SAN GABRIEL VALLEY / COVER STORY : Taking Steps to Design Homes With Harmony : Facing staircases away from front doors is one of the many ways that builders are catering to Asian buyers by taking their cultural traditionsand beliefs into account.

To the untutored eye, these are simply nice new homes, perched on a Rowland Heights ridge that overlooks the San Gabriel Val ley. Walk through the models, with their comfy decor and gleaming kitchens, and you still might not see anything unusual.

But wait. That bin near the kitchen sink? That’s to store up to 50 pounds of rice.

The flame on the gas range is four times as powerful as on most stoves--the better to stir fry in a wok.

Floor plans offer up to eight bedrooms for extended families. And the low cabinet in the foyer is to stash shoes as you enter the house.

The subtle message: Welcome Asian home buyer.

With the Pacific Rim booming and overseas Chinese money continuing to pour into Southern California, big home-development companies are building some of their newest tracts with Asian traditions in mind.

“Builders recognize that a white, two-child, two-parent family is not the only market anymore. At Walnut Estates, we are targeting an affluent Asian executive family,” says Terence Hanna, president of the Los Angeles division of J.M. Peters Co. The Orange County-based firm is constructing 4,000-square-foot homes in Walnut on lots of up to half an acre. The 16 homes will run about $500,000 each.

The list of cultural touches goes on and on. Some are a matter of spiritual belief, such as a disproportionate number of homes whose addresses include an eight--a lucky number according to some Chinese beliefs.

Others are pragmatic, such as the shoe cabinets for a culture in which people do not wear shoes into the house. Or large bedrooms with adjoining bathrooms on the ground level for elderly relatives who might have trouble climbing stairs.

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One key to targeting the Asian American housing market is understanding an ancient Chinese metaphysical art called feng shui (pronounced “fung shway”). Feng shui --which means simply the wind and the water--began 3,000 years ago in China when common sense rules to avoid flood and bad air circulation were codified. Over the centuries, it became interwoven with superstition, astrology and Chinese philosophical concepts.

Although real estate agents in the San Gabriel Valley long have been aware of feng shui principles in marketing resale homes, major American builders now are drawing on that knowledge in their attempt to build homes that are attractive to Chinese customers.

According to feng shui practitioners, the direction of a building, street locations and individual birth dates all play key roles in channeling cosmic forces that allow good luck and wealth to flow into a building.

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Though many Asians dismiss it as silly superstition, followers cut across all lines, from poor immigrants in rural China to wealthy, college-educated business people.

“If it’s a predominantly Asian market and people believe in it, it’s very important, and we will plot houses in particular directions, change interior parts, the landscaping and where you put it,” says Mark Beiswanger, president of the Coastal Valleys division of Kaufman & Broad, which is building 79 homes in West Covina.

Realtors and developers say about half their Asian clients consult a feng shui master when buying a home. Valerie Yu, project manager for the 250-home Belgate Estates in Walnut, which is built by Bramalea California Inc., says clients will walk away from a deal--forgoing a big non-refundable deposit--if their feng shui consultant nixes it.

“I had one that just lost $15,000; the master said it was a bad luck house,” Yu said.

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Up to 80% of the buyers are of Asian heritage at City Lights, a Shea Homes tract with 200 houses in Rowland Heights. So it helps that Susana Wang, a sales agent at the tract, speaks fluent English, Mandarin, Tagalog, Taiwanese, Cantonese and Fukienese and practices feng shui in her own life. She keeps a small office on the east side of the sales office instead of a larger one elsewhere because that direction is good luck for her personal numerology.

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She knows that it’s important to design the house so that the ch’i, or life force, flows without blockage. Stairways should not face front doors because all the money will flow down the steps and out of the house. Trees and lamp posts should not block the front entrance because good energy will get caught.

“It makes [prospective home buyers] feel more at ease that I understand why they don’t want a lamp post in front of the entryway,” Wang said.

Hanna, of J. M. Peters, says his firm has modified building plans in midstream to ensure that the front door wouldn’t go by the staircase.

“There is an added cost to making these homes harmonious, but the benefits are greater sales and happier buyers,” Hanna said.

Kevin Lawrence, a sales manager for the Panorama Tract in Shea Homes’ Rowland Heights development, has also applied for address changes on properties where the number 4--which represents death in Chinese numerology--appears too readily.

Cultural considerations can start even before a builder purchases property. Two years ago, building company Kaufman & Broad invited Angi Ma Wong, a feng shui consultant from Palos Verdes, to hike with company executives up a wooded hill in West Covina and give her nod of approval before they purchased the land.

One concern was that the property stood within sight of the Forest Lawn Cemetery off the San Bernardino (10) Freeway. That was bad feng shui , with the potential to scare off Asians who didn’t want to live so close to spirits of the dead.

But Wong explained how to solve the problem according to feng shui principles: Plant red flowers on the south hill. This will ward off the spirits, because red is considered a powerful and lucky color.

