That’s where all semblance of the original Italianate architecture disappears, lost over decades of innumerable renovations. “It was chopped up into three or four different apartments,” says Mark Peters, AIA, principal at the local firm Studio Dwell Architects, which oversaw the three-story, 6,371-square-foot house’s renovation and expansion. Multiple door openings and staircases had been added in, and the interiors were in rough shape.

The dissonance between the exterior and interior, however, didn’t faze the home’s owners, a family with two young children. They were committed to preserving the integrity of the historical façade, but they wanted an open and light-filled interior with modern elements and amenities. With little love lost, the house was gutted, save for portions of the original brick sidewalls and wooden floors, which would need reinforcing.

Bright Refresh

Following 14 months of construction, the new interior is light and minimalist. White oak flooring, millwork, soffits, and open-riser stairs intermingle with a custom maple breakfast counter and cabinets, countertops, and the kitchen hood finished in different sheens of white. The neutral-color materials provide a foil to the wall expanses of exposed original Chicago common brick, pressure-washed to reveal their rich texture and yellow/tan, red/orange, and black composition. “We wanted to limit the palette so that the concept came through cleaner and felt lighter,” Mark says.

Radiant floor heating and cooling free the walls of utilities. To bring water service to a first-floor wet bar, Studio Dwell cleverly hid pipes in a wall-mounted chase clad in white oak that integrates with floating white cabinets in a discreet, geometric arrangement. “In rehab situations,” Mark says, “you often have to make field decisions and come up with design elements on the spot.”

Bringing in Light

The modern interior isn’t the only surprise behind the façade. The 22-foot-wide home has an astonishing 80-foot depth, revealed in dramatic effect by its open floorplan. As typical for the neighborhood, the site is approximately 25 feet wide. “It sits on the property line on one side and has 3 feet of clearance on the other side,” Mark says. Neighboring houses continue this spacing, allowing each home to stand detached, but limiting opportunities for daylight to enter along their length.

Consequently, achieving the light-filled space that the client envisioned was one of the project’s biggest challenges. Because no new openings would be made to the preserved northwest façade, the daylight would have to come primarily from the building’s rear, southeast elevation. A three-story, glazed curtain wall paired with an open, double-height space between the first and second levels allows daylight to reach deep into these lower two floors.

A Rear Retreat

A deteriorating three-car garage situated against the back property line provided the footprint for additional square footage. Studio Dwell rebuilt the structure as a two-car garage and then topped it with a fitness room, another item on the owners’ wish list. Similar to the main house’s rear elevation, the fitness room features full-height windows with black mullions. “They wanted to have this transparent, visual connection between the fitness room and the house,” Mark says.

An enclosed two-story breezeway with a glazed curtain wall ties the two structures physically and visually together. The glass expanses are juxtaposed with exterior wall planes of Chicago common brick, which also complement the brick cladding of neighboring houses. This more utilitarian brick was often used on the side and rear elevations of houses, Mark explains, while the more architectural brick was reserved for the façade. 

Studio Dwell found a manufacturer that made a modern common brick, with hollowed cores for rebar, and had different color combinations mocked up. Ultimately, a composition of roughly 75% yellow/tan, 5% red/orange, and 20% black best enhanced the black curtain wall and window frames and the surrounding existing brick. “It feels like the addition was a continuation,” Mark says, “or something already existing.”

The breezeway provides protection from the elements, as well as a gallery for the owners’ artwork collection, an additional source of daylight for the interior, and a third wall for a courtyard retreat nestled between the house and garage. For its location in a city of millions, the courtyard, complete with a reflecting pond, feels surprisingly intimate due to its careful siting from the neighboring house. “There is a good sense of privacy … because the angles are played with so that nobody can get straight views,” Mark says.

Preserving the historical structure was the project’s most sustainable accomplishment, Mark believes. “It’s much cheaper and easier sometimes to start new,” he says. “But when you can save a building that is almost 140 years old, that’s fantastic.”

House on the Park

Chicago, Illinois

Architect/Interior Designer/Landscape Architect: Mark Peters, AIA, principal in charge; David Pierson, project manager, Studio Dwell, Chicago

Builder: Fettner Construction, Highwood, Illinois

Structural Engineer: Rockey Structures, Chicago

Project Size: 6,371 square feet

Site Size: 3,485 square feet

Construction Cost: Withheld

Photography: Marty Peters Photography

Key Products

Appliances: Wolf (range); Broan (vent hood); Miele (oven, warmer drawer, speed oven); Fisher & Paykel (dishwasher); Thermador (refrigerator); LG (washer/dryer)

Cabinetry: White lacquer; high gloss enamel; solid maple island tabletop (kitchen); Häfele (hardware); white oak veneer panel (built-ins)

Ceiling and soffit: White oak veneer panels; drywall

Cladding: Bricks, Inc.

Countertops: Solid surface

Doors/Windows: Fleetwood; LaCantina (folding); VELUX (skylight); Omnia (interior door hardware); SOSS (hinges); existing (entry doors and hardware)

Faucets: Grohe (kitchen); Dornbracht (primary bathroom); Hansgrohe (controls & faucets)

Flooring: Polished concrete (first floor); 7-inch white oak plank (second and third floors)

HVAC: Whole-house HEPA filter and energy-recovery ventilation system; Broan (bathroom ventilation)

Lighting, exterior: WAC Lighting, Delta, Tech Lighting

Lighting, interior: Juno (downlights); Lutron (controls), Lightology

Paints and stains: Benjamin Moore

Sinks: Ruvati (kitchen); ADM and Duravit (bathrooms)

Toilet: TOTO; Viega (flush plates)

Tub: Lacava (primary bathroom); Signature (filler)

Vanities: ADM, Duravit

The post Case Study: House on the Park by Studio Dwell appeared first on Residential Design.

Wittman Estes was hired to remedy those conditions while preserving the original front of the house. But the owners were also thinking about their community. Like many major U.S. cities, Seattle has a chronic shortage of affordable housing. In this North Capitol Hill neighborhood composed mostly of single-family homes, they decided to create an ADU they could rent out to creatives. The full basement lent itself to such an arrangement, but it, too, would need structural interventions that brought in more natural light and a gracious way of getting in from the backyard. “They felt an ethical obligation, I think, to give something back by providing more housing,” says Matt Wittman, AIA. “More than a financial need, they felt a social responsibility to create additional units for people who want to be in the city and face challenges living in these historic neighborhoods.”

Another of their values was to preserve and reuse the original materials whenever they could. Dowbuilt Construction was on board with this “slower,” more intentional way of building, which meant deconstructing and labeling items and letting decisions unfold over time. “Seattle seems to be a city of tearing down and building new,” Matt says. “I had never worked on a Craftsman house, so this was new territory. I was looking to some of those European precedents for making modern insertions within a historic fabric, such as how to blend the dark colors so it feels like everything fits together.”

Old to New

What transpired was a gradation of almost original rooms on the street-facing side of the house, to completely new spaces overlooking the backyard. Nevertheless, the architects addressed the front by taking apart and rebuilding the failing front porch, bringing it into proportion with the rest of the house. The taller, wider porch has a gabled roof that extends as a carport; double posts, rafter tails, and built-in seating and storage give it a fresh look that abstracts its Craftsman character.

Inside, the remodel builds on the virtually untouched living room at the front of the house, with its dark-stained oak trim and floors. A bar area off the living room starts the transition from old to new. There, Matt and his team partially dismantled and reassembled a storage cabinet, leaving the section closest to the living room intact, reconstructing the middle part using the old pieces, and adding new elements next to the kitchen. “It was a classic Craftsman built-in, but the new part is configured to hold the owners’ music equipment, art, and storage needs,” he says. 

Major transformations were saved for the gutted back of the house. To improve the flow, storage cabinets and a wall subdividing the kitchen and seating area were removed to create a larger kitchen that opens to a lounge and a dining area with built-in window seating. The kitchen—a combination of dark painted cabinetry and quarter-sawn walnut upper cabinets with an ebony stain—ties into the home’s existing deep, rich palette, while a new terrazzo floor and brass accents bring the sparkle. 

As an antidote to the Craftman’s inward gaze, Matt designed modern bay windows and opened the entire back wall to the rear yard. There, a 20-foot-long fold-and-pivot glazed door system, installed within a steel moment frame, lets the occupants spill out to a new porch and down to the private garden and back lane.

While the second story also has a distinct interior presence, it is now tuned to the outside world. Matt made sure of that by reallocating former storage space to a primary bath that opens to an inviting deck and sauna above the backyard. “One of the prompts of the design brief was to retain the exterior building envelope and work within that,” Matt says. “It was a fun exercise in how to make it compact and feel luxurious.” In the floor-plan shuffle, another former storage room between the primary bedroom and front yoga room now serves as the primary closet. A second bedroom and bath are across the hall, which also opens to the deck.

