Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
A modern take on the Tudor tradition for a famed Ann Arbor interior designer
This project started with a puzzle. The client, an interior designer I collaborate with often, owned a large lot with a stunning Colonial Revival home on it. We found a way to divide the property into two parcels. That kept the original house and its setting intact and made room for a new home for her own use.
The new lot was narrow, so the garages had to face the street. I almost always avoid that. Here, I put a rooftop veranda over the garage and shaped the rest of the house around it, so the garage doors fade into the background and the house is what you see.
The site runs through from one street to the other and slopes up from the front to a large back yard. From the far street, an allée of trees frames the view of the house.
- For guests, a broad front stair leads up to the front door and the veranda on the raised main floor.
- For everyday use, a gated service court leads to the designer’s ground-floor studio and to a lower-level entrance into the main house.
- A glass stair tower on the north side holds the main stair and fills it with light.
- Tudor balconies and details, including steep sheltering roofs and bold window groupings, handled in a cleaner, more modern way so the house fits Ann Arbor’s older neighborhoods without imitating them.
- The entire top floor is the owner’s suite, with a private rooftop sun deck, a retreat above the treetops for sun, quiet and the evening sky.
Take a virtual walk around the house in the video below.
