“When viewed from the north-side city street, the restored house offers context in agreement with the neighborhood,” explains architect Brad Lynch. “The back of the house still has a gable roof, but the configuration of windows and materials creates a more modern interpretation. You can't tell what's going on inside or at the rear of the house by looking at it from the front.”

While the house façade speaks to days gone by, the back reflects the contemporary inclination of the owner and also of Lynch, who along with David Brininstool was called upon to transform the dilapidated structure into a stylish, livable home—all on a frugal budget. In the end, the architects achieved their goal: the final remodeling costs came to about $65 per square foot in 1991.

Like many homes of the era, the house has what Lynch describes as a “shotgun” floor plan, characterized by a front-to-back arrangement of rooms in which the primary living section sits directly beyond the front entrance, with other areas following from there and the kitchen typically placed at the very back of the house. While sensible in its own way, this kind of plan tends to have a shrinking effect on the already limited square footage. Adding to the challenge was the fact that at some point in history, the house had been divided into three separate apartments.

Layered ceiling heights have taken the space from ordinary to interesting. The furniture in the seating area was kept to a minimum; too many furnishings would have crowded the room, negating the architects’ goal of instilling a sense of spaciousness within the confines of a small and narrow floor plan.

To remedy these basic problems and develop a more graceful organization of space in which light and materials dominate rather than walls and corridors, the architects gutted the house, opening it up significantly and liberating the floor plan from its previous restraints. The result is one of fluidity. Gone are the old walls, replaced with a curved “floating” wall made of tinted plaster and structural steel, then coated with a clear wax to produce a rich sculptural quality. The floating wall makes a sophisticated statement about the possibilities of budget-conscious design, and it serves the key purpose of dividing areas of function without traditional walls. To illustrate, the living room wall was placed in front of a small hallway, which houses a guest closet and a powder room. The wall hides this more utilitarian part of the house from the seating area. A fluted glass panel and layered ceiling heights add to the home’s expansive feeling.

The varying ceiling heights, in fact, ended up becoming one of the home’s dominant design features. The architects were hindered somewhat by the spatial confines of the house—it is only twenty feet wide. To create the illusion of more depth and to add artistic variation, they played with planes of uneven ceiling heights, altering the formerly straightforward ceiling so that the rooms now breathe with engaging angles, an effect that is further enhanced through recessed cove lighting. Lynch believes that the three-dimensional appearance of the layered ceiling acts as an invitation into the heart of the space. “It fosters a sense of anticipation as you move toward the next area—you’re invited back to see what’s next in the house,” he points out. To further build on this infusion of geometry, the walls and ceiling layers were painted in seven shades of white—from light to dark. This economical trick can do wonders for a small space. Column supports are not typically given consideration as design elements, and more often than not they are hidden behind drywall. Brininstool and Lynch, however, decided to incorporate this necessary structural component right into the home’s interior theme. The two steel-composite columns on the first floor are comprised of four unequal angles set against each other to form a quarter-inch reveal that imparts an unexpected pattern. “Rather than disguise the columns, we exposed them to make the space more interesting,” Lynch explains. “The result is that the columns create a composition on their own.”

Lynch believes the house provides an excellent example of living small. “Small is really about a better quality of space and editing the things you own so that you can retain that quality of space,” he says.

The home’s attic was turned into an artist’s studio, and it reveals the possibilities of a clean, uncluttered space. The attic is furnished minimally with simple materials, which makes it seem larger than it is. Red oak floors add natural color to the room and provide a warm contrast to the white walls and the spare shelving and work surfaces.