Recycled and Reused

Turning their attention to the ADU, the architects found they could work with the basement’s 8-foot ceilings. However, to create discrete entrances on opposite sides of the main house, part of the foundation wall was cut away at the rear corner and replaced with floor-to-ceiling windows and two glazed doors. They open to an excavated private patio and stairs to the backyard and laneway, bringing light into the living space. “The ADU feels larger than it is because of the view to the sunken garden,” Matt says. “Like the upstairs, we were using the existing footprint.” To reduce sound transfer between floors, the builders installed rigid insulation and a sound-dampening anti-vibration assembly between the fir joists. Finish materials are elegant but economical. The kitchen countertop is the same Absolute Black granite as in the main house, but the cabinets are dark-stained maple and the compact bath features simple 4×4 white tile, a soaking tub, and a reused wall cabinet from upstairs. 

“The owners were very attached to the materiality of the house and wanted to honor and reuse whatever they could,” Matt says. “Our contractor documented and preserved a lot of things as they were deconstructed, and framing was reused whenever possible.” A cast-in-place concrete retaining wall holds space for the sunken patio and entryway. “It’s a low-tech version of rammed concrete,” Matt says. “We made 2-foot lifts, put in stone, let it dry, and put in the next lift, which created horizontal lines. It was an efficient way of creating texture.” The ADU entry stairs are made from the same wood as the decks: Dinizia excelsa hardwood repurposed from a 40-year-old highway sound barrier in Chicago. Tying the work together, the exterior was painted in Benjamin Moore Kendall Charcoal, and windows in the renovation areas were rebuilt with energy-efficient glazing.

This project embodies the firm’s philosophy that landscape must be integral to architecture, rather than a budget afterthought. Matt and co-partner Jody Estes, who began their careers working in horticulture and landscape design, aim to create ecologically rich environments by considering the landscape first and treating the architecture as an extension of that. In this already lush backyard, a wisteria was preserved and retrained on a new trellis, and a mature birch tree was nursed back to health.  

With all three levels now connected to the backyard and Peach Court, the house and its garden have a role to play in the quality of life, not just for the owners but for some lucky renters navigating a tough housing market.

Peach Court Garden ADU

Seattle

Architect/interior designer/landscape designer: Matt Wittman, AIA, and Jody Estes, principals in charge; Mariana Gutheim and Alex Hale, designers, Wittman Estes, Seattle

Builder: Dowbuilt, Seattle

Structural engineer: J. Welch Engineering, Seattle

Project size: 3,349 square feet (main house), 581 square feet (ADU)

Site size: 6,160 square feet

Construction cost: $495 a square foot

Photography: Rafael Soldi

Key Products

Cabinetry: Dowbuilt, Warmington & North

Cooking ventilation/Cooktop: Bosch

Countertops: Absolute Black granite, PentalQuartz

Decking: Anthology Wood

Dishwasher: Bosch

Doors: Signature Door (entry), Panoramic Doors (fold-and-pivot rear door system)

Faucets: Grohe, Lacava, Kohler

Flooring: Pioneer Millworks (white oak), North American Terrazzo

Lighting: Dals Lighting (exterior), A-N-D, Sossego, Cedar & Moss, Santa & Cole

Lighting control systems: Forbes & Lomax

Ovens: Bosch

Paints, stains, coatings: Benjamin Moore, Sherwin-Williams

Refrigerator: Bosch, Sub-Zero (drawer)

Sinks: American Standard, Duravit, Decolav

Tile: Cascade Stoneworks, Fireclay

Toilets: Duravit

Tubs: Aquatica, TOTO

Windows: Quantum Windows & Doors

Wood stove: Morso

The post Case Study: Peach Court Garden ADU by Wittman Estes appeared first on Residential Design.

The owners had one daughter when Chris Brown, AIA, began working on the design. Then twins arrived, and along with them a request to fast-track the construction schedule. Just as the house went into construction in 2020, the pandemic arrived too, prompting the team to rethink their material selections given the supply chain delays.

Regardless of these variables, though, everyone agreed that the house needed to be sprung from its compartmentalized state. Situated on an unusually generous urban lot in Portland’s West Hills region, the Midcentury home had a handsome profile and pleasing proportions. However, a roof truss system locked in its 8-foot ceilings and the interior was a lackluster string of rooms with no meaningful connection to the outdoors. 

“Whoever it was built for had some particular asks for some of the spaces, so it had some quirkiness and was a bit too regimented,” Chris says. At the same time, “the clients were intent on the project moving quickly, which precipitated a surgical approach: What do we have to work with? How can we use the ubiquitous 8-foot ceilings but make the spaces feel larger, without disrupting the structure to the point where it would elongate the construction period?”

That surgical approach included tearing out most of the non-load-bearing walls on the main level. But with demolition came the discovery that the Sheetrock mud in the entire house contained asbestos, and it became clear that all the walls would need to be remediated. The team took it as a moment to pause and reflect on how many interior surfaces they would be touching and the opportunities that presented. Supply-chain disruptions also suddenly required more agility in the choice of finishes. 

“Originally the specs were more far flung—the clients had fallen in love with tile from Brazil but it wasn’t going to be available to us,” Chris says. “The project became very much about the rich materiality and fine detailing, because we needed to rely on local materials and fabricators to make the stuff.”

Roughly L-shaped, the ranch house contained a garage next to an open kitchen and dining room, with a perpendicular wing containing the living room and two bedrooms that shared a bath between them. Each wing stepped out on a large deck connecting the two parts of the house. The daylight basement housed three more bedrooms and a rec room that opened to a small greenhouse. The space under the garage was used for storage and a workshop. 

“It was a classic example of so much going on that it was hard to conceptualize how we could open the floor plan without losing bedrooms and baths,” Chris says. “We had to abstract it to the level of the floor plan before we could really figure out how to amplify those spaces.”

On the main level, taking out the middle bedroom and large bath made space for a family room that’s visually connected to the kitchen and dining area. An existing fireplace separates it from the living room, which stayed where it was. And a former bedroom to the left of the entry is now a well-placed study.

Downstairs, a new primary suite occupies the former rec room, maintaining the original bedroom count, along with the existing three bedrooms. The new primary suite opens to a stone patio—the former greenhouse—through a sliding glass wall. Across the hall, the architects made other economical moves: the already-plumbed laundry room was turned into a new bath for the secondary bedrooms, and a new laundry was handily fitted into the vented former workshop around the corner.

Clean Sweep

Upstairs, several dynamic moves make those 8-foot ceilings easier to live with. Next to the stairwell, the architects inserted a wall of glass within an existing multi-paned opening that connects the interior to the large deck and brings light deep into the house. Clearing out most of the previous rooms on that level allowed them to enlarge the stairway slot, so the lower level feels less like a basement. This involved not only realigning the stair with the fireplace that separates the living and family rooms, but also removing a basement wet bar that made the stair run feel closed in. The new open-tread staircase increases the sense of transparency. Hung from the existing floor structure on blackened steel rods, it has a graceful walnut and steel handrail. 

 “The clients have an affinity for natural materials and allowed us a lot of room to experiment with the detailing,” Chris says. “They were sophisticated clients but, in the end, this is a house for a family. They wanted the materials to be durable, becoming more beautiful with age and use.”

While the kitchen’s location did not change, its makeover formed the vocabulary for the primary suite and kids’ bath. Black walnut veneer cabinets have solid walnut battens between them to reduce the scale. The dark wood is juxtaposed with white oak floors, white quartz countertops, and white wall tile with trimless outlets.  

The fireplace too is clad in solid black walnut, which became the home’s signature detail. “The existing fireplace was clad in very aggressive, large pieces of stone with a 3D quality,” Chris says. “Because of budget concerns we were going to leave it and find an interesting finish treatment. But as the project hit the tipping point of making sure that when we were finished, the time and effort was worth it, we took another look. We took off the stone and clad the wall in a fine batten system of walnut and made a soapstone surround for the hearth, keeping the fire box as it was. 

Extending the walnut to the wall and having the soapstone re-proportion the whole fireplace added a great deal to the experience of being in the room,” he continues. “It became a place to inject a fine material palette and detailing that we had available because of the craftspeople we were working with.”

