Table of contents for Oct-12 in Dwell

What Does an American House Look Like? Craftsman, Farmhouse, Prairie, or McMansion—these are all architectural styles arguably indicative of an “American” vernacular, like it or not. But in a country as vast as ours, the idea that one typology could trump all others is laughable. So why try? No matter what the outside wrapping may be, any house in the United States is American, and any home can be modern on the inside. In the pages that follow, you’ll find American homes from Santa Cruz to Connecticut, some with modern bones and some without. You’ll find innovation in construction techniques, tributes to regional styles reinterpreted with updated twists, and even a sly interior renovation inserted behind a traditional street-facing facade. We find energy and inspiration in the gamut of projects…

With these modern-day lodges for Kansas City campers heading to the country, a Missouri architecture firm puts a fresh face on a 100-year-old Girl Scout tradition. A far cry from the rustic cabins—often little more than enclosed tents—that former Girl Scouts may recall from back in the day, the new bunkhouses at Camp Prairie Schooner outside of Kansas City, Missouri, are geared toward the 21st-century urban camper. Architect Douglas Stockman of El Dorado Inc. explains that his firm designed the structures for city-dwelling youngsters “with some of the comforts of being at home, plus technology as a tool for the activities associated with camp.” Vernacular strokes include the roofline—uninterrupted gables that evoke traditional bunkhouse architecture—and cladding. Though one might not categorize corrugated metal as strictly regional, Stockman explains, “It’s widely…

The Seattle prince of architectural gizmos is branching out into a new line of hardware fashioned from bars and pipes. A hardware line is a clever brand extension for architect Tom Kundig, whose buildings seemingly open up to their environments with wizardry, but in actuality unfurl via brawny, custom-designed winches, cables, and gears. His new collection of cut-and-folded steel accessories—25 cabinet pulls, rollers, door knockers, and knobs—debuted earlier this year in a storefront space on the ground floor of Olson Kundig Architects’ headquarters in Seattle. “I felt there was a need for simple yet materially rich designs for the everyday components folks touch all the time,” says Kundig. Just as his buildings are influenced by heavy-duty machinery, his hardware is rooted in Seattle’s tradition of metalworking. The area’s logging, mining,…

A dramatic trellis adds bravado and a passive cooling element to a recently renovated mid-century ranch house. The Babat residence in Nashville is blessed with a big backyard; however, the blistering Tennessee sun once made it feel more like a broiler than a place to kick back and relax. Enter architect Michael Goorevich—then on staff at Manuel Zeitlin Architects—who devised a wood-and-steel trellis to cover part of the space. To ensure the span shades the terrace from early afternoon until evening, Goorevich painstakingly modeled the path of the sun to determine the correct orientation and angle for the trellis, as well as the depth and spacing of its Douglas fir crossbeams. Beneath its steep rise, the residents find respite from the sun, entertain guests, and frequently dine al fresco. The…

After nine years spent renting apartments in Boston and Chicago, Dan and Dana Zuckerman moved to Boise, Idaho, Dan’s hometown, in 2008. Drawn by the prospect of purchasing a historic home where they could raise their three kids, and by a unique job opportunity for Dan, an oncologist, the couple forewent the allure of a turnkey house in favor of a 1910 American foursquare that needed some TLC. With the help of Portland, Oregon–based architects Heidi Beebe and Doug Skidmore, they created an updated addition—consisting of a master suite upstairs and kitchen, pantry, powder room, and covered patio downstairs—that’s perfectly integrated with the original house and vibrantly modern at the same time. Dan: I’d been away from Boise for a long time and wanted to come back. I loved growing…

MISSOURI Project: Porch House Architect: Hufft Projects Location: Springfield, Missouri When Hannah and Paul Catlett first pulled up to a three-acre chunk of rolling hillside outside Springfield, Missouri, things didn’t look promising. A crumbling old ranch-style house stood caving in on itself, and the land didn’t seem like anything special, either. But when the Catletts saw the sweeping view of the Ozarks from the back door, everything changed. “We walked out and we had a euphoric feeling,” Paul remembers. “It was like: ‘Oh, my God. This is it.’” They closed on the property a week later, and in short order had the ranch house razed and its lumber sent off to an Amish community for chicken coops. Then the real transformation began. The couple initially planned to build a neotraditional…

