Architect John Dwyer of D/O said that the two owners “wanted a peaceful stillness to the house and site, something that expressed itself in a modest way with a restrained material palette.” The triangular home has an exterior of custom-milled cedar and James Hardie’s HardiePanel, the latter of which was painted black.
There were plenty of challenges facing architect John Dwyer and his two clients even before they began construction on an awkward speck of land in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The plot is set in Saint Anthony Park, a popular neighborhood close to a state’s university and fair ground, and the previous owners had divided it before moving into a home close by. Dwyer’s clients, a married couple, were concerned about space but remained interested. It was up to Dwyer and his firm, D/O, to make the most of the opportunity. “We needed to discover a solution that would accommodate their life on this particular sliver of land within a few days, before the seller entertained other competing bids,” he said. The couple had requested a simplistic home where natural, locally sourced materials would be the basis of a bright setting. In the end, the challenges that plagued this property gave way to a place of calm.