Character Study

One of the attractive features of this vintage house is the painted cedar siding’s horizontal “chatter marks,” a product of the rough-sawn milling common during that period. A new darker coat of paint imparts a sheen that highlights that texture, and new aluminum-clad, thermally broken windows and a metal roof harden the house’s shell. The old deck was extended to wrap the house on two sides and oriented toward the landscape, where board-formed concrete site walls and timber steps create discrete terraced spaces. The ipe deck also relates more directly to a work-at-home studio built shortly after the house was completed. 

With its deep cantilever, the studio exaggerates the main house’s deep eaves and creates a similar covered entry porch. “The studio has the same 1×4 siding but instead of clear cedar, it has tight knot cedar for more character,” Chris says. “Instead of painting it, we stained it, so the character shows through, like the mill marks on the house. The house feels very refined and consistent in a sophisticated way. The studio is the same, but in a more texture-forward way.”

That it all works is a testament to the team’s ability to create elegant, outdoor-focused family spaces that hew to the existing structure. “The kids are growing up and are into different things all the time, but they really use that deck in a major way,” Chris says. “It almost is taking on the same tonality as the white oak floor on the interior. They‘ve adopted it as being as comfortable as their interior space.”

Editor’s Note: The ADU belonging to 4015 House won a 2024 Residential Design Architecture Award for Custom Accessory or Outbuilding. See the 4015 Studio award feature here.

4015 House

Portland, Oregon

Architect/Interior Designer: Christopher Brown, AIA, Observation Studio, Portland, Oregon

Builder: Raven Builders, Portland, Oregon

Landscape architect: Bothwell Landscape Studio, Portland, Oregon

Project size: 4,200 square feet

Site size: 0.33 acre

Construction cost: Withheld

Photography: Jeremy Bitterman Photography

KEY PRODUCTS

Cooktop: Wolf

Countertops: Caesarstone, custom concrete

Dishwasher: Miele

Door hardware: Baldwin

Faucets: California Faucets, Kohler, Waterworks

Lighting: RBW, Allied Maker

Lighting control systems: Lutron

Refrigerator: Sub-Zero

Sinks: Kohler

Toilets: TOTO

Oven: Wolf

Windows/window wall systems: Sierra Pacific

The post Case Study: 4015 House by Observation Studio appeared first on Residential Design.

The task was more of a needle in the haystack than one might imagine, because what they wanted was the ample square footage and commodious outdoor spaces usually found only in far-flung suburbs—not dense urban areas like this one. “Our clients had a condo in Fishtown, but now with two little kids, they wanted more space—including room for a basketball court—and they were committed to staying in the city,” explains architect Kevin Rasmussen, AIA, who with partner Vivian Su took on the improbable project. 

The clients’ search yielded several possibilities, including “a half-completed development project and another gut remodel,” says Kevin. “This property was formerly a number of small row home lots combined into one large property.” The grand total amounted to a third of an acre—about the size of a standard suburban lot. 

However, this was no blank slate. It contained several existing structures that were too good to tear down but were also deficient in many respects. They asked Rasmussen/Su to expand and modernize the original 120-year-old row house and car barn, and to create a private outdoor living space large enough for rambunctious young children and elegant enough for adult entertaining. And with those young kids to consider, outdoor spaces and key indoor spaces needed strong visual and physical connections to each other.

Out, Not Up

It’s not unusual for urban row houses to grab their square footage by ascending vertically. And the existing house here once rose to three stories. “There was a fire, and the third story was never rebuilt,” says Kevin. “In a lot of situations, we would have considered putting on a third story, but our client has difficulty climbing stairs and needed as few transitions as possible.”

The solution, then, was to design a two-story addition and arrange it perpendicular to the original house. The maneuver allowed the architects to “fill in the missing tooth for the street” and to carve out those sought-after outdoor spaces. Says Vivian, “We like the shape of an L—it’s an embracing shape that creates a courtyard. That gave us the privacy and security the clients wanted.” 

From the street, the old house and the new addition present a unified but not homogenous front. A thin continuous copper cornice unites them at the top, and brick coursing, 2-over-2 windows, and other façade details align. But there are subtle distinctions in the patina of the brick and an obvious color change in the basement level walls. Detailing on the new building is crisp and sparse, with a slim reveal showing where the two buildings are joined, and again where the typical row house width is exceeded.

When the new addition turns the corner into the courtyard, we see it’s a complete departure in style from the original historic row house. It’s the fresh, modern house the clients craved, albeit with pitched roof and lap siding. “The property is big enough in the back that it doesn’t feel very urban,” says Kevin. “We didn’t want to just wrap the brick around and make it seem like a  continuation.” Still, key elements between new and old align and echo each other. They’re in dialogue, even if they’re speaking different languages.

A raised deck connects the two buildings, and window walls on both allow indoor-outdoor access for formal and casual entertaining. And parents can keep eyes on the kids from the kitchen and family room—or what the clients call “the sunroom.”

Keeping Things Light

Not surprisingly, getting light into both buildings was an important part of the design brief. Row houses are inherently dim, and this one had had a remodel that made the problem even worse. “The renovation in the 1960s or ’70s made the house very dark and inefficient,” says Vivian. “The stair started right inside the front door and the stair to the basement was in back. We had twice the footprint for vertical circulation.”

Moving the main stair to the center of the party wall and linking it to the lower and upper levels alleviated those pain points. The architects then positioned a new roof window array to bring light down through the stair hall and deep into the old building. They also trimmed room divisions to allow light to penetrate from front to back, and to provide easy, open circulation among the living room, dining room, and kitchen.

A new entry vestibule, marked by a windowed partition wall, provides a transition into the formal living area and a tidy place to stow coats, shoes, strollers, and other accoutrements before entering the main space. 

Kevin and Vivian designed all the interior elements, striking an artful balance between Modern and what seems almost Moderne—crafted and streamlined, but as likely to embrace an archway as a right angle. Materials are lush, lovely, and livable. We could be in New York, Napa, or Naples (either one). 

“Our clients have a modern aesthetic,” says Vivian. “So we wanted to marry their root aesthetic with grounded traditional elements. And we didn’t want the new addition to be just a drywall box.” Reclaimed materials—an ornate marble mantel sourced from Europe—mix with natural, lightly figured woods, Cle tiles, and hefty quartzite countertops. The firm also specified the furnishings and light fixtures, curating almost every touch. “The leather sofa is the only thing we reused,” she says. 

Working within the historic fabric of one of the country’s oldest cities has honed Rasmussen/Su’s skills as a full-service residential firm—handling exteriors and interiors of any vintage with refinement and sensitivity. And their newly acquired talent? Pulling off a commodious country house in the middle of a bustling city.

Fishtown Residence

Philadelphia

Architect/Interior Designer: Kevin Rasmussen, AIA, and Vivian Su, principals, Rasmussen/Su, Philadelphia

Builder: McCoubrey/Overholser, Inc., Philadelphia

Landscape Architect: Digs Living, Philadelphia

Project Size: 4,625 square feet

Site Size: 0.32 acre

Construction Cost: Withheld

Photography: Jeffrey Totaro

KEY PRODUCTS

Cladding: James Hardie Plank Lap Siding

Cooktop/Range: Wolf

Cooking Ventilation: Best

Dishwasher: Cove

Countertops: Quartzite, Caesarstone

Decking: TimberTech

Entry Doors/Windows: Kolbe Windows & Doors

Faucets: Waterworks

Flooring: Live white oak; tumbled limestone; marble tile, porcelain, custom mosaic (foyer)

Insulation/Housewrap: Carlisle

Lighting Control: Lutron

Paints: Benjamin Moore

Photovoltaics: Solar States

Refrigerator: Sub-Zero

Roof Windows/Skylights: VELUX

Sinks/Toilets: TOTO; Kraus (kitchen)

Tile: Cle, marble

Tub: Crosswater London (primary); Hydro System (secondary)

Vanities: Custom; RH

Washer/Dryer: LG

Wine Refrigeration: Sub-Zero

The post Case Study: Fishtown Residence by Rasmussen/Su appeared first on Residential Design.

Architects Nick Deaver, AIA, and Jes Deaver, AIA, are a father-daughter duo who have thought a lot about the distinctive qualities of urban neighborhoods. When Nick moved his family to Austin more than 20 years ago, he adapted a decrepit 1919 bungalow into a modern home and studio, creating fresh, airy interiors that honor its proportions and preserve its best period details. A deliberate departure from the large new homes that overwhelm some of Austin’s dense older neighborhoods, this considered approach has guided the firm’s work ever since. They are keenly attuned to what it means for urban dwellers to belong to a place, not just through their home’s materials but to history through its massing and scale.

