Kitchen and Addition: Melding Form and Function

After photos by Jeff Lindgren

Remodeler: Streeter & Associates, Wayzata, Minn.

Architect/designer: Streeter Design Group

Project location: Edina, Minn.

Age of home: 50+ years

Scope of work: Enlarged kitchen, great room addition, new mud-room entry

The contemporary styling of this flat-roofed, split-level house built in the 1950s attracted the new owners from the start. The form fit their tastes, but the interior space did not function well for their lifestyle. Largely unchanged, the house cried for an updating that would retain its architectural flavor.

The owners wanted an addition to accommodate a more functional kitchen and a family gathering area. Streeter & Associates, a design/build remodeling company in Wayzata, Minn., accomplished that by adding 385 square feet and reconfiguring existing space to maximize livability, take advantage of golf course views, and block noise and the view of an adjacent busy roadway.

Removing the back of the house, Streeter extended the kitchen 6 1/2 feet and built an adjacent 16 2/3 x 25 1/2-foot great room at a 135-degree angle to the existing house. The expansion provided more continuity with the site itself, says designer Jeff Lindgren, while the new space incorporates the same flat-roof styling as the existing home so that the exteriors blend together.

The existing house was "dreary and clunky without much natural light," Lindgren points out. His design called for large windows to integrate outside living space and views with the interior. In the great room, 3x7 1/2-foot windows flank 8x8-foot sliders that lead to the patio on one side of the room and a new deck on the other. Clerestory windows above every window and door help maximize natural light and tie in with original clerestory windows in the kitchen.

Lindgren replaced the cramped galley kitchen with a kitchen featuring a mudroom entry, large island, multiple work zones and "a more contemporary, clean-lined flair." The new look includes sleek European cabinets imported from Germany, a quartz-based solid surface countertop, stainless steel appliances and 18x18-inch vinyl floor tiles manufactured from recycled milk jugs. The floor's grid pattern matches the grid pattern on the adjacent colored concrete patio. Outside, a stucco screen wall blocks noise, road views and acts as a backdrop for the patio. The entire remodeling project cost $324,000.

Appliances: Sub-Zero, Fisher & Paykel Cabinets: SieMatic Countertops: Cambria Decking: Iron Woods Doors: Pella Faucets: Domo Fireplace: Heat-N-Glo Flooring: Luxica HVAC: Lennox Lighting fixtures: Juno, Eurofase, Bruck, Tech House wrap: DuPont Tyvek Insulation: Owens Corning Paints: Benjamin Moore Sinks: Blancomagnum Windows: Pella

A 200-square-foot underground bomb shelter in the backyard, connected to the basement by a 25-foot buried hallway, provided a major challenge to building the great room. Streeter Design Group had to strategically design loads to avoid imploding the shelter, which was 3 feet below grade. "We wanted to avoid damaging the structure," says project manager Jim Patsch. Since part of the new addition overlapped the underground hallway, Streeter & Associates placed a bond beam to span across the hallway to add support. Streeter placed point loads on the block wall of the shelter and added footings on each side of the shelter as well. New foundations lie under the kitchen extension and perimeter of the great room. The shelter posed onsite restrictions in addition to the design problems. "We couldn't bring large equipment back there to maneuver beams and structural elements," says designer Jeff Lindgren. Boom trucks had to be staged in the front and reached over the entire house. The bomb shelter remains intact, and the owners have converted it into a wine cellar.

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