Wong also suggested that Kaufman & Broad build its sales office and model homes out of sight of the cemetery and do extensive landscaping around the rim. And she put the kibosh on plans to haul dirt from the cemetery to smooth out ridges on the residential properties.

“I’ve worn out more pairs of shoes in my job,” says Wong, who consults for 50 builders from Hawaii to Connecticut and calls herself a cross-cultural entrepreneur. Her 1993 book, “Target, the U.S. Asian Market” is in its second printing.

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Wong says Taylor Woodrow Homes California Ltd., a builder headquartered in Laguna Hills, brought in a group of Buddhist nuns to bless an Orange County site before they broke ground.

Many clients send her blueprints, which she scrutinizes for good feng shui .

“I mark up those architectural plans with Post-It notes,” Wong says with enthusiasm. “I tell them, the southeast corner is wealth, so don’t put your toilet there.”

She explains that many Chinese prefer new homes where they can start with a clean slate--no one has died in the house, no marriages have gone without children, no fortunes have been lost.

At the entrance of one house she is examining for a builder, Wong stops. Something is amiss. From the front door, she can see a sliding glass door that opens into the back yard. She clucks in disapproval. Bad feng shui , since the energy will flow right through the house.

Five years ago, El Toro architect Phillip Pekarek had never heard of feng shui . Today, about two-thirds of the homes he designs take it into account.

“Now if we design four model homes, at least two of them will be in accordance with feng shui ,” Pekarek says.

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Billy Leung is house hunting at the City Lights tract of the Shea Homes project in Rowland Heights. A 31-year-old engineer from Cerritos, Leung heard about the homes from a friend who lives at another Shea property.

Leung checks to make sure the staircase doesn’t face the front door. Feng shui isn’t a part of his life, but it will be important for his parents to know their son’s house has good energy flow.

For himself, the engineer is pleased that the Shea homes offer so many bedrooms. He is also keenly interested in the high-power gas range.

“Chinese want a big fire to do the cooking,” he explains.

For many home buyers, practical issues such as these guide house deals just as much as spiritual factors.

In the Shea sales office, enlarged photographs tout the many attractions of Rowland Heights.

“You’ll notice we feature the Hong Kong Market [in Rowland Heights] and the Hsi Lai temple [in Hacienda Heights], not the local Vons and the Episcopal Church,” one sales agent says wryly.

Rowland Heights, Diamond Bar and Walnut are called the Golden Triangle among Chinese because they are near the Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple.

Financial dealings with Asians can also vary from the traditional U.S. home buyer. Builders say it’s not unusual for Chinese buyers to pay cash for a $350,000 home. Or to fork over hefty down payments. Some builders work with Asian financial institutions--such as banks and mortgage brokers--to help smooth out cultural differences.

Builders also find themselves having to accommodate buyers who are credit “ghosts” in the United States and lack any financial history. Others are loathe to reveal their financial holdings. In other cases, documents must be translated into English.

In the homes, kitchens are important. Agents say many Asians dislike stoves located on a center island because oil from fried food will splatter everywhere. As a result, many builders put the stove against a wall that can be easily wiped off. Another option offered by some developers is powerful range-hoods that can draw smoke away. At City Lights, an industrial-strength gas range with a built-in wok holder for stir-frying is a popular $850 option.

“Often the biggest American gas stove we can find isn’t big enough,” Leung said. “My mother had to go out and buy a special propane gas stove for stir-frying.”

In addition, some builders are installing a bin by the sink because Asians generally prefer to buy big bags of rice that are difficult to lug around the kitchen. They also like to wash the rice before cooking.

Architect Pekarek is scaling down the height of showers, kitchen counters and cupboards to accommodate shorter Asian homeowners.

Even the decorative flourishes count: Kitchen counters in some model homes are scattered with Asian cookbooks, wooden steamers and strategically arranged chopsticks.

Angi Ma Wong helps builders with these practical touches as well as with feng shui .

In one house she is inspecting for a builder, she examines the kitchen chopsticks with their red-painted Chinese characters.

“They bring me in to make sure the chopsticks don’t say ‘Golden Dragon restaurant.’ Hmmm. This says good luck, prosperity. That’s OK.”

Wong appreciates the wok and Chinese cookbook opened to a recipe for Szechwan meatballs. However, she points out that the book is in English and that most Chinese don’t use recipes or bottled American hot sauce like the brand on the counter.

Designers who provide the interiors to model homes in heavily Asian markets concede that they too are struggling to strike the right tone.

“If you drive it home too strongly, with the mah-jongg sets, the karaoke, the woks, those themes get too strong and they feel it’s almost stereotyping,” says Lana Canova, a vice president of Design Techniques, a Costa Mesa firm that did the interiors for some of the Shea Homes in Rowland Heights.

At Kaufman & Broad’s West Covina project, California Chateau, where 45% of the buyers in the tract are of Asian descent, sales agent Joanne Haberman says she and other agents exchange tips about all aspects of Asian culture.

“The more I can learn about my buyer, the better off I am,” she says. “And feng shui is as important as knowing about the schools in the community.”