Even if clients don’t have the vision, the architects enjoy showing them the possibilities. That’s what happened in this case. The couple loved their architect-designed modern house in Palo Alto, California, and were looking for something similar in their move to Austin. In fact, they had bought a house in a neighborhood sympathetic to teardowns and arrived one weekend to interview architects, including the Deavers. “Through the process of seeing the modern details in Nick’s house and how you can live modern in a historic structure, they began to rethink the house they had bought,” Jes says. 

The other nearby neighborhood had lost its character because of the many teardowns, adds Nick. “Our conversation gave them a new way of thinking about how they might live a more modern lifestyle in a neighborhood that hasn’t abandoned its past. We told them we thought it was important to spend time discovering Austin and finding the qualities they wanted to be part of. They could see we had built a modern addition to a historic bungalow and decided to take a similar tack.” The couple sold the property they were going to build on and bought a condo as home base while they searched for another house. Within the year they found the quirky 1930s cottage on a historic-designated street. 

Storied Past

Just 1,192 square feet, the original cottage sits slightly askew on a narrow, 52-foot-wide lot and has an asymmetrical entry gable that gives it a fairytale look. The land slopes up gradually from front to back, which is probably why the pier-and-beam house was built 4 feet above grade at the front, but the unguarded entry platform felt not only dangerous but disconnected from the ground. In addition to larger living spaces, the clients wanted a pool and a pool/guest house for hosting out-of-town friends.

A rear addition that accommodated these requests would have to skirt two live oaks that crowded the middle of the backyard. The architects responded by placing a bar-shaped, 936-square-foot addition close to the west property line, giving the owners a wide garden, pool, and deck on one side and a narrow garden on the other. This position also presented the opportunity for the addition’s interior spaces—an open kitchen/dining and living room—to sit close to the trees. The concrete slab foundation—68 feet-long-by-15-feet wide—incorporates a cantilever 28-feet-long-by-5-feet-9-inches wide to protect the root zones. Outfitted with a sauna, the pool house attaches to the living space across a dogtrot at the rear of the lot.

As required by the historic landmark commission, the renovation preserved the home’s teardrop yellow pine siding, roof shape, and window placements. Because most of the siding was rotted, the architects replaced it in kind on a rainscreen system. “The front was a restorative effort that continued around to two sides at least to the first 15 feet,” Nick says. “We replaced the original windows but repaired and refurbished the sashes, adding our own take on the delicate dividers in some of the windows that were probably taken away years ago. The east-side eave of the entry is tilted asymmetrically from the western side of that gable, and the radiused door and window higher in the gable don’t align. Those quirky adjustments were our inspiration.”

An example is the addition’s corrugated metal roof, with its curved ridge and exposed fir rafter tails. “We wanted to maintain a subordinate roof, so from the street you aren’t seeing an overpowering new structure behind this delicate antique structure,” Jes says. “Curving the roof allowed us to get lower, and it has some whimsy in how it relates to the storybook cottage.”

Yin and Yang

Inside, the design deftly sets up the connection between old and new. Although the original house isn’t parallel to the lot, the addition follows the property lines to maximize its square footage and make room for the pool. “Tying the addition’s concrete slab floor into the pier-and-beam old bungalow, we had to make sure everything lined up perfectly to achieve the vision Nick and Jes had,” says builder David Moody. 

The gut renovation resulted in a central art corridor running front to back, flanked by a front office, hall bath, and service kitchen on the west side. On the east side is a second front office and behind it, the primary suite opening to a screened porch. New white oak flooring is laid out orthogonally with the antique structure, while the gallery walls angle slightly to meet the addition, accentuating the shift. 

The foyer, too, sets up a yin-yang relationship between old and new. Removing a 9-foot ceiling exposed the vestibule’s asymmetrical roof form on the inside. Mirroring the dimensions of flush strip lights that wash down the gallery walls, a linear hanging fixture uplights the foyer’s complex ceiling planes. The architects also reused the front door but flipped it inside out and reversed the swing. This improved the entry flow and the peekaboo window’s relationship with the window above the door. In another neat juxtaposition, the exterior’s damaged wood was replaced with new wood, now on the inside, while the refurbished historic wood faces out.

In modernizing historic houses, the Deavers are attentive to how architecture can strengthen human and neighborhood connections. “There are eateries to the west, and people walk their dogs to a park on the east,” Nick says. “By having offices at the front of the house, with charming and elegantly proportioned windows from which to watch people walking and biking, they become attached to something much larger.”

Close to Nature

Not only does the house relate to the vibrant streetscape, but the rear addition provides a visual link to Austin’s urban forest. “We spent a lot of effort to open the house to the canopy of live oaks and the cathedral of urban forest that extends well beyond their property to the east,” Jes says. 

Inside the glass wall looking out on the garden, a 35-foot-long board-formed-concrete “tree bench” heightens the awareness of nature. “One edge is rounded, reflecting the playfulness of the arches in the foyer ceiling and the addition’s modern roof with its whimsical curve,” Jes says. “It’s also a playful reference to surfboards for the owners coming from California.” Cypress mullions on the window wall and a kitty-cornered screened porch are spaced randomly to evoke a cypress forest.

The addition’s interior and exterior are clad in raw cypress boards that vary in width and depth, while the back kitchen and owners’ closets are made with smooth cypress plywood veneers. Sinker cypress, harvested from the bottom of rivers, was used for windowsills in the baths and as a ledge that runs the length of the owners’ bathroom. “The cypress created a modesty and continuity we liked,” Jes says. “It feels like being in an architectural forest looking out to the urban forest beyond.”

Outside, the deck arbor and the carport are two of a kind, both crafted from cypress beams resting on a pair of L-shaped steel columns that “talk to the pair of trees in the yard,” Jes says. Attaching the cantilevered carport to the house eliminated the need for a second set of supports that would have overstepped the side setback.

In front, a new entry garden incorporates generous stepped terraces that ground the house gracefully. “The garden also gave us a way to express something modern about our traditional house,” Jes says. 

Throughout the duration, the team was careful to respond constructively to any neighbors’ concerns. So they felt validated when they got approval from a critic concerned about the wildlife, including a lovely fox, that would be displaced by fixing up the house. “One day the project manager called and said she got to meet the fox,” Jes says. “The fox poked her head into the attic space before the walls were closed in.” All the better when sensitive architecture preserves not just the sense of place for humans, but for nature too.

OFFbeat

Austin, Texas

Architects: Nick Deaver, AIA, and Jes Deaver, AIA, Nick Deaver Jes Deaver Architecture, Austin

Builder: David Moody and Ryan Pyka, Form to Finish, Austin

Landscape architect: Alyssa James, Studio 8sc, Austin

Structural engineer: Richard Luevano, Steinman Luevano Structures, Austin

Project size: 2,128 square feet

Site size: 0.16 acre

Construction cost: Withheld

Photography: Leonid Furmansky, Raymond Castro (aerials and front image with city skyline)

KEY PRODUCTS

Cabinetry: Vertical grain rift-sawn white oak veneer

Cabinetry hardware: Emtek

Cladding: Horizontal teardrop yellow pine, vertical rough cypress

Cooking vent hood: Zephyr

Countertops: Concrete, Caesarstone

Dishwasher: Bosch

Engineered lumber: TimberStrand

Entry door hardware: Emtek

Faucets: Artos

Flooring: White oak

Hot tub: Finlandia

Humidity control: Santa Fe Ultra 120

HVAC: Mitsubishi

Insulation: AMBI-SEAL

Interior cladding: Reclaimed sinker cypress

Lighting: Halo, PureEdge

Lighting control systems: Lutron

Outdoor decking: Alaskan yellow cedar

Outdoor pavers: Leuders limestone

Piping: Navien

Range: Bosch induction

Refrigerator: Bosch 

Roof trusses: BMC

Roofing: Owens Corning

Sinks: Kohler

Skylights: VELUX

Thermal and moisture barriers: Stego Vapor Retarder

Toilets: Duravit

Tub: Victoria + Albert, Kohler

Underlayment and sheathing: Huber ZIP System sheathing

Ventilation: AprilAire, Panasonic

Windows/window wall systems: Fleetwood

Wine refrigerator: Zephyr

The post Case Study: OFFbeat by Nick Deaver Jes Deaver Architecture appeared first on Residential Design.

The resulting three-story, 3,300-square-foot home greets visitors with a west-facing geometric façade clad in dark-stained vertical cedar siding, which could seem stark were it not surrounded by a welcoming carpet of lush landscaping and opened up by expanses of glass. “The house has strategic points of transparency to connect to the street, sidewalk, and neighborhood at the entrance,” says PBW Architects principal Shawn Kemna. For example, glazed curtainwalls at the entry expose the lower half of an interior dog-legged floating staircase. As the family “moves in and out of the house, and up and down through the levels, they’re connecting to the street front,” he notes.

