Using vinyl creatively

Developers and designers are exploring ways to incorporate vinyl siding into human-scale neighborhoods without destroying the streetscape. Vinyl siding is being used innovatively in a few newurbanist projects around the country to improve the aesthetic qualities of the material and create attractive streets and outdoor spaces. Some are publicly funded infill projects with restricted budgets, others are production-built projects by private developers. In all cases, the considerations driving the use of vinyl are cost and maintenance. Vinyl siding is an issue in new urbanist projects because it costs substantially less than alternatives such as HardiPlank, wood, brick, and stucco. Vinyl takes less skill and time to install, and requires no painting. Savings can be substantial — perhaps $5,000 to $10,000 per house compared to cement-based siding. Also, many home buyers prefer vinyl because of the ease of maintenance. The problem with vinyl is that it can look glaringly out of place in a new urbanist neighborhood. Because vinyl contracts and expands in the sun, it typically comes only in light colors. All-vinyl streetscapes tend to be muted, dull places. Vinyl trim and eaves tend to have slightly different proportions and appearance than wood. Butt joints and J-channels on vinyl add to the phony appearance, as do stamped-on simulated wood grains. Aesthetics contribute to functionality in new urbanist places, which are designed so that people will spend a lot of time on streets and in small courtyards and patios. These spaces are designed as outdoor rooms, so the material and overall appearance of the “walls” of these rooms are critically important. The question is, how can new urbanists realize the cost advantages of vinyl and create comfortable, pleasant, public and private realms for sitting, walking, and gathering? Vinyl sophistication Perhaps the most sophisticated use of vinyl siding within a new urbanist project can be found in the Townhomes of Capitol Hill, a 154-unit infill project in Washington, DC. Designed by Weinstein Associates, the Townhomes of Capitol Hill is among the best looking projects of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Hope VI public housing redevelopment program. Vinyl is used on about 40 percent of the exterior of the units, including about a dozen front facades. About 15 percent is Dryvit (a simulated stucco), and 45 percent brick. The vinyl was necessary due to the limited budget, according to project architect Amy Weinstein. “We wanted to do the brick work, and the only way that we could figure out how to accommodate that was to use a significant amount of vinyl,” she explains. The townhomes are designed to blend seamlessly with the mix of historic styles in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. This led to the richly varied design of three- and four-story rowhomes, two-story Colonials, and Victorian duplexes. The vinyl is used on the rear elevations of units, and the fronts of the Colonials and many Victorians. To improve the appearance of the vinyl, Weinstein used a number of strategies, the most basic involving 5.25-inch-thick wood trim around the windows, doors, corners of buildings, eaves, cornice lines, and other details. “That’s an awful lot of wood trim to catch the eye,” explains Weinstein. “There’s enough level of detail that when you look at it, you’re looking at architecture — not just vinyl.” The wood trim also introduces color to the facade. Weinstein also specified vinyl siding without wood grain. This is important, she explains, because most vinyl siding manufacturers stamp a wood grain on to the product to simulate wood. This simulation invariably looks phony, because real painted wood does not have a pronounced grain. She also chose siding that comes in strips of three thin simulated clapboard pieces, with a vertical height similar to the brick course on neighboring townhomes. This created a lot of shadow lines on the vinyl. She also chose some vinyl in the pattern of shingles. The foundations on the Victorians were done in Dryvit, adding another texture and color. Moreover, the treatment of the windows is simple and elegant — here’s where good taste actually reduces the budget. Weinstein and the developer, Telesis, chose not to use any shutters and mostly avoided muntins — rather than apply vinyl shutters and flat window muntins as is so often the case with vinyl sided dwellings. Weinstein’s vinyl townhomes look better than other vinyl sided dwellings, because her firm put in a lot of hard work. “We were motivated to solve this problem and maintain high standards,” she says. “And my client shared our high standards.” Production builder humanizes vinyl Crosswinds Communities has been successful building low-cost entry level homes in the suburbs. More recently, the firm has built mid- to high-end, attached housing in cities. Crosswinds has combined these two approaches with Mason Run, its first new urbanist neighborhood, located in Monroe, Michigan. The first model homes are coming out of the ground now. Working with the designers, Urban Design Associates (UDA) of Pittsburgh, Crosswinds has tried to strike a middle ground between custom architectural details and cost. Although vinyl siding will be used in Mason Run, it will be used with wood trim. That’s a different approach than Crosswinds takes in its conventional suburban projects, says John Van Alst, project manager. The wood trim helps to give Mason Run a wider color palette. Crosswinds’ conventional subdivisions generally use four colors, Van Alst says. Mason Run will have three to four times as many. Siding with a brush finish, rather than a stamped wood grain, will be used. “This looks more like clapboard siding,” Van Alst says. Also, Crosswinds is using a greater variety of vinyl siding, with different vertical thicknesses and appearances to distinguish houses on the streetscape. “We feel we were able to achieve the architectural goals and save some money — although it is more expensive than a conventional suburban house,” he adds. The First Ward in Charlotte, North Carolina, is a redeveloped neighborhood designed by UDA. The project includes modestly sized craftsman-style single homes clad in vinyl. A portion of the front facade (second floor and the gable end of the porch) is covered with wooden shakes. These are painted, adding some color to homes. Also, the brick foundation of the porch and the wood on the porch and railings offer additional color and architectural details, softening the vinyl and making the streetscape more interesting. Coding vinyl One method of dealing with vinyl siding is to govern use of the material through architectural codes. Builders in Cherry Hill Village ultimately chose not to use vinyl siding (see sidebar), but prior to that decision had drafted some codes with the help of their architects and planners, Looney Ricks Kiss. The codes included the following stipulations: 1) All entry trim, window trim, porches, fascia, and cornices shall not be constructed of vinyl. 2) Two or more vinyl sided houses in a row without well detailed front porches will not be allowed. 3) Butt joints must not be visible in front or on any bay projections, dormers, or surfaces less than 12 feet in length. 4) No vinyl siding on estate lots. Townhome back and sides A fairly common new urbanist solution for using vinyl on townhomes is to employ it on rear elevations and side elevations on the interior of blocks. But brick, HardiPlank or some other material is used on all front facades and side elevations facing streets (corner units). This approach has been used in a number of new urbanist affordable housing developments, such as Pleasant View Gardens in Baltimore and Winchester Greens in Richmond, Virginia. A transit-oriented for-profit development project, Franklin Square in Metuchen, New Jersey, also is using this approach.