Bethesda Tea House

Washington Post Article

2011-10-03T22:56:00.003-04:00

Yesterday's article about David Jameson included a bit about the tea house:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/alexandria-architect-david-jameson-piling-up-design-awards-in-the-prime-of-his-career/2011/08/22/gIQAMzPbAL_story.html

Congratulations to David!

Concert Reception

2011-07-17T21:31:00.000-04:00

Last weeks concert was followed by a reception at the tea house. It included a 4 course "tea house meal":

And as seen here:

Public Concert and Reception

2011-06-15T17:45:00.001-04:00

We are presenting this free public concert, featuring Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, followed by a reception for the audience and musicians at the tea house.

Tapas in the Teahouse

2011-06-05T16:56:00.000-04:00

A late spring evening with Tapas in the teahouse. Details are at poposriver.blogspot.com

Mozart in the Teahouse

2011-05-22T22:32:00.000-04:00

The tea house was the setting for rehearsals of Mozart flute quartet and clarinet quintet. The acoustics are superb.

Finally, a bamboo forest

2011-05-08T21:54:00.000-04:00

The bamboo planted in fall 2009 is finally starting to having significant growth (35 shoots so far this year). This is an essential part of the tea house design. We'll show how this changes in the coming weeks.

Tea house table progress

2011-01-16T13:05:00.000-05:00

Sidney sent this photo of the progress on the tea house table. The material is walnut with thin layers of a lighter wood (birch?). We hope to have it in the tea house by late winter/early spring.

Fall colors

2010-11-17T22:32:00.000-05:00

Fall colors around the tea house bring out a different look.

Building a table for the tea house

2010-11-11T15:33:00.001-05:00

We've been working with a local wood artist (Sidney) to design and build a table befitting of the tea house. She has come up with an initial design (2nd picture). Today we just suggested a few changes, and hope to have a new walnut table soon.

Sidney in her workshop.

The initial design for the top.

The workshop.

Harvest Moon in the Tea house

2010-09-23T22:52:00.000-04:00

September 22nd was the harvest moon festival in China. The clouds cleared off just enough last night to see the moon (and Jupiter).

The fully lit tea house.

The moon peaking through the trees.

Fashion shoot

2010-08-14T22:48:00.005-04:00

The tea house was the setting for a magazine fashion shoot. A crew of about 15 people, including photographers, makeup and hair artists and wardrobe stylists. The photos give a glimpse of the process, which lasted from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The photos will appear in a spread in Vive magazine.

Sunset after the Storm

2010-06-06T22:34:00.000-04:00

A thunderstorm came and went quickly, leaving behind a wet garden, in time for the sunset.

Frank Gehry comes to the Feng-Zhu Tea House

2010-06-02T22:10:00.001-04:00

Ok, so Frank Gehry didn't really come, but the benches that he designed did. The are very much in the same spirit as the tea house: Calm and inviting.

Feng-Zhu means "maple-bamboo", for those who have been asking.

May Feng-zhu teahouse event

2010-05-26T22:07:00.002-04:00

The initial teahouse party/concert was held on May 15th. About 40 guests enjoyed music, food and drink on a perfect Saturday afternoon. You can see some of the audience reflected in the glass.

The architects and clients.

Just some of the food that was prepared for the event, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Indian and Spanish dishes.

Lazy Sunday in the Teahouse

2010-04-12T20:53:00.001-04:00

We spent an afternoon with the NYT, books, tea and various snacks in the teahouse. A needed break.

And the damaged Japanese maple has made a full recovery!

Tea house garden in early spring

2010-04-04T11:29:00.001-04:00

Spring has finally arrived and the garden is just beginning to grow.

All of the maple trees were somehow saved by by tying up the cracked branches, and are just beginning to leaf out.

Japanese maple tree repair

2010-03-07T13:47:00.000-05:00

We have tied up 3 of the Japanese maple trees on the advice of Mark Sampson. We'll see if the cracked branches can heal.

Storm damage to the garden

2010-02-28T15:27:00.000-05:00

The big winter storms dumped about 4 feet of snow on the garden. The main casualty is the Japanese maple that we just moved to the front of the tea house last fall. It's sad because we've had the tree for 10 years, and moved it 3 times trying to keep it out of the way of Henry's tractor during the tea house construction. We'll look for a replacement in the spring.

First Guests

2010-01-25T22:34:00.002-05:00

The first "event" in the tea house was a vegetarian dim sum with Italian guests. It was a relatively warm day, but we ran the heating, so it was prety comfortable. You can find the menu from the January 23rd posting of poposriver.blogspot.com.

Tea House Furnishings

2009-12-21T15:25:00.001-05:00

I dug a path to the tea house today, and Sara was able to take out the Zabuton sitting pads that she made on the weekend (material from Ikea).

The tea set (from Beijing) is sitting on the return grill that Henry made in November. The grill spacing is a little too large, as you can see down into the space below where all the mechanical hardware is located.

The tea house in winter

2009-12-20T22:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday's storm left 2 feet of snow in the DC area. These are the first pictures of the tea house in the snow. Now it appears to be sitting directly in the snow. We will dig a path to it tomorrow.

Snow caps along the fence.

Layers of steel and snow.

Passed the Inspection

2009-12-02T21:19:00.000-05:00

We've been trying for the past 2 weeks to get the final occupancy approval from the county (Who would have thought that you needed an occupancy permit for a tea house?). There were a number of hurdles: The wanted an entrance light. In fact they wanted the entire "path" lighted. We found this really ironic. The stepping stone path around the back of the tea house is somewhat symbolic, and one could more easily walk across the lawn from the (well lit) patio to the entrance. So we dutifully went out and bought some solar powered lights to satisfy the county. On cloudy fall days, there is only enough power to keep them on for about an hour, but we figured this would satisfy the county.

However, this turned out not to be the major problem.   As it turns out, when one puts in a request for an inspection, you never know which inspector will show up. And each one has their own ideas as to how to apply the code. So we failed the first inspection last week because he didn't like our metal and steel stairs. We had no way to predict this, because this particular inspector had never been here before.   But David, being an old hand at this business, suggested that we just try again. So Henry met the inspector yesterday, and we seem to have passed (I have know idea if there were any flying colors). So now we can legally "occupy" the tea house.

We hope to meet Henry tomorrow to settle the bill and get the key (it's been locked for the past several weeks) and the remote control for the heating and cooling system.   Thus ends the first part of our journey.

But we will be back. This blog will continue with future events at the tea house, and observations of seasonal changes within the garden.   Thanks to all of you who have been following (so far from 37 states and 41 countries). We will be back. We'll try to get some pictures on the next day of good weather.

Tree work

2009-10-05T09:10:00.000-04:00

The trees above the tea house have been shedding large branches. One of them landed on the edge of the roof and caused some minor damage. So we called the tree guys who have been removing some of the branches. These trees are on the neighbors property behind us. They are the ones we sent the "dear neighbors" letter to last winter. We never heard back from them, so we assume we need to deal with their trees ourselves.

Photo shoot

2009-09-29T23:19:00.000-04:00

David and his photographer (Paul) spent the day photographing the tea house today. They were here at least 10 hours, capturing the tea house in all the possible lighting conditions, from mid-morning until after sunset. The following photographs give some idea as to what Paul had captured while he was here. His photos of David's work will be published later this year, and you can pre-order your copy from Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/David-Jameson-Architect/dp/1864703563/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254278732&sr=1-1

David found the model, Sharon, to provide a human scale. She did a great job of holding the same pose for more than an hour.

