People to Know: David Kosco, Bassenian/Lagoni Architects

When David Kosco was a fifth grader in Elyria, Ohio (a Cleveland suburb), he came home one night with a homework assignment to draw the floor plan of his house. His father raided a hidden trove of drafting tools, then helped him measure rooms and draw the floor plan to scale. That was all it took to hook young Mr. Kosco.

"He taught me how all those tools worked — a set of compasses, T-square, slide rule, scale and triangles. From that point forward, all I wanted to do was draw houses," Kosco says now. "I'd finish my homework every night and go right back to designing."

He's still at it, and today Kosco is one of the most influential designers in America's production housing industry — a shooting star with Bassenian/Lagoni Architects, the Newport Beach, Calif., firm credited with launching design trends that often spread like wildfire across the country. He's someone you should know, because what comes off his drawing board in the next six months may tilt the shape and direction of the housing industry recovery.

It's happened before. When economic recession hit in 1989 and housing sales crashed for three years, Bassenian/Lagoni made its reputation by pioneering small-lot detached housing forms that helped jump-start the California market in the early 1990s. Builders needed small, affordable homes at greater densities to get prices down. But they also needed to stir the imagination of entry-level buyers. Dave Kosco played a major role with production-built homes that proved design excitement and value engineering can co-exist. "Our approach to design was then and is today collaborative," Kosco offers. "It's just the way Aram Bassenian and Carl Lagoni work. Clients are part of the design team. That's something I learned from Carl as a kid just out of college.

"Carl mentored me, and I've mentored others," Kosco says. "We have fun. Many of my clients have told me the most fun they have in home building is the time they spend in our offices, working on design. The results are better because we all learn from each other."

In the mid-1990s, Bassenian/Lagoni gave move-ups a reason to jump back into the market by pioneering Tuscan architectural styles in Southern California that eventually captivated much of the Sun Belt. Once again, Kosco was in the middle of it — leading design teams with prominent production builders that produced huge market successes.

Consumer research is a central element of this story. Usually, clients bring market studies to their architects. But in the big recession of the early 1990s, Bassenian/Lagoni did its own studies. "As we pulled out of the recession, we did focus group research to try to find an unmet need or desire in the market that would trigger more home sales," Kosco recalls. "Back in those days, everything built in Southern California was Mediterranean architecture, but it was all really nondescript blends of pastel stucco and tile."

The research showed that consumers at that time wanted identifiable architecture that actually referenced historical homes and neighborhoods. So Bassenian/Lagoni started studying the prominent communities of early California and historic homes in the countries of the Mediterranean. In Italy, they found different architectural styles in the cities, rural countryside and the coastal villages.

"When we put image boards in front of our clients," Kosco says, "what resonated with them were the rural traditional elevations from Tuscany. When we were able to incorporate that Tuscan style of stucco and stone into production-built homes, it caught on and spread across the country."

History Repeating?

Today, we face another recession and many of the same imperatives to trigger home sales. To get off square one, builders need smaller, smarter, greener, more affordable homes for entry-level buyers. But to really kick recovery into gear, they need to find that hot button that will give move-ups a reason to jump back into the market and buy a new home. And once again, Bassenian/Lagoni is doing focus groups and Dave Kosco is drawing new house plans.

"This time around, it will be different," Kosco says, "because we are no longer designing for the baby boom generation, and practically everything we've built since the 1970s has been aimed at boomers. Now the target for entry buyers is Gen X and Gen Y. Combined, those generations are bigger than the baby boom."

The oldest members of Gen Y are now in their mid-20s and entering the ownership housing market, Kosco points out. "We've had Gen Ys in our recent focus groups and uncovered some fascinating differences that we think will influence where production housing needs to go.

"This is a computer-savvy, digital generation," Kosco asserts. "They want houses that reflect who they are, not just outside, but inside the home. They want to make a statement, and they lean more toward contemporary and modern architectural styles than toward traditional homes with historical antecedents. They don't want to pull up to Grandma's house.

"I have a 15 year-old daughter," says Kosco (now 45), "and what she wants in a house is totally different from what I wanted at that age."

Kosco says the first thing builders need to accept is that the market of 2004 is gone forever. "It's going to be a much tougher business," Kosco asserts. "They'll never again make the kind of margins they made in the early 2000s. And more density is unavoidable."

Density Rising

Even in Southern California's Inland Empire, Kosco believes the 50- by 100-foot standard lot is a dead duck. "We may see 50 by 80 feet as the new standard," he says. "Densities of seven to 10 units per acre will be the new conventional range for detached homes." Kosco is now investigating how to get more density into subdivisions already platted for 50 by 100-foot lots. "Can we get two houses on one of those lots — or perhaps one house and a rental unit? Maybe we don't change every lot, but every third lot is a little larger than the others and has a main house, a granny lock-out and a rental unit above the garage."

While such ideas may not conform to current zoning in many municipalities, Kosco believes that may change. Cities are caught in the grip of this recession and need housing recovery as much as builders, he says. So Bassenian/Lagoni is taking their concepts directly to city halls. "We've showed our R&D work to them and the cities are amazingly receptive," Kosco says. "It's very different than when we go in with builders, whom they always suspect of having ulterior motives. They fear builders want to make a profit at the city's expense."