Homeowner and architectural designer Elizabeth Alford explains that rapid post–World War II population growth caused Austin homebuilders to address materiality and place in a more direct way. Though modest, many of the Texas capital’s homes were built with local resources, such as limestone and native hardwood, and made strong connections to the outdoors with the help of large windows, covered porches, and patios. “People were interested in technology and the future,” she says, but ties to farm life were still strong. According to Alford, mid-century houses are a “small but appreciated minority” in Austin—head into Hill Country to spot the strictly vernacular dogtrot-style homes—but she’s not kidding when she says that the best example of regional architecture in central Texas might just be the famed Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor,…

Despite its geographical separation from mid-century hotbeds such as Chicago and Southern California, Salt Lake City has long been connected to modernism in the United States. After working closely with Frank Lloyd Wright as a draftsman, architect Taylor Woolley brought the Prairie style back to his native Utah in 1917. In 1952, John Sugden, who studied under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Ludwig Hilberseimer at the Illinois Institute of Technology, started his firm in Salt Lake City—bringing with him a modern new aesthetic that influenced local architects and home-owners for years to come. As the movement gained a foothold in Utah, residents busily filled their homes with furniture to match. Years later, as the furniture faded in popularity, Ron Green frantically bought up as much of it as he…

Editors’ note: “The Real Cost of Rip-Offs” (June 2012) sparked a strong debate about the furniture industry. Join the conversation at dwell.com/authentic-design. I just read “The Real Cost of Rip-Offs.” Very well done. My wife and I purchased a couple of Adrian Pearsall tables and set of vintage chairs for our living room. We have been looking for a vintage love seat without much luck, so we began to consider contemporary furniture. After reading the article, I now know what to look for: a licensed seller versus a company that offers “faithful reproductions” of a designer’s furniture. Jon Town Phoenix, Arizona Defending the purchase of a replica by declaring originals “unaffordable” touches on a challenging issue of our time. How did we arrive at a point where consumers expect to…

From sea to shining sea, the United States holds a wide stratum of makers. Here we’ve collected the newest products from our favorite welders, weavers, and woodworkers, to name just a few. A. Buendia, Libertad, and Roxas Pillows by Inigo Elizalde $165–$215 each Elizalde’s woven dhurries are hand-knotted in Nepal, but he’s deconstructed a few of his boldest patterns into a collection of pillows, all printed in North Carolina and sewn in New York City. inigoelizalderugs.com B. Array Pendant by Bend $2,200 A new silhouette in Bend’s Los Angeles–made, spot-welded oeuvre is an iron lighting fixture whose name alludes to the mathematical term meaning “an orderly arrangement of slanted lines.” bendseating.com C. Ada Quilt by Meg Callahan for MatterMade $1,525 Inspired by vernacular traditions, Providence-based Callahan used a very contemporary…

In 50 years, more than 176 million fans have entered the turnstiles at Dodger Stadium, the midcentury modern ballpark nestled in Los Angeles’s Chavez Ravine. Taking a page from stat-happy baseball, we run the numbers on the past five decades of this architectural and sporting icon. • When owner Walter O’Malley moved the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles for the 1958 season, he envisioned the as-yet-unbuilt Dodger Stadium with water features, Disneyland-style trams, and 80,000 seats in “an outdoor cathedral of trees.” He settled for 56,000 (unobstructed) seats and scattered palms. • O’Malley neglected to put public drinking fountains or electrical outlets in the clubhouses, so the park opened on April 10, 1962, without either. They were added later. • The stadium’s terraced parking lots can accommodate 16,000 cars…

