The Auburn Nest

The Auburn Nest | est. 2022

ABOUT THE CLIENT Who — The clients of The Auburn Nest are a married couple who returned to their collegiate home from the DC area. They have three grown children who all attended Auburn University.

What — The clients found a property on a flat lot in a mid-century neighborhood walkable to museums and concerts and within cruiser bike range to Jordan-Hare.

The lot was perfect for adding a pool and was located next to one of the husband’s TKE buddies from school.

The property “just” needed a garage to house their collection of cars, bike storage with a workshop, and space to squeeze in 3 vehicles with a lift on special occasions.

Why — The clients wanted to create a downsized one-level California mid-century modern home with an open plan and indoor/ outdoor living designed around a resort backyard. They had not found a local architect to help achieve their goals when they contacted Jones Pierce about The Auburn Nest.

INITIAL FIRST PRIORITY IMPROVEMENTS – IN ONE PHASE OF WORK

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In one phase of work, renovate the home: keeping the bedroom wing and tearing off and replacing the public space half of the house, including the carport and storage area.

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Landscape the entire site, including the front backyard and pool.

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Add the accessory structure.

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PROPERTY ANALYSIS OBSERVATIONS Bryan Jones met the clients in the fall of 2019 to meet on-site to look at the existing house and brainstorm ideas for the transformation.

The following thoughts were included in the project strategy from the meeting.

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Ideas to add mid-century design elements to the remaining parts of the house — The bedrooms will remain adjacent to the pool. We discussed adding roof details to interrupt the sloped roof low eave to provide tall doors to access the pool.

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Mid-century elements ­­— The chimney is made of masonry inside the house, and metal flew through the roof. We considered adding a wide chimney element that would project through the roof. The client prefers to avoid TVs over a fireplace, so it could be an opportunity to have the fireplace with the TV next to it on the masonry wall.

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Past drainage regressions — ­ The backyard grade slopes toward the back of the house. The client wants drainage in PVC to be designed by the landscape contractor to ensure good drainage out of the backyard. The client wanted no more than one step down the pool deck.

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Parts to tear down vs. renovate — Jones Pierce liked keeping the bedroom wing, so you don’t have to spend renovated or new construction dollars on the area. Keep the hall bath that was gutted in the last 10 years and replace the master bath in place to serve as a guest bath. The master suite could be added on the other side of the house.

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Toys and hobbies ­— The husband has a 69 Camaro that will be housed in the garage. The husband is also a bicyclist with four bikes and needs a repair and storage area in the garage.

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View of the pool from the new public areas of the house — The clients have considered the space plan of the new public spaces, positioning informal dining in a glass corner to view the pool from the kitchen.

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Entry and front porch — We can evaluate the best location for the front porch. The neighborhood is hi-Halloween, and the client wants to participate. We discussed the idea of the front porch being another seating area from the dining area for night or sunset use.

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Lawn work meditation — The husband wants to keep the existing shed for gas-powered lawn tools to improve air quality in the house. The husband also practices meditation through lawn care.

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S I T E A N A LYS I S

TO BE DEMOLISHED

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TO REMAIN

HOUSE DETAIL The clients and Jones Piece came up with the following room requirement details.

Front porch — ­ As noted, the porch could be adjacent to the dining area for another outdoor seating option.

Entry ­— Analyze the best location for the entry.

Kitchen ­— Back the cooking wall up to the driveway side of the house with a sink on an island to have a view of the pool.

Dining room ­— Locate the space at the front wall of the house.

Family room ­— Organized around the fireplace.

Mudroom half bath ­— Locate an entry door from the drive and garage.

Laundry ­— Adjacent to the mud room near the master.

Pantry ­— Provide pantry space in tall kitchen cabinets.

Master suite — Locate a modest master suite at the end of the house with a view of the pool.

Office/ bedroom — Use the bedroom nearest the public spaces for use an office and a last option guest room. Add a door to the pool.

2 bedrooms, one with en suite bath and one hall bath — Keep the bedrooms and baths in the exact location with an added glass door in the backside bedroom.

Accessory Garage — 2 cars with 3rd car stash area. Provide a permanent stair to the second floor for storage. Provide an area for 3 to 4 bikes and a repair area with tool storage. Provide a half bath in the garage that could also be used as a pool bath.

Existing shed — Keep the shed for gas lawn equipment. Restyle the exterior to fit into the mid-century compound.

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1 — Photo: Daniel Sheehan Photography, Architecture: Coop 15 Architecture

2 — Architecture: Klopf Architecture

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FEATURES/CHARACTERISTICS THE CLIENTS LIKE -

Lots of Natural Light

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Midcentury Modern Style, Interior and Exterior

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Vaulted Ceilings (10’ starting point minimum)

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Clerestory Windows

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Open Floor Plan

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Outdoor Living Space

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Big Kitchen

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Natural Stone

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Wood Flooring

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Like the view from kitchen to pool

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Like the flow to outside pool and covered areas.

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Like the vaulted ceiling, sky lights, stone, open plan, and natural lighting.

3 — Photo: Marcia Prentice, Interior Design: Amy Butler

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CLIENT SKETCH Jones Pierce expected the design to work with half the house and translated the sketch to a space that fits furniture. We met and considered the design as an Owner / Architect team.

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ARCHITECT SKETCH Rooms were sized around furniture layouts, and the parts of the house to remain intact were considered.

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VERSION V.1 November and December 2019 design development of version V.1 The original 3 bedrooms and baths were still intact. The fireplace was floated to provide glass to the outdoor pool space.