One thing that works in favor of changes that would allow greater densities and more creativity is that cities desperately want to embrace green. "For instance, they know all that concrete in the right-of-way flies in the face of getting greener," Kosco says. "We've shown some of what we're working on to builders, who say, 'That will never fly with the city.' But we then tell them, 'We've already showed this to the planning department, and they are willing to talk about it.' The builders are amazed." What You Can Do

Southern California is still the Mecca of housing design. When Dave Kosco graduated from Kent State University in Ohio in 1986, he didn't hesitate to head for the Left Coast. "I moved across the country with $200 in my pocket and not a single lead for a job," he says. "But I wanted to design houses, and I knew this was where it was happening."

The plethora of high-profile design firms in California attests that's still the case, even though one of the biggest trends of the last twenty years — Traditional Neighborhood Design — originated and grew east of the Mississippi. When it comes to floor plans and elevations, California designers still set the benchmarks.

It's worth watching what happens next in Lotus Land. That's especially true if it turns out that Kosco is right about Gen X and Gen Y buyers' being totally different from baby boomers when it comes to style preferences. Certainly, we know California is more challenged on density issues than most of the rest of the country. The California designers already have a lead in designing not just land plans but streetscapes and floor plans that make detached homes at densities of seven to 10 units per acre, livable and appealing to buyers.

When the new California designs begin to hit the market, as recovery takes shape, it will certainly be worth a trip to see them. Or you could go today and just peek over Dave Kosco's shoulder.

'Epitome of a Team Player' Dave Kosco's clients reveal that while his architectural achievements may bring them in the door, it's the calm, collaborative relationships he fosters that bring them back for more. They have pride of authorship in the product that testifies they are indeed part of the design team. Gordon Statler was design director for Coleman Homes in Bakersfield, Calif., when Kosco first broke into the business in the late 1980s. He now holds the same position in Tom Coleman's new company in Boise, Idaho. (Coleman sold his California company to Lennar three years ago.) "Dave Kosco has a smaller ego than any architect I've ever met," Statler says. "He understands that the product has to be buildable. He just has a way about him — the epitome of a team player." Statler says the products he and Kosco designed 20 years ago sold fast then and stand the test of time now. "It's entry-level housing, but it's impressive to people who know what they're looking at — what it cost to build and what we were able to sell it for," he says. "Dave has a unique ability to understand what his clients want and achieve it within the framework of costs that also work." Statler is once again a client. "We're working on another line of small homes. We don't always agree, but the product is always better, even when we clash." Influences Dave Kosco lists LeCorbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Richard Meier on his life and his design work. He also draws parallels between architecture and music. "One sour note is glaring," he says. "Rhythm and composition must come together." On cooking: A recipe is like designing a house: "It just takes a lot less time to execute." Other housing designers' work that influenced his career: Fairhaven by Eichler Homes, designed by Anshen & Allen Architects in 1950. Seadrift at Bear Brand by AM Homes, designed by Carl Lagoni in 1988. Mayfield and Castaways by Taylor Woodrow Homes, designed by Mark Sheurer Architects in 1993. Mahogany by Taylor Woodrow Homes, designed by Robert Hidey Architects in 1993. Lennar's Martin Another Kosco Fan Tom Martin is vice president of strategic marketing for Lennar Communities in Southern California. He collaborated with Kosco in the mid-1990s on many move-up and luxury projects that changed industry perceptions of both Lennar and Bassenian/Lagoni, including one of the first to sport the Tuscan style. "Bassenian was known back then as the leader in detached price-point products and density," Martin says. "But Dave and I collaborated on a number of high design, luxury products that helped kick the move-up market back into gear in the mid-1990s. One was The Cortile Collection in our planned community, The Bridges in Rancho Sante Fe (Calif.). ... The Plan 3 was a courtyard home that won just about every design award possible. Very authentic Tuscan. It really looks like it's built out of stone." Dave Kosco taught Martin to sketch. "Young architects coming out of school today are so used to working on computers that they can't sketch," Martin says. "But Dave taught me, because sketching is central to how we collaborate. We sit down and sketch what we want to achieve. And we now get done in one or two days what used to take weeks. Martin also points out Kosco's absence of ego. "He's incredibly talented," Martin says, "but he has a real ability to get everyone involved, and the designs belong to the team, not to him individually." Mentor's Pride   David Kosco is not shy about the inspiration for his work and his collaborative style with clients: "Carl Lagoni," he says. "Carl took me under his wing when I got here, right out of college. One of the first things I learned was how little I really knew about housing. Carl was my mentor." That relationship is still intact. Lagoni has a mentor's pride in how far Kosco has run with the ball he handed him. He says Kosco soaked up lessons like a sponge. "From the beginning, the thing Aram (Bassenian) and I saw in Dave Kosco was that he was a very good match for the personality of our firm, which has always been collaborative." It's easy to see the roots of Kosco's approach and the way he nurtures pride of design authorship in clients. Lagoni also credits Kosco as one of the firm's most accomplished designers in applying the consumer research the firm sponsors whenever recession stalls the housing industry in Southern California. He was a big part of the Tuscan revolution a decade ago. "Like then, our research today is a tool to beat the recession," Lagoni says. "Right now, we really feel younger buyers, and entry-level product, will fuel recovery," Lagoni says, "and the architectural styles they will choose will be contemporary." See Them for Yourself Many of Kosco's designs, including The Cortile Collection at The Bridges, are included in a book Bassenian/Lagoni published called "Tuscan & Andalusian Reflections," which can be ordered online.