Birmingham, Michigan

People/Products

“The key word for this project was 'alignment,' ” says Ann Arbor, Michigan–based architect Steven Sivak. For years he was fascinated by cast-in-place concrete but never had the chance to build with it. Then he met Linda Dresner—the owner of an eponymous well-known designer boutique, in Birmingham, Michigan—whom Sivak calls a “severe, minimalist modernist.” He also met her husband, part-owner of a ready-mix concrete company. “This is my chance,” Sivak thought.

In a suburb outside Detroit filled with early 20th-century houses, Sivak designed the ultimate concrete box. It sits on a Cor-Ten–sided grassy plinth that negotiates the site's topographic changes and emphasizes its objecthood. (Neighbors tried to stop the project but were unsuccessful; aesthetics, at least in Birmingham, cannot be regulated.)

Completely blank on its street-facing elevation and where the corners turn, the two-story house appears to be a bunker. Daylight is plentiful on the interior, thanks to an almost entirely glazed rear facade and ample skylights as well as narrow incisions that conceal an entrance and windows.

Sivak's model was Tadao Ando's Pulitzer Arts Foundation building in St. Louis, Missouri. To achieve a similar glass-smooth finish, the architect used CNC-milled phenolic-coated birch plywood formwork and self-consolidating concrete (SCC). Developed in Japan and mainly used in the U.S. for commercial projects, Sivak learned of SCC from Dresner's husband; the mixture includes a chemical that makes the concrete pour like water. “It was not an easy journey,” says the architect, or an inexpensive one. “It took a lot of prototyping, experimentation, and uncertainty.”

Inside the house, Sivak's strategy was to be “as visually quiet as possible.” Granite flooring covers the ground level while white oak gives the second story a warmer tone. Sivak says: “Having worked on this project, I have tremendous insight into this minimalist arm of modernism. I want to do a stone house next.”

People

Owner:
Linda Dresner

Architect:
Steven Sivak Architects
1158 Pomona
Ann Arbor, MI 48103

Personnel in architect's firm who should receive special credit:
Steven Sivak- Project Architect
Mike Moehl- Project Manager

Engineers:
PCS Structural/Jeff Klein
Strategic Energy Systems- MEP
McDowell & Associates- Geo-Tech

Consultant(s):
Landscape:
Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture

Lighting:
Gary Steffy Lighting Design Inc

General Contractor:
Building Arts, LLC- Ann Arbor, MI

Photographers:
Steven Sivak-
248.860.3228
Beth Singer-
(Kitchen, Master Bath and Master Closet)
248.626.4860

Completion Date: 

June 2014

Gross square footage:

7,500 sq ft.

  

Products

Structural system:
Steel superstructure/wood infill

Exterior cladding:
8' and 10' self consolidating cast-in-place shell

Masonry:
Custom slag bricks on garage

Moisture barrier:
Vapro-Shield Wrap Shield

Roofing:
Duro-Last PVC

Windows:
Hope's Landmark 175

Glazing:
Guardian Sunguard

Skylights:
Wasco

Doors:
Exterior Entrances:
Keicher Metal Arts, Inc.

Hardware:
Locksets:
FSB

Pivoting Hardware:
Rixson

Sliding hardware:
Astec

Exterior concealed heavy duty hinges:
Tectus

Pulls:
FSB

Interior finishes
Cabinetwork and custom woodwork:
Vogue Furniture

Paints and stains:
Benjamin Moore

Solid surfacing:
Corian

Floor and wall tile:
Wolverine Stone- First Floor: Jet Mist Granite
Second Floor: 1x1 tile, Thassos and Gray Stone slab

Furnishings:
By Owner

Lighting
Interior direct lighting:
Alkco and Specialty Lighting

Interior indirect lighting:
Zumtobel, Prudential, Color Kinetics, ALW and Peerless

Exterior:
Bega, Lucifer, Winona and Designplan

Lighting controls:
Lutron Homeworks

Plumbing
Sinks:
Julien and Kohler

Hardware:
Franke, Mountain, Newport, Elkay, Hydrology and Vola

Porcelain:
Catalano

Tubs:
Wetstyle

Energy
Geothermal loop system for all heating and cooling