Award-winning design-build firm sells dream homes with ArchiCAD

Mancuso/Dixon Development Corolla - North Carolina, USA

North Carolina designer/builder Mancuso/Dixon Development purchased ArchiCAD to automate the design of their high-end custom and model homes, and discovered it offers a simple and highly effective tool to win clients.

"The color renderings we are able to produce with ArchiCAD are a major asset," Architect Matt Dixon explained. "We show the client a virtual version of a model home, and personalize it by adding their name in the image. They are giddy, they buy the house, and away they go!"

Dixon formed a partnership with General Contractor Bernie Mancuso three years ago, putting a name to an informal alliance that had existed for many years. "As a general contractor, Bernie was bidding on almost every house that I designed, and winning," Dixon explained. "So it was natural for us to team up."

He said, "The color renderings we are able to produce with ArchiCAD are a major asset... [they have] been a great tool for winning clients."

Francis Mancuso, Bernie's wife and business partner, joined the firm as one of two interior designers. "Clients like us because we offer everything in one package: financial consulting, site planning, design, building, interior design," Dixon said. This all-encompassing service earned them the North Carolina Home Builder's Association Award of Excellence four years in a row.

An ArchiCAD user since 1995, Dixon "picked it up pretty quickly. My first house took much longer than it would if I had drawn it by hand, but the second took half as long as the first and the third took half as long as that."

Concept immediacy

"But for me, the issue is not how fast you can render - what I've really benefitted from is the ability to make changes throughout the design process" Dixon said. "Making changes by hand is a nightmare, but using ArchiCAD we can render a client's idea before their eyes and let them make a decision immediately. Nothing could be easier."

In order to streamline communication with the builder side on projects, Dixon designs a drawing template in ArchiCAD complete with the properties of all the building systems they use.
"As we do working drawings, ArchiCAD is compiling a detailed material takeoff-based on these systems," Dixon explained. "This information is then accessed over our in-house network as an Excel file by Bernie and project manager Jim Harrington."

Mancuso/Dixon's latest project is building high-end, custom and model homes in the Currituck Club, a gated community in Corolla, North Carolina. Called by The Wall Street Journal "one of the five best places in the world to go for vacation/retirement," this area is the "newest hotspot on the East Coast" Dixon said. One major draw is the 18-hole golf course, designed by Rees Jones, that serves as the nexus for the Currituck Club.

Ecologically friendly

The development has been in the works for 10 years, on previously undeveloped land. One of the major concerns during the planning stages was trying to work with the natural beauty of the area. "From day one of the project we really reaped the benefits of ArchiCAD," Dixon explained. "We input the surveyor's information - including aerial photographs - to place roads and plan the site."

Mancuso/Dixon exchanged DXF files with the surveyor via email until the site was mapped out. They then created five standard models for the Club's Magnolia Bay development and two dozen 'semi-custom' homes. "The client purchases the site, and we help them select one of the homes to build there, using ArchiCAD renderings and fly-throughs," Dixon explained.

They also use ArchiCAD to design custom homes for clients who live outside of the area, and want to build their dream vacation or retirement home in this idyllic locale.