Black Residence Renovation

Project Details

Project Description

This turn of the century brick home was built in the first luxury residential suburb of Salt Lake City Utah by the Hansens, a prominent philanthropist family. It changed hands in the late 1960's and was subject to an intrusive interior remodel and addition that stripped this home of its original materials, space planning, character and charm. In the following decades it fell into disrepair and neglect. In 2010 Jeff Schindewolf with JSARC Architects was commissioned to restore the original character of the home, incorporate the 1960's store front addition, and bring the home into structural and energy compliance. All of this was accomplished while accommodating the owner's modern entertainment lifestyle. The project was a real team effort, with the architect, owner, and contractor working together to accomplish these goals. The key to achieving our goals was to perform a significant amount of upfront research on the original home and its historical place in time. Most of the original materials had been removed during its mid century remodel. The original spaces had been rearranged and we found a number of structural integrity issues. Our research included finding historical photographs and documents of the home and visiting better preserved neighboring homes in the area. We also relied on our knowledge of period architecture in this geographic region. Structurally, we were able to "dig" into the house by performing selective demolition in areas we knew from observation to be a problem. The original home was built of three wydths of brick, there was no insulation, and it was structurally unsound in Salt Lakes earthquake prone area. We solved this by attaching a 2x4 shear walls to the interior of the brick walls on the entire main and upper floor updating all attachments to the roofing and foundation system and insulating the cavity to code. We used all of our gathered information to then select appropriate period materials, colors and methods of construction. Considering the scope of the project our budget was tight and many of our materials were new. The limited items that were remaining were salvaged refurbished and reused. This project deserves an award for the thoroughness of research that was involved and incorporated not only into design and materials, but also into structural intergrity and energy efficiency. All this while accommodating the modern lifestyle and on a tight budget.