Little Minneapolis rambler transformed into hypermodern showpiece

The cats approve.

After Twin Cities couple Dan Barnes and Elaine Wilson renovated their 1955 Minneapolis rambler into a distinctive, hypermodern house that draws oohs from ordinary folks and accolades from professionals, felines Taylor and Dora show their appreciation by tracking sunlight across the day.

In the morning, the cats sit on the maple floors of the stairs in front of a huge picture window, lapping up the rays. At midday, they strike sphinxlike poses under the skylight, inviting, as royals are wont to do, reverence. And in the afternoon, they lounge in front of the sliding door leading to the deck, suggesting, "Siesta, anyone?"

The light, exquisite and subtle as it radiates and casts artful shadows throughout the house, was not even the primary goal of the 2016-17 renovation led by architects Christian Dean and Jessica Harner. But now it also has human devotees.

"We love art but we don't have a lot of it on the walls because the light is just so stunning," Barnes said.

Full disclosure: Barnes is retiring as the news technology leader in the Star Tribune newsroom. Wilson retired as a process manager at health care services company Optum. Their renovation project is one of 12 Home of the Month winners selected in a blind contest by a jury of experts from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Each month, the Star Tribune spotlights an AIA Home of the Month winner.

The primary goal of the renovation was "to have proper guest bedrooms so they don't have to stay in the basement without a door," Wilson said. "We wanted a more modern, updated house."

Barnes and Wilson bought their place in the Linden Hills neighborhood in 1998, the year they married and four years after he started to work at the paper.

They collect midcentury art, ceramics and furniture, including items by Russel Wright and Isamu Noguchi, and were drawn to their quintessential midcentury rambler.

"It was a simple house on a heavily wooded lot," he said. "And it fit what we needed at the time but we were always looking to improve it."

The neighborhood has been transformed over the years, with renovations and teardowns up and down a block that has vistal views of Bde Maka Ska. The Barnes-Wilson property was coveted, but not necessarily for the structure itself.

"These ramblers are long and sit on wider lots," Dean said. "It's near a lake in an in-demand neighborhood. A realtor said, 'The dirt is worth more than the house.' "

The couple did not even entertain the idea of a teardown. And when they thought about a renovation, it wasn't to supersize the structure. Instead, they wanted to make it distinctive and give it presence. Of course, they didn't present it to Dean, Harner and their team that way.

"We gave them a laundry list of things — adding the owners' suite, improving the function of the kitchen — and they turned it into [something cohesive]," Wilson said.

"We toured the house with them while they talked about it and saw the cats, and realized how important they were," Harner said. "For the cats, we had certain windowsills that we made very deep. And we have some high shelves that allow the cats to walk their way to the top of cabinets if they want. We gave them a number of places to hang out and observe the world."

Or from which to rule.

For the renovation, the architectural team considered the neighborhood and the scale, careful to not overpower the site. They also considered the materials and the goals.

"For this scale, we thought, we could be simple and use beautiful materials," Harner said.

"We're reinvigorating housing with familiar and unfamiliar moves," Dean added. "That gives the project tension and vibrancy. We can reinvigorate with formal moves or materiality, but not both. This project was inspired by the craft and materiality."

Sometimes less is more, Dean continued. "There's a tendency to try a lot of things but for us, restraint, knowing when to stop designing, is just as important."

The house is built up, instead of out. The remodel lifted the house with a 550-square-foot owners' suite on a new floor. Unusually, the owners' bedroom does not have a closet because the whole upstairs functions as the owners' suite. The closet and bathroom are located down the hall.

Things float in the house, including the island in the main living room, shelves in the kitchen and a vanity in the owners' suite bathroom. That all has to do with the perception of size and light.

"If we brought things to the floor, they would make the space feel smaller," Harner said. "So we lifted them up and let the light through."

The main-level spaces were reorganized and updated. A staircase was moved.

"There was a stair down to the basement that cut off the kitchen," Dean said. "We relocated that stair, which opened up kitchen and dining space into one larger space."

The kitchen was updated. And a skylight was put in.

"From side to side and front to back, you can see all the way through," Wilson said.

"It's still small but because it's so open, it looms," Barnes said.

That's from the inside. From the outside, it's a jaw-dropper.

The house is clad in Ludowici terra cotta tiles, a unique choice for a residential home and one that nods to the Spanish Colonial terra cotta roof tiles on a neighbor's house.

The terra cotta tiles, normally found on college campuses and religious institutions, are rated for 75 years of life but are known to last much longer.

"Terra cotta has a lot of natural variation from the firing process, so we carried that same feeling from the exterior to the interior by using slate, which has a natural variation," Harner said.

The terra cotta tiles help this "small house establish itself as a singular thing," Dean said. "Dan and Elaine appreciated objects — they collected pottery — and we made the house a beautiful object that they can appreciate."

Because the roofline changed, the house looks something like an optical illusion, with a quadrant of air that invites imagination.

Dean and Harner went into the renovation without preconceptions. They wanted to let the project, and the owners' dreams, guide everything.

"The postwar rambler was built fast and quick — single-level living," Dean said. "It's a very simple structure that didn't have certain strong characteristics that we wanted to respond to."

He certainly didn't want to follow popular fashion and renovation trends, either.

"We pushed aside stylistic convention and let planning and program drive it," Dean said. "I didn't want it to be an atomic ranch renovation" with expressive qualities like vaulted ceilings and decorative screen walls.

The end result is both familiar and radical. The cladding looks like the shingles and shakes on other houses, but it's not wood.

"If you try to play with new forms and materials, it can be disconcerting when you lose a sense of familiarity," Dean said. "Good design is something that leaves traces of the questions you've asked along the way. And people can find their own answers in the story we're telling."

They can also draw inspiration.

"This was a sweet opportunity to rethink how to transform a house type that's common throughout the Twin Cities," Harner said. "We took the roof off and added a partial second story, and that could be inspiring for people who may have small houses and want to do something. It's cool to see the possibilities that come from a typical house that you see everywhere."

As for friendly felines Dora and Taylor, they continue to bask.

"Forget the humans, it's nice to get feedback from the animals in the house," Dean said.

Those responders are different from who the architects typically hear from in post-occupancy surveys. But it suggests to Dean, Harner and their team as well as owners Barnes and Wilson that they achieved a goal.

The little rambler that could have easily been a teardown has another life.

About this project
What: A rambler gets a renovation and second floor addition
Size: Main level, 1,100 square feet; second floor addition, 550 square feet
Design: Christian Dean, Principal In Charge; Jessica Harner, Project Architect / Design Lead; Nathan Van Wylen, Project Team member
Contractor: Choice Wood Co.
Landscape Architect: Travis Van Liere Studio
Terra Cotta Tile: Ludowici / NeXclad Terracotta Tiles