Cool Home: Adaptable addition to Tempe '50s ranch house
When it came time to design their dream home, these architects didn't lack ideas.
"We looked at 10 different properties, and we designed a house for every single one of them," said Matthew Salenger, co-founder of coLAB Studio with his wife, Maria.
Finally, the Salengers decided they would stay put in the 1954 Tempe ranch they bought in 2000 that was practically paid off.
All they needed was an addition.
In a decade, they had gutted the home - all 1,100 square feet of it - and in 2004 experimented with corrugated fiberglass "sleeping pods" in their backyard as a temporary expansion.
"I call it our bohemian era," Matthew said. "They were really beautiful at night."
But, he said, "Everything changed when we got pregnant."
Once set on staying put, the Salengers drew about 50 more design plans, ranging from radical (inflatable rooms) to more conventional (a modern wraparound exterior to an enlarged home). For months, they couldn't decide on the one design that perfectly showcased their style and fit their budget.
"We really enjoyed the process of designing and thinking about all the directions we could take," Maria said. "It's about exploring what we could really do and (extracting) the realities out of the fantasies."
They needed space to entertain, space to work (he manages coLAB Studio from home) and space for their 2-year-old son, Oscar, to play.
"We like to throw big dinners - sometimes charity dinners," Matthew said. "Everything had to be flexible, because life is flexible."
Friendly input
Finally, in the midst of their research, the Salengers turned to 30 friends, surveying them about essential "dream home" features. The two knew what was important to them, but wanted to make sure their investment would also have resale appeal (more than, say, inflatable rooms or sleeping pods).
The answers came as a surprise.
"Twenty-four of 30 used the word 'courtyard,' " Matthew said. "They wanted to be more connected to the yard. We actually let that be the thing that guided us."
Their friends also craved an open floor plan and great room, a garage and flexible spaces. From that moment, everything fell into place.
"It worked out really well, because once we had the ideas down and we drew it, we both said, 'That's it! Let's get it done.' "
They started by building a simple stick-and-stucco box - 60 feet wide by 17 feet deep with 12-foot ceilings - on the back of their Tempe lot. Matthew admits he doesn't like stucco, but chose it for affordability. Plus, stucco isn't visible from the courtyard.
The front of the 1,000-square-foot addition is all glass and looks onto a perfectly groomed lawn. It is connected to the original home by covered walkways around the courtyard's perimeter.
Etched tempered-glass panels on steel frames completely enclose the walkways from the street, and the awnings are a polycarbonate material used for greenhouses.
Entering through the home's main courtyard entrance, one encounters a jaw-dropping view. The lush yard is framed by glass-lined walkways, and the glass rectangle that now houses the kitchen, dining area, living room and studio comes into full view.
Truly transformative
The Salengers designed a place that, aside from its modern aesthetic, is truly transformative. Because flex space was so important, they created a mammoth movable wall between the great room and studio in the addition, and four movable wardrobes in the existing ranch wing.
The studio wall has a television and bookshelves on one side, shelving and desk space on the other. The wall makes for an easily expandable workspace or a large entertaining/dining area when they host big get-togethers.
The wardrobes - designed with an extendable sliding door on one side and a closet on the other, all on casters - can be reconfigured to create three, four or five bedrooms.
There's one more movable piece on the addition's 4-foot-deep, 60-foot-long overhang: By night, the polycarbonate overhang glows, lighted from behind by fluorescent bulbs. By day, the Salengers can lower an additional 7 1/2-foot-deep polycarbonate shade, protecting the home from solar gain.
Despite its glass front, the home is surprisingly energy efficient. In addition to the protective awning, the Salengers have taken advantage of a passive-cooling effect from the lawn, and a cross breeze and ventilation through narrow windows near the top of the addition's back wall. They plan eventually to go a step further, installing solar panels to offset their power consumption by about half.
Alison King, editor of Modernphoenix.net, which tracks Midcentury and modern Valley architecture, thinks the addition hit all the right notes. It created both an oasis and "a dynamic urban family retreat and workspace" without radically changing the vibe of the neighborhood.
"From the street, you'd have little idea what surprise awaits beyond the gate, so it doesn't disrupt the existing community's character," King said, adding, "I'm eager to see more of this type of thinking in Midcentury remodels."
Tapping a vortex
The home has served the Salengers well.
"I love it," Maria said. "It's a great place to spend time, whether you're working or hanging out with your family. I think it's the exposure to the sky that allows us to really feel the passage of time - of the day going by and the light slightly shifting."
A friend who visited with his 7-year-old daughter has paid the highest compliment so far.
"He was talking about how she felt so free to run around, yet protected at the same time," Maria explained.
"He said, 'I think you guys have tapped into a vortex or something.' "
Editor's note: This story originally ran Dec. 30, 2010.