Nearing completion

2009-09-27T16:02:00.000-04:00

Much activity has taken place during the last two weeks. David wants to try to get the teahouse into his book which is going to press in a week or so. So Henry has worked hard to get it closer to completion, and Mark has finished the landscaping.

The floor is now in place, but unfinished. The big vent in the middle is the heating/AC return. It will be covered by some kind of finer metal screen. A bronze finish would probably be best. We wish it wasn't so large, but the idea is to have the heating or cooling along the outer perimeter, and return in the middle. The space under the floor will be conditioned air, designed to make the floor warm on cold winter nights. The floor is made of fir ends. It is an unusual floor material, but was often used in factory or warehouse floors in the 19th century. It creates some interesting grain patterns and can stand up to extreme conditions.

A heating vent and floor light up close. The light will have a glass covering flush with the floor. All of the lighting is in the floor and shines on the ceiling.

The entrance: Note the different materials. The door is made of mahogany, the ledge is covered in bronze, the upper step is painted steel, and the lower step is painted concrete.

Side view of the entrance steps.

The entrance path as it rounds the corner:

The path from the patio to the tea house. We struggled with how to arrange the steppers to make the needed curve. David came by one morning and figured it out in a few minutes.

The patio was removed during the landscaping because the level of the yard was raised about 6 inches. My neighbor, Rafael, found me a bricklayer, Jose, to put the patio back in place. He did a better job than when I installed it 10 years ago.

The return of the architect

2009-09-13T16:26:00.000-04:00

David returned from vacation this past week and wanted some changes. Some we like and other we didn't agree to. He feels that the Seneca gravel is too dark to be able to get the floating effect of the tea house. Mark brought a sample of some off white gravel yesterday, but we felt it wasn't quite right. In fact, I think that while a lighter stone will contrast more with the base of the tea house, it will also allow you to see more clearly that the base does in fact touch the ground at the center. With the red gravel, the line between the tea house and the stone is someone blurred. And if you catch it in the early morning sun, you can get some light underneath. These photos were taken around 11 a.m. today, and there would be even more light below if they were taken a couple of hours earlier.

David also wanted the path to be less straight, so that it meanders through the bamboo (which will eventually fill in much of the space) as seen below. The stones will be set into the gravel this week.

Henry replaced the broken glass on Friday. I will order some netting to go up on the left side to block any future golf ball attacks, which is my best guess as to the cause of the damage.

Landscaping progress

2009-09-06T20:12:00.000-04:00

The landscaper made some progress this week.

The lawn is going in:

And Seneca gravel has been put in around the tea house. The path to the entrance passes through the bamboo around the right side:

To the rear,

And finally to the the left side (note the still broken glass).

The tea house as of Sept 4, 2009

Painted Steel beams and interior finishes

2009-08-30T15:05:00.000-04:00

The substantial progress made this past week was overshadowed somewhat by the vandalism incident. Mario the painter finished painting the beams. The color is meant to match the bronze cladding. The original intention was to use a brown similar to the current Eiffel tower color, but we found it a bit too light.

This picture shows the beam closeup before and after sanding and painting.

The ceiling is of maple veneer, stained rather darker than we had intended. It seems David Jameson didn't like our plans for a light colored ceiling, and the panels were finished before we found about the color change. We were concerned about lighting in the teahouse, since all the lights are in the floor and will shine onto the ceiling. So we were dependent on a light colored ceiling to lighten up the space at night. Still the color looks good.

The floors of fir end pieces is not yet sanded and stained. I suspect we'll need to go with a dark color, now that the rest of the room is dark.

How the teahouse looks as of August 29, 2009. The broken glass can be seen to the left of the side door.

Tea House Vandalism

2009-08-26T09:30:00.001-04:00

The tea house was vandalized last night. It was likely a bb gun, coming from the direction of one of the angry neighbors. You can see the direction that the shot came from in the reflection of the 2nd picture.

Exterior nearing completion

2009-08-23T15:57:00.000-04:00

The bronze cladding was finished this week. Mario the painter started to sand and prime the steel beams. They will be painted a bronze color to match the cladding.

Close up of the exterior cladding.

A post yelling email exchange

2009-08-19T21:24:00.000-04:00

August 13, 2009

Andy,

I am not sure what has happened to you in the last 24 hours.

Per my response to your phone tirade yesterday, we will be there today to remove the blue tarp. The first wave of the bronze is finished and we will begin the installation of such today.

Our plan is to pack it up this morning and be there mid morning.

As to your neighbors: with the removal of the blue tarp, the only thing they will have to object to is the modern structure itself,
to which they had objections to when the first elements were installed.

As to the timing of this project, please understand that I am not trying to drive you crazy, but merely trying to finish a difficult project under difficult circumstances.
With that in mind, I apologize for the stress and inconvenience that this project has caused you and Sara. But please also understand that this project has caused me considerable stress, both technical and financial.

In spite of the long history of this project, all the elements for completion are ready and we can move forward to complete this. I only ask you to hang on to your last threads of patience for a few days.

Henry

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August 19, 2009

Henry,

Now that you've made some progress and I have calmed down, let me explain things a little further. It had gotten to where I have neighbors knocking on our door in the evening to chew me out about the tarp, which had been in place for nine months. There was no getting across to them that I couldn't simply fire you and find another contractor, and I've been at wits end. So it seemed that yelling really loud was my only option. I don't know if you had intended to come the next day or not. I'm only sorry that things had gotten to the point where I had to do it. When you couple this with the previous long delays, and your past reassurances about how quickly things would go, it added up to more than we have been able to handle.

We do realize that you will very likely lose money on this project. But we have signed a contract, and we did expect that it would be honored in a reasonable time frame. which would have been something much closer to the 12 weeks that was written into the contract.

The exterior bronze looks terrific. Let's get the interior wrapped up.

Andy

Finally

2009-08-14T21:43:00.001-04:00

Two nights ago I called Henry and yelled for 10 minutes, including a number of obscenities. It wasn't much fun, but it seems that was the only way to get through to him that time was up. So the next morning they took the tarp down and got back to working on the trim. This allowed the landscapers to come back and start to plant the trees and shrubs.

More Complaints

2009-08-12T19:51:00.000-04:00

David and Henry,

You both have pushed me too far. I expect both of you to show up here and resolve this issue. You both owe Sara and I, along with all of our neighbors an apology for the damage you have done to our lives. We won't put up with this any longer. Too much money has been spent, and it has only resulted in our conflicts with the neighbors. I can't believe that 6 years has gone by, and what we have to show for this is a truly ugly blue tarp.

It's hard for me to imagine anymore what it is like to hire a contractor who comes and finishes a job in a professional manner. Do you treat all your clients in this manner????? Please take the tarp down tomorrow first thing in the morning.

Andy

Bethesda Gazette

2009-08-05T21:55:00.000-04:00

Henry and David,

I hope you both saw the article in today's Gazette about neighbors complaining about backyard construction:

http://www.gazette.net/stories/08052009/bethnew200940_32530.shtml

I'm concerned that our unfinished project (with that horrible blue tarp) sitting there for nearly a year will eventually find it's way into the news. Why don't we try really hard to make sure this doesn't happen by finishing the project in the next several weeks. I don't think that this is the kind of publicity that either of you are going to want.

Andy

Hung out to dry

2009-07-24T10:01:00.000-04:00

It's been a dry suumer and we are still waiting for Henry to return to working on the teahouse. In the past he has told us that it was too cold or wet to work. Is it too dry now?

In the mean time, the fence is mostly finished (but not completely stained), and the holly trees are planted.