A Burnham and Root–designed train depot in small-town Iowa scores a $10,000 preservation grant. Railroad depots were hot architectural commissions in the late 19th century, and celebrated Chicago firm Burnham and Root—known for designing some of America’s first skyscrapers—were responsible for the 1891 Union Depot in Keokuk, Iowa, a then-thriving transportation hub set at the confluence of the Mississippi and Des Moines rivers. A red-brick-and-sandstone Romanesque Revival building with wooden cathedral ceilings and a hexagonal ticket booth, the depot was one of the last projects overseen by John Root before he died of pneumonia at age 41. (His partner, Daniel Burnham, went on to further acclaim as an urban planner and architect.) Today it’s one of the duo’s few surviving depots, and though it has suffered from neglect, leaks, and…

University of California, Santa Cruz, professors Bernie Tershy and Erika Zavaleta and their four kids didn’t physically move far when they built a new home a few blocks from the beach in Santa Cruz. But the result of their collaboration with the Berkeley-based architecture firm Arkin Tilt is leagues away from the constraining home they lived in for the past ten years. Their new abode is a marvel of green design, with a photovoltaic array on the roof, straw bales in the walls for insulation, and an open southern facade that embraces both a bustling backyard and a bucolic park. As they began looking for architects, the couple imagined that they would have to push hard to get their green agenda into the home—seek a style, and then insert the…

The hills and farmland around Springfield, Missouri, shelter a smattering of architectural styles, from ranch houses to split-levels to latter-day Tudors. But the most enduring style is the farmhouse, which goes something like this: white clapboard, small dormer windows, two stories, porch. “They’re all over the Midwest,” says architect Matthew Hufft. The Porch House was inspired by the farmhouse style, but twisted it a little. “I was taking cues from something traditional,” Hufft says, “but translated it into something more modern.” In his interpretation, the white clapboard stayed and a typical farmhouse roof, done in metal, outlines the home’s shape. But the gabled dormers are exaggerated, the porch has lost its railings and pillars, and the double-hung windows are oversized. Inside, high ceilings, sliding glass doors, and floor-to-ceiling windows provide…

CONNECTICUT Project: Depot House Architect: Gray Organschi Architecture Location: Washington, Connecticut In 1997, Lisa Gray and Alan Organschi bought six and a half acres off a dirt road that winds through the undulating hills and former large dairy farms of northwestern Connecticut. The landscape—speckled with ash and cherry trees on the banks of the Bantam River—was relaxing and inviting. However, the two cramped, poorly built, and barely winterized 1970s-vintage wooden houses, one of which was where Gray, Organschi, and their two young children slept, definitely were not. The real selling point for the pair, who are the principals at Gray Organschi Architecture in New Haven, Connecticut, was an early 20th-century foundation supporting one of the structures. The wall—its rounded stones coated in a patina of lichen, dandelions peeking through its…

Andrei Saltykov came up with the idea for his highly functional work of wall art after living in Washington, DC, while working on a building for Richard Rogers. He saw a map of the country made from license plates and eventually put the concept to use in his new house in London, the first project of his practice Saltykov & Lacey. American geography, it turns out, was just perfect for what he had in mind. “I thought about doing Britain or Russia,” he says, “but there weren’t so many sections, and the United States has lots of straight-lined divisions—great for holding books.” Showing off his library wasn’t Saltykov’s only aesthetic aim, though. Within the map he fastened 600 tiny Christmas tree lights that represent the nation’s major cities. The shelf,…

Lincoln Barbour Since his start as a photographer’s assistant over ten years ago, photographer Lincoln Barbour has always wanted to shoot for Dwell. When the assignment for “New Frontiers” (My House, p. 62) came, he excitedly told his wife and then called his parents (who are subscribers). “The shoot couldn’t have gone any better,” he says. “A welcoming family, beautiful weather, and excellent design made for portfolio-worthy images.” Addie Broyles As if Michael Young’s garden wasn’t enough to endear him to Austin writer Addie Broyles (“Heart of Gold and Pine,” p. 96), the way he uses sands and soils from around the world in his large-scale artworks did. Now she finally knows what to do with that jar of white sand that she’s kept since a childhood vacation to New…

