The Sieberts moved into Stevens Addition in early 2022 after purchasing it in late 2021. To accommodate their family of four with two teenagers, they needed to remodel the original house built in 1973 designed by Jane Hastings, FAIA to accommodate an additional bedroom and a bathroom for their daughter. They decided to remodel the existing expanded basement which used to be a pottery studio and storage to fulfill these needs.
The remodel presented an opportunity to design it with a different concept than the 2012 addition. While the addition can be viewed as planting next to an existing tree of the original house, the remodel is grafting the rootstock of the existing tree with a scion or grafted plant of the remodel. The scion or grafted plant is the new design within the original house that complements its design and gives its own identity. This scion or grafted plant is expressed through connecting and continuous planes and volumes inserted into the house.
Wood is the chosen material to represent this scion or grafted plant and it is not the same as the wood species used in the original house or the addition. It is a different complementary species. This new wood species is used for the continuous planes and volumes of wall, soffit, ceiling, casework, and floor of the remodel within the existing extended basement of the existing house.