Inching Along

2009-06-21T11:46:00.000-04:00

Very slow, and not very steady progress this week. Henry's crew came two days, while the landscapers were here most of the week. The retaining wall was installed behind the tea house. It will enable us to make the ground level and keep soil from eroding into the neighbors yard. The space in this photo is where the path to the teahouse will pass through. It will be mostly filled with black bamboo.

Henry's crew worked slowly on adding the brass trim on the exterior (below). They will use chemical oxidation to stabilize it to a dark bronze color, matching the existing bronze seen on the corner. Once the exterior trim is completed, the tarp can come down and the steel beams can be painted (finally!). The concrete step (with attached steel steps) on the left below is teahouse entrance.

The landscapers have also been putting up the garden wall. The first section was finished this week.

Arrival of Trees

2009-06-07T18:31:00.000-04:00

The landscaper is slowly bringing the trees and shrubs. The holly trees arrived first:

Another wait for Henry

2009-06-07T11:45:00.000-04:00

This picture shows where things have been for the 6 weeks. Henry's crew has shown perhaps 2 or 3 times during this period, but we can't see that anything has changed. The tarp is still in place because there is still external bronze trim that needs to be put into place. In the meantime the landscaper has gotten started and has leveled the back yard.

Glass installed

2009-04-12T13:32:00.001-04:00

Most of the glass was installed this past week. Two panels somehow disappeared between the glass company and Henry's shop. They should arrive in the coming week. In the front view you can see the double doors that open into the yard. There is still a tarp covering because it is not yet fully sealed.

The side view shows the entrance door. The triangle shaped pieced of wood inside are the base to the inverted pyramid ceiling.

The interior view. The metal posts hold the floor and ceiling together, and continue through the roof to the suspension beams. In the interior, the will be encased in mahogany.

No joy in mudville

2009-03-29T22:33:00.000-04:00

We've reached the end of March, and things don't look a whole lot different than several months ago. The main things you will notice are that the tarp is getting gradually more shredded, and recent rains have left the ground significantly muddy. Our backyard is beginning to look like the aftermath of some terrible war. But some progress has been made, and Henry hopes to work on the roof this week, and perhaps put in the glass walls in the following week. After that the tarp can come down, which will be a significant improvement, and may help towards thawing relationships with some of the neighbors.

And we should also be able to start some of the landscaping soon. Most of the following photos were taken at the landscapers farm last weekend. The picture below is an example of the horsetails that will be used to the left of the tea house, to hide the compressor for the air conditioner.

Then in the left most corner of the yard will be several Holly trees like this one.

These will be interspersed with winter berry bushes:

And we picked out several boulders to be placed in front of the tea house.

Construction resumed

2009-03-22T18:47:00.000-04:00

Henry restarted regular work on the tea house during the past two weeks. He is now predicting completion in about 6 weeks, but this remains to be seen. All of his past estimates have been wildly optimistic compared to the actual outcome.

We heard nothing from the neighbors regarding the letter I sent. I'm hoping that this closes the chapter on complaints from them, but that may be too much to hope for. The sad thing is that if we were building a three-car garage with vinyl siding, they probably wouldn't have had any complaints at all.

Dealing with Neighbors

2009-02-16T17:46:00.000-05:00

We continue to get reports from Henry that the neighbors behind us are expressing their unhappiness with the tea house project in various indirect ways, including knocking over things that he had leaned against the back fence and putting various items (he didn't specify what) in the port-a-potty in the yard. So I've decided to send them a letter, hoping to smooth things out. I'll send this out tomorrow, and post their reponse, if I get one (I'm expecting to get a rant):

Dear Neighbors,

We've become aware of some unhappiness with the garden pavilion that we are building in our garden. So it is probably helpful if we explain it a little further, with the hopes of relieving some of the concerns you may have. We are confident that you won't find it so bothersome once it is completed. All of the steel beams will be painted, and the landscaping will include foliage behind the structure, that should block most of your view of it. We will install a fence along the back side of the property so that nothing will be growing into your fence. But I do hope you realize that it is fairly common to see some kind of utility building at the back of one's lot, such as garages or tool shed, which can be fairly large and not particularly attractive looking.

The contractor working on the project should not have been attaching anything to your fence, nor leaning anything against it. We found out about this after the fact and have told him not to do it in the future. And yes, the flapping tarp is extremely annoying. We certainly didn't expect that the project would get held up by bad weather before he could get the structure enclosed. The covering is temporary and it will be removed as soon as the weather improves and the contractor can enclose the structure. We would be happy to discuss any of this with you, and to work with you on any concerns about it. You can contact me at *********, though it might be best to discuss the issues in person rather than sending me a list of complaints by email.

Sincerely,

Andy

The black bamboo screen

2009-01-29T22:56:00.001-05:00

Plans are for the area behind the tea house to be filled with black bamboo as a screen. This is a critical component to the design, both as a way to create some privacy in the space and to (hopefully) alleviate some of the neighborhood opposition to the design. Black bamboo reaches heights of 12 ft, and the top of the steel beams are about 15 ft, so some of it will be visible to the neighbors. But this is really the best we can do.

We get egged

2009-01-26T10:46:00.000-05:00

We found several eggs smashed on our car this morning. While it might have been a random incident, it is also quite possible one of the neighbors is expressing his/her displeasure over the tea house. David said that he has had projects egged in the past (forcing him to get a restraining order). We hope it doesn't go that far.

Meeting with landscaper

2009-01-22T22:19:00.000-05:00

Today we met with a landscaper to discuss planting around the teahouse. The area has become quite muddy due to the tractor driving around in wet weather. The tentative plans are for meandering stone path through a black bamboo forest. The area in front of the tea house will be a carpet of small dark stones. This all depends on what kind of estimate he comes up with, of course.

More complaints from Neighbors

2009-01-13T22:13:00.000-05:00

I got this email from Henry this afternoon about the neighbor behind us complaining about the project. All I can say is "ouch" and hope it doesn't get worse than this. Of course it wasn't helpful that Henry tied his tarp to the neighbors fence. We hope they will learn to love it in time.

--------------------------------------------------

Andy,

For your information:

We were working on the T house project this morning.

The neighbor immediately to the back of the house came over and talked with my guys about 10 minutes before I arrived.

She asked them to take off the cords tying the tarp to the fence at the rear property line.

My guy told her that I was going to be there shortly and that could she wait to speak with me.

She replied that if they didn't remove the ties that she would.

At which point my guys said "no problem" and promptly moved the ties.

During the course of them moving the ties, she took the opportunity to tell them how much she did not like the project.

After hearing this story, I went over to the house and knocked on the door, but no one answered.

Henry

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January 1st photos

2009-01-01T15:52:00.001-05:00

The storm blew the tarp off from the tea house yesterday, so we could take some photos today. The doors are installed, but there is no glass in the windows yet, and all the metal cladding needs to be added.

Some interior details. The steel pole (left) will be covered in mahogany like the one one on the right. The ceiling structure will eventually be finished in maple. The openings for the floor lights can be seen in the bottom right picture.

Tea house under construction - blowing in the wind

2009-01-01T14:17:00.000-05:00

Tea house video

2008-12-23T22:09:00.000-05:00

Short video of a temporary cover being built for the teahouse.

The beams installed

2008-12-20T13:48:00.000-05:00

The beams were installed Thanksgiving week while we were away. There was an immediate complaint from someone in the neigborhood about the project to the county, which took a day to resolve. The issue has to do with how close to of the columns are to the property line.

