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FeedIn-Town Retreat
A homeowner reinvents his domain
By James walsh
Photo by karen melvin
It was time for a change. “You couldn’t really see the creek before,” Quirk says. Now a soaring, contemporary, four-bedroom, four-bath home gazes out on the creek and the wooded lot, giving Quirk the view he’d been seeking. The exterior is designed to fit with the traditional lines of the neighborhood, with gables, a dormer, and a steep-pitched roofline. The interior, on the other hand, is a far more modern affair. It’s designed to give Quirk, a divorced father of an adult son, the open, airy, and natural feel of a retreat that seems far from the city’s bustle.
Built in 2003, the home is the brainchild of architectural designer Jeff Nicholson, then with Choice Wood Company. Nicholson says Quirk had no preconceived notions of what his new home should look like. But he knew what he needed: an open floor plan, private spaces in which to work and relax, and an eye to the creek.
The pie-shaped lot—50 feet wide at the street and stretching to 145 feet wide at the edge of Minnehaha Creek—also shaped Nicholson’s design. Floor-to-ceiling windows take in a sweeping view of the creek from the open first floor. In the entryway, Douglas fir balusters frame a stairway and offer intermittent glimpses of the creek and wooded park through the dining and living room windows.
Christine Frisk and Angel Tilsen, principal and project designer, respectively, of Alternative Designs, employed modern, natural materials in a limited palette, as Quirk requested. Finished in Douglas fir, maple, slate, and New York bluestone, the interior is so inviting that he says he loves spending time in every calming inch of the place. “The greatest thing I can say is this is a great house to live in,” says Quirk, who runs a local Bobcat dealership. “And I do live in the whole house. It’s just laid out so well. And it’s also designed for me.”
Reclaimed Douglas fir timber posts and beams, along with antique heart of pine wood floors, give the open first floor a warm glow. The living room fireplace, surrounded in bluestone, features a hearth made from massive stones, the largest weighing in at 2,250 pounds.
Quirk’s preference for clean lines, open space, and natural materials carries through to the kitchen. Lower cabinets are topped by dark soapstone countertops; a single piece of polished blue lapis covers the modest island. The cabinets are made of quarter-sawn maple. A stainless steel wall frames the range, mimicking the vertical line of the hearth at the center of the home, says Nicholson, who recently launched his own firm, Quartersawn Design Build. An ironwood deck with cable railings is mounted off the kitchen without posts or beams to obstruct the bucolic setting.
On the second floor, a small deck off the master bedroom offers Quirk a spot to sip coffee and watch the waterway action below. Yet the home’s quiet persona and unobtrusive stucco exterior don’t draw attention in return. “There are people floating on the creek; there are people walking around; there are people biking every day,” Quirk says of the trails that wind along with the creek. “But no one ever seems to look up. It’s almost as if they don’t notice the house here.”
Photo by Karen Melvin
But it is the lower level that really captivates him. The home is actually built into a steep hillside that drops down to the creek. To bring light and openness into what could have been a dark and dreary space, Nicholson placed three wide picture windows in the north, creek-facing side of the house. They create an effect almost like a painted triptych of the landscape. Not a single neighboring house is in sight, just trees and water.
“I’ll stand here and just look out the windows,” Quirk says.
A curving entertainment wall, with shiplap Douglas fir paneling, leads the eye from the south wall to another bluestone fireplace, with larger cut stones arranged dry-stack style. A guest suite, with a glass-walled mosaic tile shower in the bathroom, adds a nice touch. A pool table and a wall-mounted LCD widescreen television finish this “guy’s space.”
Quirk admits he loved the old adobe house. After all, he raised a family there. But this new home not only meets his needs, it reflects what he wanted for the amazing site.
“It’s really something,” he says, smiling. “It’s the kind of house where you walk in the front door and go ‘Whoa!’”
JAMES WALSH IS AN EDUCATION REPORTER AT THE STAR TRIBUNE.
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