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Sketch from the meeting, noting the master suite looked small, and it was hard to see the pool from the husband’s cooking position #1 behind the island.

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VERSION V.1

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JANUARY 2020 We met to discuss some details after the Christmas review early in 2020. There was more uncertainty than the upcoming unknown pandemic. The husband was concerned that from cooking position #1, his view did not align with the pool. The wife was not sure of the all-in-the-modern approach.

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By the end of January 2020, we had new ideas for distilling the Heffren inspirational images. The client settled on the California Modern mid-century vein and put together images to illustrate the midcentury designs in his head.

1 — Photo, Interior Design: Studio Haus Co 2 — Photo, Interior Design: Studio McGee 3 — Architecture: Linda Denahan 4 — Photo: Signature Windows and Doors 5 — Photo, Architecture: Herring Design + Development

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VERSION V.2

FRONT ELEVATION

Reusing the existing part of the house is still the plan. The fireplace moved to create the kitchen/dining/ living room configuration the clients wanted. The driveway entry was organized with a laundry mudroom and convenient entry to the master suite area. The plan is organized around the central raised ceiling public space. We silly architects thought this design could work!

Front elevation – We used the language of trapezoidal windows to light cathedral ceilings at the husband’s office and the kitchen from the driveway side elevation.

By the end of May 2020, we were well down the path of modeling the interior space. The clients wanted to understand the indoor/ outdoor connection to the pool from the primary public spaces.

DRIVEWAY SIDE ELEVATION

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VERSION V.3

Then we had V.3 a month later. The kitchen location never felt right, not opening straight onto the pool. Over Memorial Day weekend, a courageous decision was made to flip the kitchen from the front of the house to the back of the property so it could open directly to the pool.

The design allowed for a more extended pool and more usable outdoor space. The plan to reuse existing bedrooms in the house was abandoned at this point. We were building a new infill house.

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There were a couple of “entertaining” Variance hearings that included various Zoom locations from board members in the greater Auburn metropolitan area. After a local hazing of the out-of-town architect, the husband acted as the master salesperson to help approve a couple of variances and permission to build the most prominent twostory accessory structure in the one-story “historic” ranch-burger neighborhood. It was indeed all about perspective.

Model view out from husband’s kitchen command center.

Model view from the exterior pool courtyard.

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LOCATION The property is in a neighborhood of ’60s and ’70s homes that are walkable to the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art and the Jay and Susie Gough Performing Arts Center. On game days, the house is cruise bikable to the tailgate tent (below).

The masonry wall creates an edge for the L-shaped house to complete the exterior pool court (opposite).

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FRONT ENTRY The front entry respects the scale of the “historic” 60s Auburn neighborhood and anticipates the onslaught of customers on 10/31.

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FRIENDS ENTRANCE The parking court provides a friends entrance to the kitchen and a multi-use accessory structure that serves as a 3-car garage, bike shop, yoga studio, and visiting adult kids hide-out on the second floor.

This entrance features a Dutch dog door (opposite).

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KITCHEN AND DINING The clients cooks for an audience; this is the largest single slab for an island to fit five (below).

The walk-in cook’s pantry and ovens flank one side end of the cooking area. The bar sinks and refrigeration flank the other end of the island and transition the feeling of the space to living.

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STRUCTURE AROUND THE FAMILY SPACE The family lives between the kitchen and the large door opening to the pool courtyard. The trapezoidal window detail is repeated on either end of the kitchen/ living space above a 9-foot-high datum line. The two beams that support the roof end to end in the space were engineered to eliminate a center ridge beam, which was not in keeping with the style.

The dining area is part of the kitchen and living space anchored by an art wall with skylights centered on the wall between the ceiling beam structure (opposite).

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ENTRY SEQUENCE The front entry has the same roof detail to eliminate the ridge beam and create a roof that floats on the brick piers.

The entry is scaled down to agree with the scale of the street. The mid-century front door completes the look.

Owner-selected art leads guests to the space explosion in the living area. The living area and sun-lit large opening doors are visible from the hall.

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FAMILY ROOM The experience unfolds for guests on the linear fireplace and frame TV wall. The mantel/ TV and bookcase were designed to provide a place for a point source heat pump mini split located in the base of the cabinet.

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COOK’S COMMAND CENTER REALIZED A large format center sliding door with a low-profile threshold divides the floor into two outside. The column structure separates from the exterior wall to create a glass curtain wall. The center opening sliding doors open the family room to the porch and pool.

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PRIVATE SPACE The personal spaces include an office, laundry, and master suite. Both bathroom and bedroom spaces are organized around the pool court.

The master bath doubles as a pool bath using a door to the porch space (above). Another skylight keeps the master vanity well-lit (top right).

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PRIMARY BEDROOM A boxed bay window is used in the primary bedroom to provide windows on two walls without needing a window behind the bed wall, which would face the neighbor’s property.

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RESORT BACKYARD View back to the porch/ family and kitchen.

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View back toward the house. The backyard feels like there is a public and more functional part. The pool court looks finished and resort-like. The working courtyard created by the back of the house and garage will be used for a food-producing garden.

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Masonry walls were used on the property line to create an outdoor shower screen wall and a place for pool equipment to hide behind.

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Lounge chair perspective of the porch and master bedroom boxed bay.

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View from the master bedroom toward the outdoor shower.

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Architecture: Bryan Jones Angel Shockey Karlla Dreser Dominika Lakatosh with Jones Pierce, STUDIO J General Contractor: Michael Allen Homes in Auburn, AL

Photography: Lukas Dreser Creative Director: Foster Denney Graphic Design: Walden Jones