Looking In and Out

The strong indoor–outdoor connection continues east to the open L-shaped living space, which segues into a spacious south-facing, elevated deck via perpendicular lift and slide doors that open from the inside corner of the L. PBW Architects owner and principal Dan Wickline says the project siting intentionally pushes the house volume to the north and pulls it back from the south to open the structure to the neighborhood and to abundant natural light.

Both that light and the views into and out of the house are controlled through its architecture. Thoughtful extensions of floor plates create overhangs that offer protection from the elements at the entrance and part of the deck, while a seemingly rectangular roof plan that subtly splays and pivots into a five-sided polygon provides coverage from sun and rain at the primary bedroom’s corner window. “When you’re nested inside the house, there are these layers of covered areas over you,” Dan says. “It’s subtle, but significantly effective.”

PBW Architects originally had more tweaks to the structure’s massing, but Shawn says the clients rightfully questioned the additional finessing. The pushback “made us be disciplined with how much we shifted and pivoted the shape and let us edit it down to the minimal number of moves needed,” he explains. “And the house definitely improved because of it.”

Custom steel paneling bounding the deck’s south edge provides both privacy and functionality. The panels act as an 85-inch-tall screen for more intimate gathering areas inside and outside of the main living area before it drops to handrail height alongside more public areas, guiding residents down to a lower-level patio and play space. Light and breezes permeate the panels through waterjet-cut vertical slots that widen in dimension for the more exposed recreational areas.

Textured Depth

Inside, the orchestration of light and pattern continues. On the house’s north side, PBW bumped out the main living space to create a narrow projection topped by a 25-foot-long skylight and capped by east- and west-facing windows. The sliver of daylight dynamically washes a feature milestone wall textured with epoxy-infused, trowel-on concrete that “grabs more natural light in a varied way,” Dan says. “That subtle natural light has a great impact on how you experience the space.”

Two additional skylights illuminate the otherwise enclosed stairwell and upstairs hallway. “In the morning, as you walk around in your pajamas, you still have that privacy until you choose to walk down the stairs and join the public space,” Shawn says.

The central stair wall continues the theme of striations, comprising vertical wood trim of varying widths and loosely spaced to recall the deck paneling as well as the striated exterior siding. Electric light glows softly through a few strategic gaps, creating a dappled effect that harkens to sunlight streaming through the deck panels.

Material Study

As they did with light and patterns, PBW Architects strove for material continuity between the outdoors and indoors. After a period of research, the designers found hemlock ceiling planks that had a warm and modern feel, matte finish, and crucially, an exterior rating that enables their use outdoors at soffits. For the kitchen and living area millwork, they specified beechwood with a similarly warm tone and tight grain; for window frames, they selected alderwood.

Dark, monolithic, porcelain floor tile and pavers and light quartzite backsplash and counters contrast with the varied, textural quality of the wood finishes. Interior designer and OreStudios owner and principal Andy Beers recommended furnishings with softer forms to balance the angular geometries of the house. PBW Architects and OreStudios also collaborated on selecting round and bulbous pendants to hover over the kitchen island and baby grand piano in the living room.

An 11-kilowatt rooftop array of photovoltaic panels offsets the family’s electrical usage by about half. The house also relies upon a high-efficiency hydronic floor heating system and an air-to-water heat pump.

Like the chill vibe of the Pacific Northwest, the Wallingford residence effortlessly balances transparency and privacy, the outdoors and indoors, and warmth and coolness. “There isn’t a bombardment of design ideas that are hitting you left and right as you’re engaging with the house,” Dan says. “It feels like an example of ‘just enough.’”

Wallingford

Seattle

Project Credits

Architect: Dan Wickline, principal architect; Shawn Kemna, project architect, Prentiss + Balance + Wickline Architects, Seattle

Builder: McKinstry Stauffer Yang Construction, Seattle

Interior Designer: OreStudios, Seattle

Landscape Architect: Outdoor Scenery Design, Portland, Oregon

Structural Engineer: OG Engineering, Seattle

Project Size: 3,223 square feet (3,713 square feet with garage)

Site Size: 5,699 square feet

Construction Cost: Withheld

Photography: Andrew Pogue Photography

Key Products

Cabinetry: Beech veneer

Ceiling and soffit: Hemlock

Cladding: Tight-knot cedar, stained in Benjamin Moore Arborcoat semi-solid in black; James Hardie

Countertops: Meta Marble & Granite quartzite (dining room, living room, kitchen); Caesarstone (elsewhere)

Deck Panels: Mild steel, powder coated

Doors/Windows: Kolbe Windows & Doors

Door Hardware: Emtek 

Faucets: Kohler

Flooring: Pental Surfaces; Northern Wide Plank

Grill: DCS by Fisher & Paykel Appliances

Interior Lighting: Muuto (living room); Roll & Hill (dining room); SkLO (kitchen island); Juno Lighting (recessed); Stickbulb (stairwell); Vistosi (powder room); Lutron (controls)

Sinks: Julien (kitchen island); Kohler (bar and bathrooms); Trueform Concrete (powder room)

Thermal and Moisture Barrier: VaproShield

Tile: Pental Surfaces (now Architectural Surfaces); Lungarno Ceramics; Ann Sacks

The post Case Study: Wallingford by Prentiss + Balance + Wickline appeared first on Residential Design.

“Tracy and Don had a huge program and a half-size lot,” says Cotton. “And the lot is in a historic district where we had to observe the existing setbacks of single-story 1910s and ’20s bungalows. We were extremely tight on land area.” 

What helped make it all possible was her clients’ talent for living simply and for deaccessioning burdensome belongings. Multiple previous moves had eliminated any instincts to hoard. “They are readers but had gotten rid of all paper books. They had really pared down,” she notes. And while they wanted a variety of outdoor spaces, they were willing to eliminate single-purpose indoor rooms in favor of multifunctional zones.

The result is a two-story, two-bedroom house under 2,000 square feet, with a single open entertaining, cooking, and dining area. The upside-down plan puts the primary living zone and main bedroom upstairs for greater privacy from the neighbors, and a guest room and television den on the ground level for sound separation. 

A tandem carport with driveway does double-duty as the husband’s workshop. And the home’s cruciform plan with a cantilevered second level leaves enough room on the site for a courtyard and lap pool at the back. Two second-level terraces offer elevated outdoor terraces with different exposures. There is something of the Rubik’s Cube in this puzzle’s ultimate solution. “We really used every square inch of the lot,” notes Cotton.

Even so, no important function feels underserved. If anything, every aspect of the plan has its own measure of delight. The workshop/carport, clad in thermally treated slatted wood, invites breezes off the pool to the rear. A swing gate at the carport’s front connects the space to the driveway when Don needs more room for his projects. 

The wood slats rise up to the second level to shelter the southwest porch off the dining area from strong sun and passersby. “The thermally treated ash is an extremely durable material,” Cotton observes. “It can stand up to the Texas sun, and we used simple butted joints to protect from any warpage.” The slats reappear at the rear elevation and elsewhere, providing privacy from nearby neighbors. Eventually trees will fill in another layer of natural screening for the pool and courtyard area. 

Tower Power

This sought-after location in downtown San Antonio is called the Lacava Historic District. It’s a walkable neighborhood of smaller houses and friendly front porches, balconies, and terraces. “You can walk to theaters and nearby restaurants,” says Cotton. 

The area is also notable for being near the location of 1968 HemisFair, one of many cities’ visionary world’s fairs that conjured an optimistic, forward-thinking future for society. The anchor structure on the fairgrounds is the 750-foot-tall Tower of the Americas, designed by O’Neil Ford. It remains a popular landmark for the city, with a revolving restaurant at the top and public space at the ground level.

“It’s a unique location and the tower is the tallest building in the city,” says the architect. “You can go to the top and see the whole city. It’s a gathering place with parties and fireworks.” It’s also highly visible from the site, and one of the reasons the clients were drawn to the property. 

“We explored a lot of schemes that oriented strictly to the tower, but in the end decided to let it be more of a discovered moment.” That discovery happens on the second level, where the living area’s gabled window wall perfectly frames the tower to its peak. The rear terrace off the room shares the view, making it a primary focal point. 

Given the interior square footage constraints, the clients and architect had some tough decisions to make for the central living area. “We went through a programming exercise to identify how these spaces would really be used on a day-to-day basis,” recalls Cotton. “Tracy has an acute noise sensitivity, so the TV being part of the living room was always a problem. Moving it downstairs to the den enabled the upstairs living room to be much more of a conversation area. And because visitors and activities always ended up in the kitchen for my clients—they like to entertain and host meals—we placed the kitchen in the middle of the space. The informal areas, porches, and living room emanate from there.”