Unloading the steel beams

2008-12-19T22:20:00.000-05:00

The steel beams were delivered the week before Thanksgiving. I have no idea how they got these off the truck and into the back yard. But it took them all day. If I could have taken the day off from work, I would have gotten a video of some of their labors.

The bridge to nowhere

2008-12-07T17:27:00.000-05:00

Henry installed this dock. It was just a week before the election, so we
dubbed it "the bridge to no where". He is using it to unload the steel beams
and tea house parts from his truck.

Excavation

2008-12-07T15:41:00.000-05:00

Excavation of the footings began on October 14, 2008. The two large holes below are for the pedestal footings on the left side of the tea house. The smaller whole is for the center support that will also house the heat exchanger.

Once the concret for the footings was poured, forms for the pedestals were built.

The long trench is for the power supply for the heat pump and lights.

The long wait, part 2 (March 2007 - October 2008)

2008-12-07T14:43:00.000-05:00

Once we cleared the bamboo from the back of the yard, we were ready for Henry to begin the excavation. However, he told us that he did not yet have his contractor's license, but that he would have it soon. We called or emailed him almost every month, but were unable to get things moving. The following emails give only a partial view of the frustrations of our attempts to restart the project:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 28, 2007
Henry,

It's probably a good time to get an update on the
teahouse. We need to get the construction contract
first, provided there hasn't been any problem with
your getting a license. Do let us know if there is any
complication with that.

I got a great deal of the debris cleared in back of
the hose last weekend, and will be able to finish
everything else this coming weekend. So we would like
to schedule a time to meet.

Andy

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 11, 2007

Henry,

It's been about 8 weeks since our last meeting, at
which time you expressed confidence that foundation
work would begin in late March (weather permitting).
It would be best if you let us know where things are,
and whether there has been some unexpected
developments that have caused a delay. Hope to hear
from you soon.

Andy and Sara

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 17, 2007

Andy / Sara,

We have been side tracked with a couple of crusher deadlines.

Next week we will be back on track to move the t-house project into the install phase.

I will send you a short list of items as a warm-up to mobilizing the install.

Thanks,

Henry

Henry Kawa

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 24, 2007

Henry,

I expected to hear from you this week about getting
the tea house moving. Let's meet up to deal with the
contract etc so we can get things going.

Andy

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

June 11 2007

Henry,

Please do let us know if there are going to be further
significant delays with the project. I hope you
realize that we were expecting you to send us
something a couple of weeks ago, but have since heard
nothing. It is much better if we can find out in
advance if we need to wait much longer, rather than
continuing with the current uncertainty in the
project.

We will be out of the country from July 2-16th, and
obviously won't be available for anything requiring
logistics here at the house during that time. We will
also be away for shorter trips June 9-12 and 17-18.

Andy

-----------------------------------------------------------------

July 31, 2007

Andy,

As we discussed yesterday:

1. here is the action list to the completion of the job. Please review and call w questions.

2. we will string line layout the back yard later this week. please review & confirm it looks right to you.

3. we continue to knock off the items for the in shop checklist: we are currently finishing the bronze exterior & the mahogany interior.

4. we need to discuss some of the add on items ( maple ceiling, painting the superstructure, etc.) I will get a list together & email.

5. we will sit down to formalize contract part 2 (for onsite work) as soon as all our paperwork is in place.

Thanks,

Henry

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January 8, 2008

Henry,

We are rather disappointed that you have not sent us the contract as you promised. You agreed with us at the last meeting that the contract should be ready at the beginning of 2008. We want to set up a meeting any day this week or next Monday to get the contract reviewed and signed. It will not do you or us any good if the project drags on and issues are unsolved like what happened since our last payment.

We certainly learned our painful lessons on the complications of the two part contract approach you and David lead us to. We totally believed that it was only for the license issue you had at the time, now we are not sure if it was actually for a room to increase the final price of the project. We agreed and signed a contract with extra 10% fee to compensate the budget estimate uncertainty at your end, It is unfair to change the things in the middle.

At this point we just want things to get finished up, as I'm sure you do also. Let's have a meeting with a contract on the table and get it signed. We'd like you to respond to this email and let us know what your plans are.

Andy and Sara
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 28, 2008

Andy,

I am getting final and confirmed numbers for the install phase of the project.

I met with the electrician and reviewed the requirements for the T-house in the shop.

We need to schedule a site visit and look at the electrical panel (inside the house) to confirm how the tie in the existing will work.

Please email me times that would work for you this week or next, so we can arrange a site visit.

HK

Henry Kawa
RKI

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

June 30, 2008

Henry and David,

It's been 6 months since the date we were promised a contract to complete
the Tea House project. I am truly astounded that you chose to ignore the project for so long with absolutely no explaination.

I am dissapointed with both of you both professionally and personally. I can't understand how you would treat a client in this manner. We have always responded to all of your requests for input and for payment promptly. We are at the point of giving up on you, and concluding that you have abandoned the project.

At this point, I am not interested in any explanations or promises for when you plan to complete the work. I am only interested in a getting a SIGNED contract to complete the installation.

Andy

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 30, 2008

Andy,

The project has been disassembled and made ready for the install phase.

There are some critical coordination issues which I will email you about.

I am out of town until July 7.

Will send you the contract then.

Henry
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

August 31, 2008

Henry,

What is wrong with you.

Why do you send us an email saying that you will send the completed contract in one day, and then let two months go by without a word.
What do I need to do to make you understand how unhappy we are with you, and how painful this whole mess has become. Please don't do this any longer.

It has been our concern from the very beginning that you would stop the work in the middle. I even told you and David of this concern. Your response was that you wouldn't do it, because you wouldn't have the space at your workshop to store the teahouse. This is obviously not the case.

Do I need to come there every day and remind you to finish the project? What is it going to take?

And David, you need to take some responsibility for this. When we asked about finding an alternate contractor for the project, you only gave us the choice of working with Henry, since he had put so much time into it. So please make some time for this project, and help us to get it back on track. Obviously, sending another email to Henry or calling him is not going to be enough.

We need a complete contract, signed by Henry, and a start date.

Andy

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

September 2, 2008

Andy,

Yes I have been told before that there are many things wrong with me.

We have had our hands full with projects that have admittedly preempted yours.

They are nearly complete.

I would hope to complete your project this fall.

I will send a more detailed email later today.

thanks,

Henry

Henry Kawa

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 1, 2008

Henry and David,

Well, another month has passed. And once again I'm writing to express my complete dismay that you continue to refuse to work further on the teahouse project. This is in spite of your repeated statements that you believe you can get started soon. You've been saying this for 1 1/2 years now!!! I'm sure you must realize that this cannot go on indefinitely.

I don't want anymore statements about when you think you can do it. It needs to get restarted now. All we are asking for is that you finish the project as agreed. If you don't plan to finish the project in the near future (this year), then it is better if you come out and say so.

David you really do have some responsibility here, not only because you are overseeing the construction as part of the contract you have with us. I don't want to hear anymore that it is out of your hands. I think you both know very well that it is morally wrong to hold a project up like this.

Andy

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

October 2, 2008

Andy,
I continue to be as shocked as you that the TeaHouse is not installed and I'm truly sorry that this process with Henry has been horrific. Of course I feel like I have a responsibility to you since I recommended Henry to perform the work. I have begged, screamed, and written unpleasant notes to Henry over the last year in an effort to prod him to completion. You are more than aware of the results. I did talk to Henry again this morning and thought you and I should discuss that call. Let me know if you have time to talk this morning and I can call you.

