it is an objective space to reflect on the work. Once I post a project and see it in a medium that I know others will see, then I see it differently. It allows me to be objective and critical (in the pure sense of the term—positive and negative) about what I’ve done. I enjoy seeing the work objectively. The evolution is largely driven by what I think potential clients are looking for, balanced by how I want to represent my work. Moving between large and small screens, thinking about attention spans, all of these kinds of considerations have driven decisions about site formulation.
Did Covid-19 change anything for you in terms of business? How has the web made business possible - especially during the pandemic when life has been upended? Did/does your digital presence make up for it in any way?
In person meetings are much reduced, based on when they are absolutely a requirement. Like everyone else, Zoom is a vital tool for me. I’m just now building the first projects that were designed during the pandemic, so we’ll see what the construction phase is like.
Do you have any frustrations, worries, or paranoia about conducting business, or life, online?
I am pickier about setting up meetings. I’ve always been agenda oriented. Why are we meeting? What is the intent? So, that has just increased my sense of intention and purpose.
What are your goals, aspirations, or hopes for your online world?
For me, the missed opportunity thus far is in the construction realm. I maintain cloud project files that I provide access to owners, consultants and builders. Some participants embrace this more than others. I envision a time when the project is absolutely tracked digitally with progress webcams, GPS locations for dimensions, digital direct translation of CAD documents to construction (foundation placement, wall placement, etc). More than anything, centralizing all of the decisions that are required to make a building in an organized way, so people know not only how many decisions they have to make at the front end of a project, but where they are in the process as it evolves. The latter is something I try to provide, but it is pure work. A digital tool that would help with this would be a game changer. Google docs is a good start, but there are still translation problems, and clunky-ness. I remain hopeful though and keep my eyes open for advances.
Photo credits: Franco Vogt, Halkin-Mason, and Nils Schlebusch.
Read more on Barry Price at BarryPrice.com.