The clients had specific ideas about finishes and reducing visual noise, too, requesting natural, hard-wearing and maintenance-free materials—and no paint. So walnut built-in storage streamlines the great room and kitchen, gaining elbow room from a cantilevered bump-out at the side of the house. Plaster is the primary coating, quartz covers counters, and the flooring is oak. To keep the ceiling unfettered, plaster-finished rigid insulation conceals the welded steel structure. A clerestory runs the length of the room above the built-ins, bringing in natural light shaded by the roof overhang.

Although compact, the room feels crafted, modern, open, and warm. The extended views through the terraces let it live larger than its square footage. 

Stair Apparent

When a plan is upside-down, the front entry has to signal visitors to move upstairs upon arrival. In older mansions, there was often a grand stair in the foyer, inviting a climb to the piano nobile. Cotton’s solution here was to insert a glazed connector in the cruciform structure and design a modern version of that important “lynch pin.” 

A glass pivot door leads from the front porch into the house, extending the public, street-facing welcome. Visitors ascend the concrete stair, catching a view of the back garden and pool through the rear window wall, then continue up an open wood-and-steel stair to the main level. 

“The stair is an unusual space for how you occupy it,” Cotton explains. “The cruciform parti allowed us very efficient circulation—except for the axial stair. It’s probably the most frequented space in the home, yet you’re never spending more than an hour in there. But it was an artistic opportunity. The concrete base and floating wood treads describe that transition from grounded earthen slab on grade to the more aerial treehouse-like spaces.”

The stair does have an earthy grandeur befitting its showcase spot, but it also evokes the humble stoops of urban rowhouses that served as community gathering places. “It’s a social stair, where you can wave to your neighbors,” says Cotton. “But it’s also an orientation piece that helps you understand how the two pieces of the house relate—front and back and side to side. It helps you read the house from the street and reduces its apparent size.”

And all those natural materials the clients requested? They’ll patina over time without requiring constant care. “They’ll age gracefully and get better over time. It’s a beautiful prompt. And appropriate for a new modern house in an historic area.”

Barrera House

San Antonio

Architect: Cotton Estes, AIA, Cotton Estes Architect, San Antonio

Builder: Long House Builders, San Antonio

Structural Engineer: AccuTech Consultants, San Antonio

Project Size: 1,920 square feet

Site Size: 0.092 acre

Construction Cost: Withheld

Photography: Dror Baldinger, FAIA

Key Products

Automatic Gate Opener: Strongway

Bath Ventilation: Panasonic

Ceiling Fans: Minka-Aire

Cladding/decking: Thermory thermally treated Ash

Closet Systems: Elfa

Cooking Ventilation: FUTURO

Cooktop/Range: Wolf

Countertops: Silestone

Dishwasher: Bosch 800 series

Door Hardware: Sugatsune, Johnson, Schlage

Entry Doors: Marvin sliding doors

Lighting: Kichler (exterior), Juno, Vega, Graypants

Lighting Control: Lutron

Fasteners: Simpson Strong-Tie

Faucets: Grohe, Brizo (secondary, main)

Fireplace: Ortal

Humidity Control: Ultra Aire

HVAC: Mitsubishi

Insulation: ZIP System

Kitchen Sink: Kraus

Millwork/Molding/Trim: Western red cedar

Ovens: Bosch 800 Series

Paints/Stains/Coatings: CUTEK, Bona, Benjamin Moore

Rain Cisterns: Texas Metal Tanks

Refrigerator: Sub-Zero

Roofing: Berridge standing seam metal

Sinks: American Standard (main), Kohler

Thermal/Moisture Barrier: Nail base by ACFoam, tapered rigid insulation by Carlisle SynTec

Toilets: TOTO

Washer/Dryer: LG

Window Shading Systems: Mecho Shades

Wine Refrigeration: Whynter

The post Case Study: Barrera House by Cotton Estes Architect appeared first on Residential Design.

A napkin sketch of two connected volumes along with inspiration images of modern vernacular architecture shared by the husband helped shape Two Gables’ character and program of a glazed “pavilion” for large groupings flanked by a distinct “sleep shed” and a “living shed” for family gatherings, says WKA founding principal Dan Wheeler, FAIA.

The couple also wanted a fresh start from their previous residence of 25 years— a charming but creaky mid-19th-century Victorian that was the oldest house in town. “Our new home,” the wife explains, “was a reaction against what that house lacked and a very deliberate embracing of what we wanted looking forward: a home that would be efficient, logical, serene, and easy.”

With that directive, Laura says, “selecting the finishes was straightforward.” From Two Gables’ clean geometry to its muted palette and minimal number of materials, the design team created a sanctuary for the homeowners’ next chapter of life.

Setting the Scene

WKA initially oriented the residence along an east-west axis on the 1-acre site with a ravine to the west and north. A climb on a tall ladder just prior to the foundation pour led Laura to suggest twisting the house clockwise—still within its zoning envelope—to better frame views from the living shed through the property’s soaring oak trees. The twist also increased privacy from the street in the front and created a visual separation from the pool house in the back. “It breaks the recreational aspect away from the residential,” Dan says. Though the family thoroughly enjoys the pool, Laura adds, “it isn’t something you want to necessarily look at year-round.”

To bring as much natural light inside, the rear elevation is primarily glazed, providing breathtaking views of the lush backyard. On the façade, one prominent window on each shed opens the couple’s individual offices to views of the surrounding garden, designed by Scott Byron & Co. 

Cognizant of the local climate, WKA prudently insulated solid wall portions with 3 inches of mineral wool and 4 inches of closed-cell foam for a combined R-value of 35. An air cavity formed by a Knight Wall Systems rainscreen standing nearly 5 inches from the wall sheathing provides an additional insulating air pocket, as well as a chase for downspouts.

Accoya’s acetylated wood siding by Delta Millworks arranged in a stack bond with ¼-inch joints creates the monochromatic exterior while also dictating the sizes and locations of the home’s deep windows and discreet garage door. “There was a lot of coordination there,” Laura says.

Interior Serenity

The quiet exterior palette continues inside Two Gables. Acetylated wood siding appears as wall and door finishes, still with the ¼-inch tolerance. Ceilings, walls, millwork, and surfaces are largely white. The homeowners’ aversion to area rugs led WKA to delineate programmatic spaces with white oak flooring, treated to mute its inherently warm hue and inset within large-format porcelain tile that emulates concrete.

In the glazed pavilion, a series of acetylated blade shutters rotates collectively to provide natural light or, conversely, privacy. An accent wall finished in Venetian plaster intersects with custom millwork that morphs from a fireplace hearth into the top of a server and then into bench seating. A clay-lime product applied to the millwork creates the semblance of a continuous concrete surface, a treatment that was repeated for the powder room sink.

Noticeably absent is the presence of building system infrastructure. “As with all of our work,” Wheeler says, “we try to hide mechanical grilles and so forth.” A gap between the pavilion ceiling and wall perimeter both creates the look of a floating plane and vents return air for the residence and exhaust for the fireplace.

The vaulted ceilings of the sheds are finished in white-painted wood planks, gapped to dampen noise in the imperceptible black duct liner above. “The two things that are least understood and most impactful in residential design are acoustics and lighting,” Dan says. “There’s nothing more disturbing than having a party where people can’t hear themselves and then say, ‘Who designed this thing?’”

Lighting designer Lux Populi helped ensure track light fixtures and downlights are subtle, scarce, and deliberately located at functional, seating, and display areas. Wall washers highlight the couple’s art collection, which provides pops of colors against the muted backdrop. The balance of luminaires includes both sculptural statement pieces and paper globe pendants that helped keep the project on budget, Dan says. 

The globe pendants are strategically suspended to give the husband clear views from his second-floor office to the backyard beyond and to the multipurpose “coffee house”—kitchen and seating areas—below. “He loves his wife, and he wants to see her as much as possible,” Dan explains. “If she’s at the breakfast table, watching TV, or in the kitchen, they’re both within this triumvirate space where everything feels cozy and intimate.”