David

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 14, 2008

Andy,

I duplicated the key for the basement door.

I put a key thru your keyslot.

I have a copy of the key, as does Alberto.

We have started to clear the wall from the door to the electric panel, and will complete that tomorrow, in anticipation of running the electric line from the panel.

Foundation excavation proceeding, I have arranged for the engineer to inspect the holes on Friday 10/17.

I ordered a porta john which will be delivered tomorrow.

We cleared brush for the heat pump pad.

We will continue on the holes and the electric trench tomorrow.

Thanks,

Henry

The great bamboo dig

2008-11-16T22:01:00.000-05:00

The area where the tea house is to go in was occupied by several bamboo plants that we planted about 10 years ago. They never really thrived because the spot is so shady. But we didn't want to dig them up and throw them away. So we put an ad on Craigslist in March of 2007 for free bamboo (u-dig). We got response from 30 people, from all walks of life. Including families, young couples and fathers and sons. Some clearly had no experience with plants at all. Below is a partial collection of the responses we got. Within 2 weeks, all the bamboo was gone.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi!

I saw your listing for free bamboo plants, and I would absolutely love to take them (some or all) off of your hands! Two questions, though: 1) By when do you need them to be removed?; and 2) Are you located somewhere that is metro-accessible? I know the second question seems odd, but I don't have a car this weekend, and I'm not sure whether my friends will be available to lend me a ride to pick up and take home the bamboo. At the very least, I'll be able to provide some entertainment for other metro riders. :)

Thanks!

Colleen

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Can I get some Bamboo plants please?
Thanks,
Neil

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello there,

I would love to take some bamboo plants. Do you think they'd be okay if I replant them but keep them indoors? Also, I have no problem digging them out but I do not own a shovel--do you have one I could use?

Thanks!

~Angela

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

hello,
I am interested in your excess and unwanted bamboo.
I could come and dig it out much later today, or any time tomorrow
(sunday),
or mid to late afternoon on monday.
please respond pro or con as to whether there is any left.
I would be willing to take a little or very much.
I have a farm and want to get several patches started.
sincerely, james

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I would like to have one small plant. Please email address.
Mar

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Fellow Craiglister:

Thank you for posting your ad for bamboo. I have been looking for bamboo for sometime and will happily take the full lot off of your hands asap. I am available today. I have a truck. And, I have a few handy-men to ensure a rapid, hassle-free transaction. Please let me know which steps I should take in order to pick up your lovely bamboo plants.

Thanks for sharing,

NISA

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

posting for bamboo. I'm interested.

Can you tell me what species of bamboo?

How fast do you need to have removed?

Thanks much!

Roger

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So the bamboo has been spread far and wide.

----------------------------------------------------------

The fabrication

2008-10-26T00:01:00.000-04:00

Fabrication began in November 2006. Finally! The following photos were taken at Henry Kawa's shop in Rockville, MD between November 2006 and February 2007.

The first set of photos are of the steel framework, including the trellis (top), a close up of the joint between the floor and the struts (which will be steel also), and the framework of the roof.

The next set shows some interior details, including the wooden trim around the steel struts (right), and the fir end flooring (bottom). The lighting (right) is embedded in the floor and will reflect off from the ceiling.

The nearly completed tea house is shown below. This is the back side, with the entrance door on the right. The exterior metal work is presently a bright brass color, but will eventually be oxidized to the darker finish, seen in the lower left. A wooden mockup of the entrance stairs is shown in the lower left, which will be made of concrete.

The long wait

2008-10-21T22:29:00.000-04:00

From the Summer of 2005 we continued meeting and negotiating on getting a final price agreed upon, but eventually things came to a standstill. Henry was unable to come up with a final price and contract for several months. In January of 2006 we threatened to pull out of the project, which prompted some quick action by David to get things started. He agreed to get Henry to produce a contract by April 1, and he would also get the permit started from the county. We did get the permit on April 1 as promised, but the contract took several more months of prodding and complaining. Finally, in the fall, Henry came through with a contract. But there was a catch.
This was the first project in which Henry was acting as a general contractor, since he had always been a sub-contractor in the past. This meant he didn't yet have a contractors license, and couldn't sign a contract for installing the tea house. He could still build it in his studio, but he wanted to separate the contract in two parts: Fabrication and installation. This way the fabrication could proceed now, and the installation would happen very soon in the Spring, once he had obtained his license. We very reluctantly agreed. This was a decision that would cause many sleepless nights in the future. Most of the cost was going into the fabrication, so if for any reason he didn't follow through on the installation, we could have a serious problem.

Meetings and negotiations

2008-10-20T21:17:00.000-04:00

During the spring and summer of 2005 we went through a series of meetings with Henry and David that focused on the details of the design and construction, and worked towards finalizing the price:

David and Henry,

Here is a summary of our discussion today, plus some
additional comments on the proposal:

Floor panels: We prefer a simple, natural colored
hardwood floor. The small size of the space really
needs to feel light and airy. The important thing is
that the material is stable under a wide range of
humidity and temperature conditions. We do not need
the removable floor panel in the center.

Ceiling: Keep the inverted pyramid shape, but use a
natural (and light) wood panel or veneer that gives
the
impression of panels. We have pictures that we can
show you.

Roof and eave structure: Is there a less expensive
material (and requiring less labor)that can be used?
Is it possible to use a metal roof?

Window trim: Since the ceiling is will not be
mahogony, we think this should be a lighter wood. It
does not really need to stand out.

Door: It should be very simple and flat. Even a
painted steel (or wood) would be fine. A finish color
that gives the appearance of slate would be ideal.

Fence: Are there any other options for the fence? Is
there any product that gives the feeling of being very
solid and smooth, but understated. It needs to have
very clean lines. It should not really stand out or be
noticed.

For all these possible changes we would like to cut
the budget by 12-14 k, so that the subtotal is under
$110,000. We prefer the fixed fee so a contingency
can be added to this amount.

Andy and Sara

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So the price was higher than we had hoped. We continued to discuss details and ask for revisions that might help to reduce the price. There were also concerns about the size of the steel beams that would be required to hold the teahouse in place. The initial drawings from Henry looked terribly large and looked like they might overwhelm the teahouse. In the meantime, Summer passed into fall.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sept 12, 2005
Henry was supposed to get a status email out last week. When I visited his
shop last week he had all the window extrusion mockups, which he needed to
determine the weight to give to the structural engineer so he could resize
the beams to a lighter (and more cost effective section). I had lunch with
the engineer on Friday and he said he will jump on the project as soon as he
gets the revised info from Henry.
I would expect he will get the email out today or tomorrow with your
prompting.

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Sunday, September 11, 2005 6:08 PM
To: henry@rkiinc.net; djameson@davidjamesonarchitect.com

Subject: Re: teahouse

Henry and David,

It's been 6 weeks since the last contact. Any chance
that the figures and design is done so we can get
started?

Andy and Sara

--- Henry Kawa <henry@rkiinc.net> wrote:

> David,
>
> I'm just getting back from vacation.
>
> Per our conversation earlier today, we are getting
> closer on finalizing the teahouse.
>
> I hope we can review figures later this week, and
> get the project underway.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Henry
>
> Henry Kawa
>
> RKI, Inc.

The ceiling and the mortgage broker

2008-10-13T23:12:00.000-04:00

The title of this post may seem a bit odd (like the Walrus and the Carpenter), but there is a real connection.

