1743 Madison

Project Details

Project Description

The Shelton Marshall Residence is an urban home for a family of four built in the Westside neighborhood of downtown Kansas City. With a main structure consisting of just under 2,000 SF, the house makes a compelling argument for quality over quantity within the context of a downtown neighborhood that is striving for increased urban vibrancy. The layout of the residence is a “U” shaped plan, organized around an entry courtyard to the east and a shaded full-length porch to the west. While the entry courtyard dips 6’-0” below the back yard grade, the front porch floats dramatically in the trees, over 20’-0” above Madison Avenue. Large sliding glass and screen doors connect the kitchen, dining room and the living room to the courtyard and the porch, and provide the entire house with sufficient cross ventilation to enjoy summer breezes during evening hours. The house leverages natural daylighting to provide 100% of its daytime illumination, and utilizes dimmable fluorescent cove lighting and limited recessed halogen fixtures for nighttime illumination. The super-insulated structure includes a fully ventilated rainscreen system, continuous exterior rigid wall insulation, thermally broken insulated glazing systems and planted roof system. Conventional climate control systems are supplemented with a whole-house radiant floor heating system and a high-efficiency wood burning stove. The master bedroom and bathroom suite is scaled appropriately for an urban residence, and opens up to the front porch to enjoy the quiet Westside nights. The kids’ bedrooms are designed for flexible configurations, opening up to one another and the entry courtyard as a single bedroom suite, if desired. Hand-crafted loft beds organize functional closet space and homework stations below. The Shelton Marshall Residence is ultimately a careful study of site section, nestled tightly into the site on one hand, and floating effortlessly above the site on the other. The section suspends living space between natural and constructed landscapes, revealing a poetic relationship between site and dwelling that shifts dramatically from one season to the next.