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FeedPorch Revival
Want a cozy outdoor space and a way to stay in touch with the neighborhood? Rediscover an architectural tradition
By Brett Martin
Photo by John Abernathy
“This was a place where you’d want to see outside, but the window didn’t cut it,” says Chris Koch, project director for Vujovich Design Build in Minneapolis, the company that remodeled the exterior of Peterson’s home to include a front porch. The challenge was to add a porch without compromising the home’s character. “We had to make sure it worked aesthetically and functionally, and worked as a classic piece of architecture,” Koch explains.
He added a box-bay entry room with four French doors leading outside that acted as a transition between the house and the terrace. Koch replaced the windows on the front of the house, and installed brick skirting on the front and sides of the porch, two cedar columns, an overhead cedar trellis, and a second, smaller balcony on the second level.
The addition is designed to blend seamlessly with the house—it looks as though it’s always been there—but functionally, it changed everything, Peterson says. “I never used the front of the house before. Now, I use the porch four or five times a day.” The space has become one of his favorite places in the house. A built-in gas fire pit makes the first-floor porch a cozy gathering spot for friends, while the second-level offers a view of the Minneapolis skyline just beyond the lake. Peterson is pleased with the outcome. “It was a plain, ordinary house,” he says. “[The new porch] really changed the look. It made the house special.”
Community-building
Long before homeowners became enamored with decks built off the back of the house that offer a private outdoor space, front porches held a place in American tradition. Sitting on the porch, watching the world go by, was a way to see—and be seen by—neighbors.
Photo by John Abernathy
Indeed, the porch Knight added onto Karen and Patrick Minger’s 1986 two-story, traditional home in Chanhassen serves exactly that purpose. The Mingers’ former porch was small with a high railing that obstructed the sightlines of anyone seated there, so the family rarely used it. During an exterior remodeling project, Knight extended the porch along the entire front of the house and replaced the obtrusive railing with stately columns. He installed cedar shakes on the front of the house, and a re-configured roofline to match that of the porch. “It totally changed the look of the house,” Karen says.
Now, the Mingers prefer to sit on the front porch, overlooking their generous front yard. Likewise, their kids would rather lounge in the front, which allows the family to hang out together, and for neighbors and friends to stop by and visit. “It’s just relaxing,” says Karen.
Koch agrees that a porch space can, and often does, encourage community. However, he cautions that simply adding porches does not automatically create a harmonious neighborhood. “Some contractors build porches in planned communities in an effort to force homeowners to interact. There’s a mentality, ‘If we build it, they will interact,’” he says. “You can’t force a lifestyle through architecture.”
Welcome In
Porches help blur the line between indoors and outdoors, and a home’s overall design is often better for it. “A house typically doesn’t have a transitional space. You open the door, and you step right inside,” says Mark Larson, partner at Rehkamp Larson Architects in Minneapolis. “The porch serves as this transitional space, welcoming people into the house.”Larson designed such a space with the porch added to Beth and Rick Anderson’s 1960s two-story Colonial in southwest Minneapolis. “The impetus was to have a house that blended into the neighborhood and was aesthetically pleasing,” Beth says. “Part of the reason to add the porch was also to break up the ‘flatness’ of the house.”
The porch also increased the home’s livable space. The Andersons’ daughter, Maddie, awaits visiting friends from the porch, while speakers built into the cedar ceiling set the mood as they approach the front door.
Even in Minnesota, many homeowners enjoy their porches year-round. Many people decorate their outside spaces, welcoming the changing seasons with the appropriate décor and offering optimism during dreary Minnesota cold spells. “In some ways, a porch is a reminder that winter will not last. It’s a built-in reminder of the seasons,” Larson says. “It reminds you during the winter months that summer is coming, and those three months are worth celebrating.
“A front porch is truly one of those great rooms,” Larson says. “It makes the house a better place to live.”
Brett Martin is a Shakopee freelance writer.
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