Character Counts
Some additions clone the existing house in an attempt to appear seamless. Not this one.
When architects Christine Albertsson and Todd Hansen purchased the original gabled salt box (which had been designed and built by Minnesota architect Carl Stravs in 1923), it had no garage, no shower, and scant storage space. It also had no discernible front entry—a casualty of the lot having been subdivided in the 1950s, which had shifted its front door to the side.
On the plus side, though, it was an extremely well-built little house. And, from its perch 30 feet above Minnehaha Creek, a protected waterway, it had a lovely view.
The owners’ first resolution was to preserve what was good, so they left the shell of the 30-foot-by-25-foot cottage intact, along with a beautiful oak tree on its west side.
What remained was a relatively small building envelope for an addition, concentrated mostly to the south. Fortunately, the incumbent structure already had a sturdy retaining wall on its downhill side that could be exploited. “We used that existing wall as part of the foundation for the addition,” Albertsson explains, “which, in the end, helped save the oak tree. By using what was already there, we were able to get by with a mini-excavator during construction, causing minimal disruption to the soil.”
Changes to the old house were mostly cosmetic. A fresh switch to white paint made its cedar shake siding appear less tired, and, with the addition of a crisp portico, the owners pivoted the front entry to face the street. The entry hall that now hugs the west elevation leads back to a 1,210-square-foot gabled addition—which, in contrast, is clad in barn red fiber cement with vertical cedar battens. From the outside, the residence now looks like a New England farmhouse that grew over time to become conjoined with its barn.
Inside, the old and new sections of the house do a similar dance between continuity and reinterpretation. The existing S4S millwork (a simple, cottage-style molding with no profiling) was easy enough for Hansen to replicate with a table saw and carry over into the new space. But the sand float plaster finish on the original interior walls was tougher to pull off. Not wanting to use plain sheetrock, the architects instead opted to line the walls of the addition with beadboard paneling. (For cost savings, Hansen ordered an overrun of boards he had already custom designed for a client.) The result is a texture that is different yet complementary, and no less charming.
Project: Minnehaha Creek Addition
Location: Minneapolis
Size: 1,240 square feet (before); 2,450 square feet (after)
Lot size: 7,200 square feet
Architect: Albertsson Hansen Architecture, Minneapolis
Builder: Choice Wood Co., St. Louis Park, Minn.