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FeedGrown Up Whimsy
Dan Nepp’s homes are layered with meaning—and playfulness
By Camille LeFevre
Photo by David J. Turner
Not surprisingly, that fanciful child grew up to be an architect. Nepp’s imagination is evident in a distinctive and diverse body of work that includes a steep-pitched house with a European aesthetic in Alabama; a light-filled home on a narrow urban lot near Lake Harriet in Minneapolis; a charming European-style cottage in a wooded Twin Cities suburb; and a fanciful lighthouse/carriage house overlooking Lake Superior in Wisconsin.
Nepp has been designing homes since he graduated from architecture school at the University of Minnesota in 1986. He was immediately hired by Tom Ellison, principal of TEA2, and was named a firm principal in 1996. “What I saw back then was an extremely creative individual and a very hard worker with an innate ability to visualize complex forms in three dimensions,” Ellison recalls. Today, Nepp says he strives to imbue his work with “livability, a sense of place, and timelessness.” His designs combine contemporary features (open interior spaces, modern amenities, and a strong connection to the outdoors) with a sense of architectural history.
Case in point: When the PBS television program, Hometime, asked Nepp to design “a house with character,” he created a home with a stone foundation and concrete-tiled roof that employs traditional gables to bookend a recessed wall of windows. The glass wall (a modern innovation), which he framed with traditional columns and brackets, provides expansive views to Lake Minnetonka from a light-filled, open-plan interior. Meanwhile, the gables ensure ample privacy for the homeowners, even when they’re on the terrace.
Lynn and Jennifer McCroskey saw Hometime and invited Nepp to look at their wooded lot on a steep-sided ravine overlooking a creek just outside of Birmingham, Alabama. “Dan loved the site and appreciated its challenges,” Lynn says. “We told him we wanted a house that looked like it just grew out of the ground and had always been there. After that, everything fell into place.”
Nepp composed the 6,000-square-foot structure of multiple pavilions, siting each one to ensure views of the creek, allow in the winter light, and avoid summer sun. The pavilions are separated to allow naturally occurring rivulets of water to flow down the hillside. A walkway and bridge cleverly connects the house and garage over the stream. Stone gables anchor the broad, horizontal window walls, echoing the form of the bluff opposite the house, while bay windows on each end frame telescopic views up and down the creek.
Photo by Tea2 Architects
The garden terrace overlooking the ravine gives the McCroskeys prospect, while the mahogany clad interior and stone fireplace provide a sense of retreat. The Hometime house neatly balances both perspectives as well: It offers panoramic views of the lake and an open family room, yet includes a tidy dining inglenook. The ceilings form an intimate hierarchy of heights that correspond with the spacious public spaces below.
The whimsical carriage house on Lake Superior in Wisconsin, designed by Nepp for Jerry and Linda Johnson in 1999, incorporates a similar juxtaposition. The entrance is up a circular staircase in a lighthouse-like tower, which then opens into a spacious living area where large, circular windows frame views of the lake and woods. An eating niche with built-in bench and a kitchen with curved wood soffit and bar provide refuge-like spaces within the open living areas.
“Dan was all about creativity and details,” says Linda. “And when someone pays attention to the details, you know everything’s been done right.”
For Nepp, generating a hierarchy of space within a home by playing with the dynamic connection between intimacy and openness provides a home with “layers of mystery.” These are houses that become evocative, emotional, and filled with meaning for the homeowners, Nepp says. “I talk with my clients constantly about values in architecture—space, rhythm, light, siting, history—and how we needn’t be locked into one particular style, but need to create designs that evoke what they’re drawn to, whether it’s history, timelessness or playfulness.”
Nepp is not only a teacher, but a team player. “At the end of the day, I can’t execute these projects alone,” he says. “There are contributors all across the board who help with the design process.”
Camille LeFevre is a St. Paul writer.
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