The original design for the ceiling was quite elaborate. Henry Kawa has a particular fondness for complicated ceilings, which he creates by putting pieces of mahogany through his variou wood working tools. The complex structure of dark wood is hard to describe, but we can show a picture here from another of David Jameson's projects that Henry worked on. You can see that it gives the ceiling a very rich texture and color.

It wasn't possible for us to get access to the house above, so David suggested that we go see a house under construction that was getting the same ceiling treatment. As it turns out, the owner of this house was none other than the mortgage broker that we had a little run in with in 1998. What a small world! Back when we were first buying our house, we were referred to this broker, let's just call him "Bob" (note, this is not his real name). Well, this was during the Asian financial crises, and mortgage rates had dropped a great deal. At this point we already had been approved for a mortgage through "Bob", and we just needed to lock in at these really neat low rates. Well, when I called "Bob" to lock in, the incredible response was: Sorry, none of the banks are locking in today! And on top of that he made us wait another week, during which time the markets had recovered, and the 30 year rates had risen a percentage point. Needless to say we were furious, and when we asked a few people who know about these things, and none of them had heard of such a thing. So we went back to "Bob's" company and demand that he either give us a lower rate, or transfer the appraisal to a new bank, where we could get a new rate. He chose to lower the rate, but complained that he "didn't make any money on this loan." In any event, this brings us back to "Bob's" ceiling. We went to his house to have a look, and of course met him there. He looked embarrassed, and we pretended the whole thing had been no big deal. But we decided we didn't like the ceiling for the tea house, since it is a much smaller space. We were also afraid we would loose the sharp lines of the diamond shaped ceiling. We ultimately decided on a maple veneer, stained to go with the fir "end piece" floor.
The final decision on interior finishing is shown below. The fir flooring is at left, maple ceiling
on the upper right and the mahogany trim is the small piece on the lower right.

Waiting for Henry

2008-10-06T21:30:00.000-04:00

The next several months were spent ironing out all of the details of the design. These were needed in order to get a concrete price for the contract. We also had asked for a number of changes. Some were to give the space cleaner lines, while others were intended to reduce the overall cost of the project. There were also a number of engineering considerations to be worked out, not the least of which was how the structure would fare in hight winds. The very small base did not afford much in the way of resistance to torquing of the building, and the rods connecting the roof the the I-beams could provide very little strength except for holding up the roof.
But by the end of the year, a number of things remained to be done:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dec. 2, 2004
Andy,
Hope you had a good Thanksgiving holiday.
After our productive meeting with you and Henry we sent the drawings to Dave Linton our structural engineer to review the steel sizes and firm up what Henry and I have been discussing. We received his structural comments/markups yesterday and faxed them to Henry. He and I spoke briefly about them this morning and will discuss in detail tomorrow afternoon after I
follow up with Linton in a meeting at 11am. The next step is for Henry to firm up his numbers based on the markups and should be able to so this by the end of next week. We can meet again at that point and decide how you and Sara would like to proceed. I'll be in touch later next week to update you and schedule a meeting.

Best,
David

----- Original Message -----

To: "David Jameson Architect" <djameson@DavidJamesonArchitect.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 3:43 PM
Subject: Next Step

>
> David,
>
> Sara and I were very impressed by Henra Kawa, and
> remain very enthusiastic about the project. I suggest
> that we take steps to move to the next phase of the
> project. If Henry has come up with a little tighter
> budget, then I think we would be able to make a
> decision about whether to go with fixed contract or
> T&M.
>
> Let me know when further details are ready, and we
> will head to the credit union to start the mortgage
> process.
>
> Andy
>
>
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dec. 17, 2004

Henry and I are meeting tomorrow morning to review his numbers again as he has looked over comments from the structural engineer. I'll press him to get something together for you next week.

----- Original Message -----

To: "David Jameson Architect" <djameson@davidjamesonarchitect.com>
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 8:35 AM
Subject: Re: Next Step

> David,
>
> We should make plans to meet to go over Henry's
> numbers and more detailed plans for the Tea House. We
> plan to go to the bank next week to start the loan
> process once we get some firm numbers.
>
> Andy

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

But when the new year rolled around, we were still waiting:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jan. 14, 2005

I have been bugging him over the last two weeks to finish up the numbers for you. I'll call him again today and hopefully be able to tell you something early next week. Have a good weekend.

----- Original Message -----

To: "David Jameson Architect" <djameson@davidjamesonarchitect.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2005 8:04 PM
Subject: Re: Next Step

> David,
>
> Any word from Henry? I recall he said that he wanted
> to do the project during the winter, so I would assume
> that would mean very soon now. Do you think that he is
> still backed up with other projects?
>
>
> Andy
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By March, we were still waiting for Henry, and we started to get the impression
that he wasn't interested, or perhaps didn't really have time:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

March 10, 2005
David,

Are you sure that Henry Kawa has time for this
project? We are willing to consider other contractors
(though we realize some details might be hard without
him). If he is really willing to put the project
together, we should meet to agree on the final
numbers.

We'd like to keep the budget as close to 100 K as
possible, as a fixed price contract. We are also
willing to eliminate some details if this is not
otherwise feasible.

Let us know your thoughts on this.

Andy and Sara

March 11, 2005
Andy and Sara,

good morning- I am certainly aware of the time Henry has taken to put a final number together for you and talk to him about it every week. He is truly part mad scientist- which while frustrating to get what seems like a simple task of a final price out of him- will be the reason the project will come together and work well. He is working towards giving you the fixed price at a target of 105-115k. To do this he is actually getting samples and mockups of all the tricky things that could prove to be more expensive if not properly thought out at this stage- like the sliding hardware, some new bronze extrusions, etc.

When he and I spoke Wednesday about where he is, he was waiting for final numbers on the metal and hardware, but seems close on everything else.

Hang in there a little longer and I think it will be worth the long wait

David

David,

Are you sure that Henry Kawa has time for this
project? We are willing to consider other contractors
(though we realize some details might be hard without
him). If he is really willing to put the project
together, we should meet to agree on the final
numbers.

We'd like to keep the budget as close to 100 K as
possible, as a fixed price contract. We are also
willing to eliminate some details if this is not
otherwise feasible.

Let us know your thoughts on this.

Andy and Sara

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And still we waited. By the end of April, it seemed we could get moving:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 29, 2005

at long last Henry is ready to meet and get moving. He has suggested 5pm on Monday the 2nd. Does that work for you both?

David Jameson
David Jameson Architect Inc.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Getting the Estimate

2008-10-03T05:59:00.000-04:00

Getting the estimate took a couple of months, and we finally heard from David in October of 2004:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

hope this finds both of you well.

I am sorry it has taken so long to get information from RKI to get back to you regarding the teahouse but I think we are finally getting somewhere.

When I met with Henry last week he thought that after some in depth pricing he would be able to put the project together for between 95k to 115k. This would use the bronze exterior framing and mahogany interiors that we have developed on the Glenbrook project as the glazing. Henry would build most of the project in his Rockville shop this winter and install it next spring as well. I know we were shooting for 100k or less so I think we are at least in a position to meet with him to discuss pushing to the next level.

Let me know what you think and some good times to meet to discuss where we are, heading, etc., and have you meet him.

Best,

David

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a bit over budget, but we liked the design. For this kind of money and the timing he was suggesting, we needed to move fast to get a loan for the project.