How do American companies maintain handcrafted detail while producing fast enough—and in large enough quantities—to satisfy profit margins and consumers accustomed to instant gratification? Do you know how and where your own coffee table was made? If you answered, “It was handcrafted by a midsize American producer,” perhaps you’ve wondered how homegrown companies compete with those offering more affordable products manufactured overseas. In most cases, it requires walking the line between custom and standardized. It helps if you live in a place like Charleston, South Carolina, a port city with a strong craft tradition. Most of The Urban Electric Company’s 75 employees are involved in day-to-day lighting production at their headquarters in North Charleston, yet most have no background in the necessary coppersmithing. Instead, they’re makers: jewelers, sculptors, and auto…

Herzog & de Meuron design a new home for the Parrish Art Museum, providing an excuse to visit the Hamptons in the off-season. On November 10, the Parrish Art Museum will cross of a big item on its to-do list. After a 14-year delay, it will unveil a new home in Water Mill, Long Island. With triple the exhibition space of its prior locale, it will have room to display art not on view since the collection’s 1897 founding. The museum’s pedigree (artist Chuck Close is a patron) extends to its choice of designers: Pritzker Prize–winning Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, aided on the interiors by Konstantin Grcic. Taking cues from a typical Hamptons artist’s studio, Herzog & de Meuron have created a modern building that is laced with…

Charles Gwathmey’s residential masterpiece, a modest but pioneering home for his parents in the Hamptons, looks as fresh today as it did in 1965. Project: Gwathmey Residence and Studio Architect: Charles Gwathmey (1938–2009) Location: Amagansett, New York “My father hated privet,” said architect Charles Gwathmey in 2002 while making some small tweaks to the 1,200-square-foot house in Amagansett, New York, that he had designed for his parents 37 years earlier. “He thought it was too bourgeois, and not very neighborly.” The house in question, a modernist gem of small-scale living, made Gwathmey famous at the age of 27 and solidified his reputation in a generation of burgeoning architects. Even after subtle updates—like a new privet hedge—the house maintains the efficient yet spacious feel that helped make it an American icon,…

Daniel Pink and his wife, Jessica Lerner, have lived in DC since the 1990s, when he was a speechwriter and she worked for the Justice Department. They’d lived happily in a tiny colonial until their needs changed—they both quit their jobs to work from home, and they had three kids. They wanted a modern configuration, but, as Daniel puts it, “Most houses here occupy the narrow aesthetic band between traditional and ugly/boring.” They finally found a dilapidated foursquare and hired McInturff Architects to tackle the renovation. But since the house is in a historic district, everything they wished to try came under intense scrutiny. “We were permitted to do mostly what we wanted—provided nobody could see the changes from the street,” Daniel says. In 13-year-old Eliza’s room, a built-in bed…

Project: Balcones House Architect: Pollen Architecture & Design Location: Austin, Texas Native Texans and married designers Elizabeth Alford and Michael Young came home to roost ten years ago, when they ditched big-city life in New York for a ranch house in Austin. The home, originally built by architect Jonathan Bowman in 1957, sits in a landscape of limestone cliffs in the Balcones fault zone, the geographical boundary between the prairie lands that extend all the way to the Gulf of Mexico and the rolling, agriculture-rich Hill Country. “We intended to remodel,” says Alford, who owns the firm Pollen Architecture & Design with Young and their business partner, architect Dason Whitsett. As soon as they started drawing up plans, they realized that it would be too costly to complete a restoration…

The challenge that Lisa Gray and Alan Organschi set for themselves was to build something that is at once of its time and steeped in the history of its surroundings. The pair took a design cue from the dairy barns that have disappeared from the rural Connecticut landscape, victims of decay and development. The house abuts the road, a nod to a barn’s traditional location and one that forced them to apply for a special exception to the zoning regulations of the town of Washington. “You can’t build like that anymore due to zoning setbacks,” Gray explains. “When you’re close to the road, that’s a mark of an old situation, and we have always found those kinds of buildings very romantic.” By salvaging the old foundation, the architects spared another…