Two Gables

Glencoe, Illinois 

Architect: Dan Wheeler, FAIA, principal; Erica Ulin, AIA, project architect; Laura Cochran, project team, Wheeler Kearns Architects, Chicago

Builder: Power Construction, Chicago

Landscape Architect: Scott Byron & Company, Inc., Glencoe, Illinois

Structural Engineer: Enspect Engineering, Merrillville, Indiana

Lighting Designer: Lux Populi

Project Size: 8,697 square feet

Site Size: 1.03 acres

Construction Cost: Withheld

Photography: Kendall McCaugherty, Hall + Merrick + McCaugherty

Key Products

Cooking Appliances: Wolf

Cooking Ventilation: BlueStar

Countertops: Corian Entry Doors: Ashland Millwork

Dishwasher: Bosch

Exterior Finish: Senergy stucco

Faucets: Kohler

Flooring: White oak by Carlisle

Garage Doors: Raynor Garage Door with custom detailing

Hardware: Accurate with FSB lever trim

Lighting: Juno, BEGA

Lighting Control: Lutron

Outdoor Grill: Lynx Grills

Paints: Benjamin Moore

Rainscreen: Delta Millwork Accoya over Knight Wall System

Refrigerator: Sub-Zero

Roofing: PAC-CLAD Petersen standing seam; single-ply membrane

Sliding Doors: LaCantina Doors

Tile: Tithof Tile

Washer/Dryer: LG

Windows: Marvin

The post Case Study: Two Gables by Wheeler Kearns appeared first on Residential Design.

Three stories tall, the pleasingly symmetrical red-brick-and-cement-plaster façade had just a few ornamental flourishes on the windows and cornices. The front elevation rises behind a protruding one-story garage, which was topped with an awkward-looking wall meant to add curb appeal. Inside, the original details were anyone’s guess, because a house fire had destroyed most of the rooms when the owners first saw it. They’d been planning to remodel a different house with Nick Noyes Architecture when this one came up for sale. Because Presidio Heights is a sought-after, family-friendly neighborhood, this couple with three small children could look past the obvious challenges.

Chief among them was the smell of burnt wood. While the historic front and side façades could not be changed, the architects gutted the interior, leaving very little of the framed floor plan. “It was a collective effort to reimagine what this house could be, because there wasn’t much left,” says Nick Noyes, FAIA. “It behooved us to get serious about how they wanted to live in this house.”

Without a clear precedent for easing it into the 21st century, the architects were guided by the clients’ wishes to improve the outdoor connections and to evoke the feeling, if not the fit, of a family house of that era: “spare but with enough detail to give it some substance,” Nick says. The renovation expertly straddles that line, starting with the freshened exterior.  The old windows were replaced in kind. Creamy white paint unifies the façade, as does an enlarged, light-colored wood garage door and wood parapet around the garage roof perimeter. “The unpainted brick was pretty heavy and ponderous,” Nick says. “The clients wanted a simpler look, not featuring the clinker brick and exposed wood and beams. And the brick at the garage was probably done in a different era than the house, so there were two different kinds of bricks. We repaired the fire damage to the wood trim and brackets, and then painted it a monochromatic soft white that blends all the detail away into a handsome composition. A lot of neighboring houses also have simple paint jobs.” Another streamlining gesture was to extend the garage’s brick front wall horizontally to create an inviting arched opening that echoes the side porch main entrance, reached through the garden and up a flight of stairs.

Stairway to Heaven

Floor-to-floor connections are processed differently today than they were a century ago. The renovation’s most transformative move was to replace the meager stairwell with a more assertive one that rises four stories from the basement to the third floor. A big skylight at the top funnels light down to the lowest level. That staircase set the tone for the architectural detailing throughout the house. It’s a well-crafted statement piece that is neither minimalist nor decorative. “In its conception it’s a slight nod to the Shakers,” Nick says. “We detailed it in a way that we didn’t have to add a lot of ornament. The vertical railings are just square, and the handrail is as simple as can be with 8-by-8 corner posts. By painting it a different color, it stands out.”

At the very bottom of the stairwell, the architects excavated about 2 feet of earth behind the garage to create taller spaces for a new mudroom, media room, gym, bath, and storage. Upstairs, the central entry hall opens to the first-floor family spaces. Although the floor plan on this level is similar to the original, it is now more open to the outdoors. The living room has a view of the new south terrace atop the garage, which is part of the entry experience. On the north side of the entry hall is a lounge-like kitchen and dining room, where a 21-foot-wide sliding door system opens to a large backyard terrace with a barbecue area and specimen redwood tree. 

“When you came into the old house, you never got a view toward the back garden and the front street at the same time,” Nick says. “We made this direct link from the entry foyer to the living room facing south and looking north through the kitchen/family room. You immediately understand that there is a southern exposure and a northern exposure out to the garden.”

Upstairs is the primary suite along with two offices, a laundry, and an en-suite guest room with a purple-upholstered seat in a window bay. The attic level, outlined in sharp angles and alcoves that express the roof shape, provides an imaginative setting for the three children’s bedrooms and a playroom open to the grand, skylit staircase. 

Bridge Game

As the point of entry, the front porch starts a conversation that echoes through the house. The architects left the brick on the porch floor unpainted and added a custom wood curtain wall painted the same dark color as the stair, “to keep the entry warm and detailed,” Nick says. Inside, that color reappears on the living room’s paneling and box beams, giving it some gravitas for formal use but also grounding it for cozy family gatherings around the game table or TV.  “We like to do colors where you can’t quite tell what it is; the stairway looks almost black, but in the downstairs mudroom it looks like there’s some blue in it, depending on the light coming in,” Nick says. “There was not one style we were trying to mimic, but we wanted to do a slightly more modern take on a traditional set of details and make it as elegant as we could.” 

With its strong connection to the backyard, the kitchen moves in an airier direction. White kitchen cabinets form a quiet backdrop to a clear-oak island and quartzite countertop. In the lounge area of this space, a custom oak window seat looks out on the covered front porch. Oak was also used for the house’s radiant-heated floors (stained with a bit of whitewash) and second-floor guest bath vanity, which is turned out in oak slats and rounded corners. 

In the primary bath, too, the architects kept things modern, with a touch of glam. A marble-slab vanity top and marble flooring contribute the requisite richness, while the shower’s vertically laid ceramic tile is graphically expressed with larger horizontal joint lines.

These well-thought-out details work their way into the soul of the house, bridging the distance between the traditional building and what is undoubtedly a better version of itself. “Whenever I go there, the big door at the kitchen is open so that it becomes an indoor-outdoor room with three kids running in and out,” Nick says, adding, “The clients were very involved with every color and material, and we had a great contractor. I think from their point of view it was very successful.”

Presidio Heights Residence

San Francisco

Project Credits

Architect: Nick Noyes, FAIA, principal in charge; Michael Perkins, project architect, Nick Noyes Architecture, San Francisco

Builder: Cairn Construction, San Francisco

Structural engineer: GFDS Engineers, San Francisco

Interior designer: Brittany Giannone, ABD Studio, San Francisco

Landscape architect: Alexis Woods, Alexis Woods Landscape Design, San Francisco

Art consultant: Elizabeth Rose Jackson, Elizabeth Rose Jackson Interior, San Anselmo, California

Project size: 6,095 square feet

Site size: 0.15 acre

Construction cost: Withheld

Photography: Suzanna Scott Photography

Key Products

Cabinetry: West Summit Cabinetry

Countertops: Caesarstone, marble, quartzite

Entry doors: Foxtail Hill Windows & Doors, Folger + Burt

Faucets: Kallista, Waterworks

Fence: Accoya

Kitchen Appliances: Miele Garage door cladding: Accoya

HVAC system: Fujitsu (primary bedroom mini-split)

Lighting: Bega (outdoor)

Lighting control system: Lutron

Outdoor grill: Lynx

Paint: Benjamin Moore

Passage doors/hardware: TruStile, Emtek

Sinks: Rohl

Sliding door: Weiland by Andersen

Thermal barrier: CAT 5 Liquid Applied

Toilets: TOTO

Windows: Marvin

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Classical architecture is not in the firm’s oeuvre—both partners live in Midcentury Modern homes, and their portfolio is built on Texas Modern–style houses with right angles and rectilinear motifs. But the firm’s philosophy that “buildings are beholden to their site, whether physically, climatically, or contextually,” provided an appropriate framework for thinking about how to deliver their clients’ wishes. The owners, a family with children, hired them to do a feasibility study after purchasing the property for its location, generous lot, and neighborhood feel. “They said, ‘It has a historic house that we don’t really like; what can you do,’” recalls Eric. “Rather than drastically change the house, we explored what it would mean to save, enhance, and restore and make it more interesting than if we tore it down and built something modern.”

Not that tearing down was an option. Austin’s historic preservation office required the historic part of the house to be preserved, while allowing some creative freedom. Behind its symmetrical red-brick Georgian façade, the building was L-shaped with a one-story wing off the back that was thought to be original but lacked architectural value. Thus, while the L-footprint was maintained and then expanded with a modern appendage facing the street, the symmetrical main part of the house was dismantled and rebuilt by cataloging and reusing the materials. The existing wing, by contrast, was completely reimagined.

