During my first year of Architecture school at Carnegie Mellon- sometime in 1998 or 1999 I attended a lecture by Architect Steven Badanes of Jersey Devil. While I can't remember the exact date, the lecture certainly made an impression. Architects who built what they designed and lived on site in airstream trailers. For young and impressionable aspiring architects this was the inspired type of thought that seemed heroic. It still does. It led me to a teaching assistant position in our wood shop helping students build furniture they designed. Years later, it has provided the spark of my private practice focusing on residential projects in Alaska.
For more information about the works of Jersey Devil, purchase Jersey Devil: Design / Build Book by Michael J. Crosbie here.