Finding a contractor and getting a cost estimate

2008-10-03T05:50:00.000-04:00

After reviewing the initial design, we pushed David to work towards the next step, which was to get a cost estimate. He sent the drawings to Henry Kawa, who has been doing much of the metal and wood working for his other projects. The comment below from David, about Henry getting bogged down, was the first hint of the trouble to come.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Andy and Sara,

Good to hear from you. We have sent our initial design drawings and computer models out to the wood/metal worker who is building all the windows for the Glenbrook house to get his feedback on cost (we actually sent this out about 6 weeks ago and have met with him to discuss his questions but he has been bogged down on the push to get some more of that work done and has not had a lot of time to help us with your project). I was hoping to have some semblance of an idea what the design costs so as not to waste your time showing you something that is unrealistic budget wise. If you would like, Chris and I can come by in the next few days and show you what we are working with to give us some of your feedback. My hunch is we will need some back and forth work between us, you, and the fabricator to get the
right solution for the budget.

Let me know if you would like to hook up and we can schedule some time.

David

----- Original Message -----

To: "David Jameson Architect" <djameson@DavidJamesonArchitect.com>
Sent: Monday, July 26, 2004 10:02 PM
Subject: Any Update?

> David,
>
>
> It seems like a good time to check in with you and see
> where things are. We haven't discussed any kind of
> time table for the project. We should probably get an
> idea as to when to expect the next step, so that we
> can plan for getting a loan, etc.
>
> Talk to you soon,
>
> Andy and Sara
>

The Initial Design

2008-09-15T21:16:00.000-04:00

During the Summer of 2004, David produced the initial set of drawings of the tea house design. The first picture below shows the plan view of the entire property, with the location of the tea house along the back wall. The entrance stairs can be seen on the left side, and the two thick lines are the steel beams from which the structure is "hanging". The tea house is meant to be approached from the rear, so a path along the right side around the back will be used.
The solid body drawing below shows the outer shell and steel trusses from which the tea house will be "hanging". The large opening in the front is not an entrance but rather a set of double doors that can be opened during good weather and for use of the tea-house as a stage, to put on concerts.

The transparent drawing below shows some of the inner structure that will hold the building together. It is essentially two steel frames, for the roof and the floor, held together by a series of steel rods. The structure was built in Henry Kawa's machine shop in such a way that it can be disassembled and carried to the installation site.

The end view reveals that, the tea-house will not strictly be hanging from the steel beams, but in fact has a very small base at the center. However, the rods tying the roof to the beams is essential because this small foundation could not really support the structure, particularly in high winds. More about the engineering testing later. The base will also house coils for the heat pump.

The top view shows the location of the foundation at the center and some of the internal roof structure.The front view gives a better idea of the relative sizes of the beams and the tea-house itself. The roof design consists of a diamond shape, which is inverted in the ceiling.

These are some of the basic ideas of the design. From this point much work was needed to complete the details, along with structural analysis. And of course the big issue would be the price, and getting a contract signed. We had no idea how hard this last issue would be.

The concert

2008-09-07T21:13:00.000-04:00

On May 29, 2004, we put on a concert/dinner at our house for about 35 people. Since this is one of the uses we plan for the tea house, we invited David Jameson and his family so that he could get some ideas of how we might use it. We hoped that David would get some ideas for the tea house design. We were particularly interested in a way to use it as a concert stage, so that we could put on outdoor concerts. The concert featured music of Mozart and Gershwin:

And the dinner featured food from around the world:

So now we just needed to wait and see how David would put this all together to come up with something really new and differerent.

An initial series of emails - the prefab idea

2008-09-04T20:50:00.000-04:00

At the first meeting we discussed the idea of having the tea house fabricated off site and carried to our house either in pieces, or even intact. David said he liked the idea of lifting it on a crane over the house.... Very dramatic. After the first meeting we continued our discussion by email.

Dec. 2. 2003

Sara and Andy,
I really enjoyed meeting you last week to discuss your project. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

The teahouse is very intriguing and I believe would be a fun and challenging project given it's constraints. Our typical fee for projects under 300k is 21% of construction cost. In thinking more about your project I would image we could do the same type of fee on your project since it would not entail a lot of systems work. For your review I have attached a sample agreement for services. Let me know your thoughts.

As I mentioned in our meeting I believe we could move your project into our workload early next year and run it concurrent with some larger projects. The idea of hoisting it over the house was even more interesting to me once I drove by your home during daylight hours.

Talk to you soon.

Best,
David
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dec. 2 2003

David,

We are glad to know you are interested in the project.
We'll study the contract this week and will have some
questions by the end of the week.

Andy and Sara

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dec. 3, 2003 (from David Jameson)

sounds good
I met yesterday with Henry Kawa from RKI millwork in Rockville. He is building the bronze/mahogany windows at the Glenbrook Road project. He seemed very interested in my idea of building much of the project in a shop and bringing it to the site.
We'll see....

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An exchange about the details of the contract (red lettering is David Jameson)
Dec. 6, 2004

Andy and Sara,

Thanks for getting back to me. I have noted some responses to your questions below. Please review and get back to me and I'll put together a final Agreement to send to you. Could you also send me address w/zip.

Best,

David

> David,
>
> We have read the contract and do have some questions
> and small additions:
>
> 1. It's our understanding that you (the principal
> architect) will do all of the design work, and that
> staff or project architects involvement would be
> primarily for carrying out some of the drawing. Also,
> any meetings would be with the principal architect as
> well. You are correct that I will do the design work. I will also attend the meetings that pertain to design issues as well as most others. The project architect will also attend many of the meetings and may meet with the contractor without my being there.
>
> 2. One concern is that the bids would come in much
> higher than anticipated. In order for that not to occur late in the process we typically will show the schematic deign drawings and design development drawings to contractor for pricing input at the earliest stages. Many times at that stage we select a GC to negotiate a price for the project and work with them/you to keep the project on track budget wise.In that case there are two
> possibilities, to stop the project at that point, or
> to delay it until further funds (or lower bids) can be
> obtained. We would assume that all work to that point
> would be retained by your firm, even if it is for a
> period of several years. We retain records of all projects for 7years We would assume that your
> fees to that point would be based on the agreed budget
> to that point and not on bids that have not been
> accepted (even if they are higher). You are correct- our billing is only on the most recently approved budget as noted in the payment area of the Agreement .The contract is
> not clear on this issue and a sentence to that effect
> would be helpful. We are also assuming that we would
> have the right to bring in contractors that we have
> found independently to bid as well. If you have a contractor that you would like us to talk to that is great. I don't believe the contract specifies you have to use a GC we bring in.Can this also be
> included in the contract.
>
> 3. The reimbursable expenses that would pertain to
> this project are not really clear. We know that it
> would include the permit application fee. Does it also
> include every copy of blueprints made for contractor
> bids and for the permit process (for example). yes- other expenses might be structural engineering, model supplies, courier/ mailing, etc. Since your project is quite small there would typically not be too much in the way of reimbursable expenses.
>
> We look forward to hearing from you.
>
> Sara and Andy

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, April 5, 2004 6:26 PM

From:

"David Jameson Architect"

Hope all is well. I plan to come out later this week to check the tree blooms/ spring views.

I remember you being about 6-1 in height. A question I am working through is what ceiling height makes sense for the teahouse space- considering much of the time you will be seated on the floor. I think it might be nice to keep the ceiling low and intimate while seated but need to make sure the space is flexible and pragmatic for other uses. Any thoughts?

David Jameson

Contacting the Architect

2008-09-01T21:24:00.000-04:00

On Nov. 20, 2003, we sent the following e-mail to David Jameson

> Mr. Jameson,
>
> We would like to discuss with you the possibility
> of designing a modern "tea house" for our residence
> in Bethesda. We have noticed some of your work in the
> neighborhood, and like your design approach for
> fitting modern design into traditional neighborhoods.
> We would like to build a modern version of the
> traditional Japanese teahouse, which could extend
> the connection between the living and garden spaces
> on our property.
>
> We look forward to hearing from you.