“We took the main part of the house seriously as a historic restoration,” Eric says. “That was the fun part; we got to do a deep dive into historic restoration and design things like fluted columns and porticos that we don’t usually get to do, and then design a modern addition. It’s a tale of two cities.”

Winging It

Indeed, marrying the modern addition with the symmetrical elegance of the main house posed conceptual, structural, and material challenges. Chief among the structural hurdles was the discovery of unstable clay beneath the poorly built basement. That required gutting the house to its framing, jacking it up, and constructing a system of concrete piers and rebar about 30 inches deep. With the basement removed, a French drain and redundant pump system were installed to keep the crawl space dry. “It was like open-heart surgery, but then the center mass was structurally sound and ready to be put back together,” says builder Matt Shoberg. To meet the second-story finished floor level in the historic part of the house, the addition’s floor system was constructed with 12-inch-deep trusses hung from deep steel beams upturned into the walls. “Normally you’d have a 24-inch floor truss to run mechanicals; we had to cram them into a tight package,” he says.

During the restoration of the Georgian façade, the Austin Commons brick was pulled off and stripped of its bright red paint. It had been quarried in downtown Austin where a golf course now stands, and the intention was to leave the brick unpainted. However, a shortage of salvageable material led to infilling with brick that matched the proportions and color, and covering everything with a limewash slurry. “It has a more nuanced and subtle texture than paint, earthy and more akin to the original look we were going for,” Eric says. What’s more, the light-colored, east-facing façade emphasizes the historic structure’s detailing and symmetry and sets it apart from the dark-colored addition. 

From the street, the addition reads as a two-story cube attached to the south side of the old house. Its black Richlite rainscreen, made of recycled paper, helps it recede visually. “The original concept was for bronze panels, but the client wanted to do something more eco-conscious,” Eric says. Between the two buildings, a glass void unmistakably marks the separation of old and new. “We connected the two with a glass bridge, or reveal, that allows you to immediately understand and appreciate the original building footprint,” Eric says. “On the first floor it’s a full-height window into a bar area that stacks below the bridge. When you’re standing in front of the house, you can see right between the two buildings.” 

The Georgian architecture’s brickwork wraps a one-story mudroom/laundry extension on the far side of the cube, as well as the renovated wing on the northwest. This created a cohesive rear view, along with continuous steel trellises that shade the west-facing glass and draw a horizontal datum line across the back. There, too, the addition’s second floor is stepped back to create an airy elevation facing the pool. 

Inside, the Georgian house’s thickened walls and formal proportions pair seamlessly with an organic plan that shifts the focus to the outdoors with glass walls, deep overhangs, and blurred thresholds. In the central foyer, an unsalvageable winding wood stair was replaced in the same spirit with a sweeping plaster stair—a minimalist, free-floating helix. In the dining room to the south—originally the living room—some of the windows were enlarged as portals to the addition and grounds.

To the north, the old dining room became a library that pivots to the perpendicular wing, which formerly contained the kitchen and other disorganized spaces. Now it houses offices for the owner and an assistant, along with an expansive primary suite including a meditation room that gazes into a pocket Zen garden. “The foyer and library are transition zones that allow the assistant to come to work without traversing through family life,” Eric says. Upstairs in the central part of the house are a music room, playroom, office, and bedroom, with an additional two bedrooms in the addition. Downstairs, the addition contains an open-plan kitchen and family room that flow out to the pool terrace, supplying the informal living spaces that were missing in the original house. 

House Blend

Subtle, articulated detailing and textures unite old and new. “Viewed from the exterior, we wanted to celebrate the old part of the house, but we didn’t want it to be such a slap in the face inside,” Eric says. It was a fine line to walk. Moldings and hardware were among the elements the architects sought to preserve. “The trim was scattershot,” he says. “We picked the room we thought had done the best job of it and carried it through the old part of the house.” New single-hung windows were replicated with the historic divided light patterns and proportions, and a creamy paint color ties together the interiors.

The foyer’s helical stair has a steel skeleton whose railing and walls were hand-troweled with marble plaster on site. “We had several rounds of fine-tuning,” Eric says. “The trick about plasterwork is you don’t want it to look perfect and machine-made, but you don’t want it to be lumpy. There’s a sweet spot of beautiful imperfection, and everyone on the team had to agree on the best version.” Floors are white oak, and the ebonized oak kitchen cabinets balance the light-colored brick and other finishes. 

In the library, an Egyptian table, symmetrical shelving, and carved fireplace frame uphold and update the original home’s classical symmetry, as do brick pilasters in lieu of a glass wall system in the addition’s family room. In the owners’ suite, the meditation room’s exposed oak beams were inspired by their visits to Japan. Its ipe decking continues out to the garden through a wall-height sliding door. And their bedroom, with its cozy window seat, opens to the pool.

A Parallel Architecture takes its name from the intent to “approach architecture, interiors, and landscape design in parallel,” they write. This project exemplifies that strategy particularly outdoors, in collaboration with Ten Eyck Landscape Architects. A new three-car garage and guest suite on the property’s southwest edge encloses a rear courtyard that serves as a hub for entertaining and outdoor activity. Defined by a low, board-formed concrete wall and a fireplace, a patio on the south side segues to a gravel dining terrace under a bosque of trees in the front yard. Only partially hidden by the property’s front wall and fencing, it is meant as a neighborly gesture. 

“We did a lot of transparency studies to find the right amount of connectivity to have a conversation through or over the fence,” Eric says. “Thirty percent is solid, which corresponds to the old part of the house; the rest is very open. The front yard has a big picnic table like you might find in the Italian countryside under a grove of sycamores. It’s something the clients really wanted after their time in southern Europe, and the gravel fits in with the arid Texas landscape.”

Echoing the house’s original materials, the front wall and entry path are made with salvaged, unfinished Austin Commons brick blended with proportional replacements. 

In its outward appearance, the distinction between old and new is quite clear but in a mutually respectful way. Inside, however, the differences seem almost to disappear, registering only as sympatico points of interest. “You could easily walk through and not know you’re standing in two radically different eras,” Eric says, underscoring the transformative association of past and present. 

West Lynn Residence

Austin, Texas

Project Credits

Architect: Eric Barth, AIA, and Ryan Burke, AIA, principals in charge; Diane Hong, project architect; Michael Battjes, project designer, A Parallel Architecture, Austin, Texas

Builder: Matthew Shoberg, Shoberg Homes, West Lake Hills, Texas

Interior designer: Ten Plus Three, Dallas

Landscape architect: Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, Austin

Structural engineer: MJ Structures, Austin

Geotechnical engineer: Capital Geotechnical Services, Austin

HVAC consultant: Fresh Air HVAC Sizing, Austin

Lighting designer: Studio Lumina, San Antonio, Texas

Project size: 8,290 square feet

Site size: 0.75 acre

Construction cost: Withheld

Photography: Casey Dunn

Key Products

Cabinetry: White oak, walnut

Cooking ventilation: Wolf

Cooktop/oven: Miele

Countertops: Calacatta, quartzite, Carrara, Ann Sacks

Cladding: Richlite, reclaimed brick

Decking: Ipe

Dishwasher: Miele

Entry doors: African mahogany

Faucets: Rocky Mountain Hardware, Watermark

Flooring: Engineered European white oak

Hardware: Rocky Mountain Hardware

Humidity control: Ultra-Aire 98H

HVAC system: Mitsubishi

Lighting: Bocci, Visual Comfort & Co., Jonathan Browning 

Millwork: Buda Woodworks

Outdoor grill: Fire Magic Grills, Regal

Outdoor kitchen cabinet: Danver stainless steel

Outdoor refrigerator: Summit

Outdoor vent hood: Sirius

Paints: Benjamin Moore, Farrow & Ball

Passage doors/hardware: House of Antique Hardware, Emtek

Paving: Leuders limestone, reclaimed brick, granite Euro cobble

Refrigerator: Sub-Zero

Roofing: Ecostar Synthetic Slate (existing), TPO with river rock ballast

Shading: Drophouse Design custom steel louvers

Sinks: Blanco, Lacava

Skylights: VELUX

Soffit sheathing: DensGlass

Specialty appliances: Miele

Structural steel: Drophouse Design

Toilets: TOTO

Tub: ADM Bathroom, Kohler

Ventilation: Panasonic WhisperLine

Washer/dryer: LG

Window shading systems: Lutron

Windows: Durango, Quantum Windows, Windsor clad (historic)

Wine refrigerator: Sub-Zero

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