Steve McDowell, FAIA, made just the right changes to this tiny farm building that had been on his family’s land since 1960. Repurposed as a weekend cottage, it retains the exterior’s corrugated metal siding and southern yellow pine sheathing. After squaring off the interior with exposed plywood, Steve added a southern yellow pine floor and created two openings in a slatted crib wall that divided the interior from north to south. On one side he inserted a living and dining area, and on the other is a kitchen, bedroom, and bath, with a loft above it. New windows were fitted into the existing openings, and new yellow pine porches built on the front and back.
“After 60-some years, the timber hasn’t suffered from exposure to the elements. That was one of the guiding lights when we started the process,” Steve says. “Any new wood, except for the plywood, would be southern yellow pine. We were learning from the old and letting that shape the pathway forward.” He adds, “That old building has become a sort of research laboratory for the park buildings our firm is doing on a former downtown freeway, at a much different scale.” The judges praised its “extreme modesty. They just understood what to do. They kept parts of the original, so it has this authenticity, but it’s not treated like a treasure.”
Citation | Custom Period or Vernacular Renovation
BNIM
Overbrook Overlook
Overbrook, Kansas
Project Credits
Architect: Steve McDowell, FAIA, BNIM, principal in charge, Kansas City, Missouri
Builder: Delaney Moore and Caleb Aldrich, dmrtisans, Kansas City, Kansas
Color/design collaborator: Beena Ramaswami, BNIM
Mechanical engineer: Tom Simpson, Introba, Kansas City, Kansas
Structural engineer: Trevor Acorn, Walter P. Moore Co., Kansas City, Missouri
Project size: 702 square feet
Site size: 78 acres
Construction cost: $242 per square foot
Photography: Kelly Callewaert
Key Products
Cabinetry: Custom Baltic birch ply by Sheldon Vogt
Ceiling fans: Ball, Modern Fan Company
Cooking/ventilation: Bertazzoni
Countertop: Recycled Surfaces
Dishwasher: Bosch
Entry Doors, hardware, locksets: H Window
Fasteners: Spax
Faucets: Grohe
Finish Materials: Sanded ACX pine plywood from New Zealand
HVAC Systems: Carrier Mini Split, Warm Tiles Electric Radiant System
Insulation: Kansas Spray Foam
Lighting: Halo, Ikea
Outdoor grill: Big Green Egg
Ovens: GE Advantium
Paints, stains, coatings: Johnson Paste Wax
Passage doors: Menards yellow pine, Zoro hardware
Refrigerator: GE
Shower enclosure: Delta
Sinks: Kraus, EAGO
Tankless water heater: Takagi
Toilet: Dual flush Glacier Bay
Washer/dryer: Bosch