To which we received a very prompt response by telephone. We met at our home on November 25, 2003. We outlined the requirements for the project, which included the following:

1. A single room building of roughly 125 sq feet.
2. Simple clean lines
3. Ample light
4. Some allusion to the traditional Japanese tea house
5. The building should appear somewhat transparent, yet not really see through to the Neighbors houses.
6. Some feeling or illusion of floating.
7. Some hidden storage for gardening tools and bicycles would be useful
8. Year round functionality, so that it should be heated and cooled.
9. Flexible usage of the space, including dining and music performance.

We also gave him some of the photos that appear in the earlier posts, to give some idea of the direction we were thinking. We agreed to meet again in the very near future.

Finding an architect

2008-09-01T10:28:00.000-04:00

So how do we find an architect to build our tea house? It really needs to be someone local, but the Maryland suburbs of Washington DC are not exactly a hotbed of modern architecture. We've taken many walks around Bethesda, where many of the 60 or 70 year old colonial revival houses are being torn down. They are commonly replaced by something like this:

Not very interesting or inspiring. It is very out of character and scale of the neighborhood (though I suppose this might change eventually if all the new houses look like this). But we did find a few interesting houses. The house below was being built about 10 years ago:

What is unique about this house is it's reference to the existing neighborhood, while incorporating clean modern lines. The roof-line is reminiscent of the old "Lock houses" along the C&O canal. But by the time we were thinking about the tea house, this project had been finished for 5 years, and we had no idea who the architect was. But another, even larger scale project was gong up just a few blocks away:

We watched this project from the very beginning, and saw all the details that went into it, including the steel frame, and soaring roof-line and glass walls. It is really a stone, glass and steel house, and has many of the elements we were looking for. And this construction site even had the name of the architect: David Jameson. A quick search on google revealed that this was the same architect who built the Modern Lock House above as well. So we decided to contact this David Jameson, and see if we could convince him to work on a much smaller project.

Why Modern?

2008-08-31T14:11:00.000-04:00

We ultimately decided not to build a traditional Japanese tea house. There are a number of reasons for this. These include the need to fit in with the surrounding suburban American architecture, and our desire to create something new and different.

Modern architecture is the best way to achieve this goal. There is significant overlap with traditional Japanese design, including simplicity, spareness, and a connection with nature. There are also a number of recent examples of architects who have combined the two. For example, Shigeru Uchida's tea houses:

These give the impression of openness and transparency, while still maintaining the feeling of enclosure. The glow that they give off in the dark also ads to their attractiveness as a landscape feature.

Another unusual and creative space is Toyo Ito's 2003 Serpentine Pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery in London. This space, with its random solid and glass panels, is well connected to the exterior and has ample natural lighting:

Finally, we draw inspiration from the Farnsworth house of Mies Van der Rohe:

The simplicity and elegance of this design shares much in common with traditional Japanese architecture, though it is done using glass and steel rather than wood, bamboo and stone.

With these ideas, we set out to find an architect to help us build our tea house.

Origins

2008-08-10T21:52:00.000-04:00

Where did we get the idea to build a tea house? In 2002 we traveled to China, spending most of the time in Shanghai. But we did take a trip to the historical city of Hangzhou and spent two days there. Hangzhou is famous for its lake, and the tea grown in the misty hills just outside the city. Around the like there are many tea houses, which contribute to the slow pace and relaxed atmosphere of the city. In fact, the residents of Hangzhou rise much later than in Shanghai, which is bustling well before 6 a.m. everyday of the week.

The tea houses are casual, and one can order tea for a couple of dollars. It includes as many refills of hot water that the leaves can take, and numerous tea house snacks like dried fruits and preserved eggs. Customers generally stay for hours and play cards or mahjong. This lifestyle has a real attractive quality that we wanted to take home with us.

In Japan the tea house (third picture) has a completely different quality. It is generally a very formal place, and usually much smaller than the Chinese version. It also gives the sensation of calmness, or time standing still. I think this is achieved through the connection with nature, because they are generally in the middle of a formal garden, and cannot really be closed off to their surroundings.

In fact, the traditional Japanese home (last picture) really captures some qualities of both the Chinese and Japanese tea houses. They have the functionality of the former and the simplicity and connection to nature of the latter. This is probably the closest to what we hope to achieve.

The Setting

2008-07-31T22:23:00.000-04:00

We diverge from the discussion about the tea house to present some background on the setting for its construction. This will be helpful in understanding its function and ultimately to determine whether it has been successful.

Bethesda is an unincorporated suburb of Washington DC, just a couple of miles from the DC border. The town was quite small until after WWII, when growth really took off. As a result the dominant housing type are colonial houses built very quickly after the war. They are typically of masonry construction, and have three bedrooms (one very small), living, dining and a small galley kitchen. During the recent housing boom, many of the houses have been torn down to make room for McMansions, but most often owners have chosen to add onto their homes. We have take this approach in attempting to turn a solid but relatively charmless house into something a little more interesting, and perhaps add a little variety to the street scene (I once made the remark to one of the neighbors that I don't like colonials, which from the expression on her face, I realized immediately was the wrong thing to say. I really meant that it would be nice to have some choice besides colonial).
So we have added onto the house twice, and changed the roof line a bit, and tried to give the house a little of the arts and crafts look (probably only partially successfully). The front (upper right) is perhaps more successful, in part because the landscaping has taken well. Since this 2004 picture, the shrubs have grown substantially, giving the visitors to the house something more to focus on than just a lawn and cars lined along the street. The rear addition, while very functional, is less successful. This is partially because the addition isn't really connected well with the existing house. More work will be needed here eventually.
In the rear, the scene is less inviting. This is in part because many of the shrubs have not done well. The soil is not well drained, and in the Summer it is mostly shaded by large trees which are mostly in neighbors yards. The view from the house, is therefore not terribly interesting, and does not inspire one to venture outside. Visible in the third picture is a very unattractive fence, constructed in four sections by four different neighbors. Beyond the fence you can see one neighbors dilapidated garden shed, and less visible (from this photo) are rear additions on four houses, all finished with either vinyl or aluminum. A simple solution to this problem would be a high wall or hedge. Backyard walls or fences are limited to 6 feet in our neighborhood, and going higher could never completely block the view of vinyl. A hedge would take many years to grow. But the main objections that we have to this approach is that they are: 1. typical and uninteresting and 2. do not draw you out into the space. No matter what type of screen you put in the back, you end up with an uninviting and ultimately little used space, as seen in the fourth photo.

Introduction

2008-07-27T07:39:00.000-04:00

Nearly five years into the Bethesda Tea House project and we have finally decided that we need to write a blog about it. This is probably one of the most unusual residential design and construction projects, so it really needs to be written about. While we still have hopes that it will be successful, we certainly have made a number of mistakes, as will soon be described.

The idea for the project really started in 2002 when we (Sara and Andy) started talking about what to do about the use of space in our backyard. We have always wanted a yard with a more courtyard type feeling, but in suburban Washington, D.C., zoning laws really won't allow for putting up a high wall around the yard. We realized that an alternative solution would be to put a small building at the back end of the yard to create a similar feeling. And our interest in Japanese tea houses had been on-going for some time. But we didn't really want a traditional Japanese design, but rather something very modern with perhaps just a suggestion of Japan. In the next few weeks, we will describe the details of each stage of the project.