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FeedShipshape and Sleek
A Lake of the Isles home becomes a modernist masterpiece
By Alecia Stevens
Photo by susan gilmore | styled by david anger
With 80 percent of the interior design finished, the rains came. And the basement flooded. As they watched the surrounding grounds turn to mush, they realized they were living on a swamp with a poorly maintained foundation. Costs to solve the problems were significant and not nearly as much fun as decorating or renovating a kitchen. They felt like they were throwing money down the drain. Literally. The couple decided their best option was to rebuild, using the existing foundation. • The wife had spent years in retail design consulting and had a taste for modern, commercial spaces, which suited their lifestyle as a busy couple with a young son. But they also knew they would encounter resistance in this architecturally distinguished neighborhood. With hearty referrals in hand, the couple hired Vujovich Design-Build in Minneapolis to handle the construction of the 4,000-square-foot home and Jerry Allan, principal of Criteria Architects in Minneapolis, as the architect. • Ed Roskowinski, owner and general manager of Vujovich, understood the challenges that the homeowners and their team faced. Having worked in the neighborhood on many occasions, often as an historic restoration specialist, Roskowinski attempted to allay the fears—and, in some cases, downright hostility—of the neighbors. Some felt he had no business participating in bringing this “ugly modern atrocity” to the neighborhood. But Roskowinski took an intellectual stance: “We feel that the architectural diversity of the Lake of the Isles neighborhood is what makes it so interesting and appealing. You see Tudor, Colonial, Federal, Georgian, British and American Victorian, Beaux Arts, Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, bungalow, Mid-Century…all from different architectural eras. And now it includes a home in the Modernist style.” He points out that this is the second Modernist home in the area, noting the concrete Dayton home on Franklin Avenue designed by architect James Dayton.
The wife had a few parameters going into the design process. She prefers straight lines and 90-degree angles, and professes the Wrightian ideal that form should follow function. Finally, she came to see the obvious: “Since we are floating on this land anyway, let’s just build a boat. I love boats. I love how functional and carefully planned boats have to be.” So she told Allan to think of shipbuilding as he conceived the design of the house. While on a trip to Denmark, Allan studied the simplicity of Danish design—from lighting to furniture to architecture. Most important, he focused on this water-specific site. The home was originally going to be built on the old ranch foundation, but it proved unusable. Since the design was already planned, they kept the footprint but built a new foundation. Allan also added to the front a “lighthouse”—a two-story structure on the front with a metal cap. It would be a beacon from the exterior, and anyone inside the space could see both the Lake of the Isles Lutheran Church and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on the hill, an architectural icon of the community.
Photo by Susan Gilmore
Two years passed from design to move-in day, but a slow process is often the nature of the beast when one wants a profoundly personal and custom home. The homeowner also recalls moments of terror during construction. “After the thing had been framed, pilings were in the ground, and the horizontal steel beams were being installed, I would walk by and think, That’s a really ugly thing.” But her professional experience helped her trust the process. “That is part of the profundity of the creative process. There are times that things are just ugly.”
As the skin was added, her concerns eased. Allan understood the need to soften the exterior to suit the traditional neighborhood, so he added a final touch by pushing the soil up against the home—and suddenly it all came together. “We wanted to honor the original home with its ivy growing in the back, so we left it. On the front, the ivy is carried in a new way on the grid.”
Photo by Susan Gilmore
The furniture and art throughout the space is eclectic and practical, including a few iconic modernist pieces such as a Saarinen dining table, a Knoll white laminate sideboard, and two apple green “Tulip” chairs. “What’s not to love about these pieces? And they came from our previous home,” she says. “I’ve hardly had to buy a thing.”
The best part is having it all behind them. “We know it is right because we use every inch of the space,” she says. “We can hear or see each other from almost anywhere on the main level, if we want to.” They have created intimacy in a modern structure. And the glorious Lake of the Isles is spread out before them. They have called this home for only a couple of years, but already have enough memories to last a lifetime. “Lots of memories. Lots of trauma,” she says. “In the end, it’s just a thing. Hopefully, we’ve created a thing of lasting beauty.”
Alecia Stevens is a Minneapolis interior designer and frequent contributor to Midwest Home.
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