April 23, 2026

Case Study: Gable House by Knop Killeen Architects

It was the view of a neighboring angus herd that determined Gable House’s footprint. Not that the cattle and a picturesque pond were even visible when Cody Knop, AIA, first set foot on the wooded site. It was so thick with trees that he used a drone to get the lay of the land, which comprised 6½ acres of virgin soil. He and his client then chose a natural clearing that allowed them to preserve as many trees as possible, positioning the house near the top of a rise.

Upon starting his firm a few years earlier, Cody had designed a New York City restaurant for the 40-something client, who then asked for a highly crafted, full-time residence for himself and his dog. Situated on the rural plains about 20 miles southwest of Des Moines, the house was the first ground-up project for both Cody and the builder, Ethan Schoeppner—one of several Ethan had begun at the same time. The two worked together to craft a house that is simultaneously refined and economically efficient. “Practicing in the Midwest, our budgets are modest,” Cody says. “Our client came with a comfortable budget but it wasn’t unlimited. We didn’t want to compromise quality.”

After exploring several different schemes, the architect found magic in two identical gabled buildings that were inspired by Iowa’s agrarian archetypes. The garage and open-plan living spaces run north-south down the slope, extending from the driveway and culminating in a framed view of the distant pond. The bedrooms are aligned along the perpendicular axis, where surrounding trees provide privacy and a calming backdrop. These two bars are linked by a glazed breezeway that offers glimpses of the landscape in different directions.

Working closely with a local lumberyard that makes pre-engineered wood trusses, the architect leveraged common construction techniques— wood framing with conventional 2-bys—to provide a sense of poetry and simplicity and hit an aggressive budget. Twenty-two feet wide with a 14:12 roof slope and standard metal roof, the two wings have the same roof form but different ceiling profiles—vaulted in the living wing, flat in the bedroom wing. Those construction techniques “allowed us to dial in where we put apertures and connect the interiors back to the landscape,” Cody says. “We don’t see the house as having a front and rear elevation because its connection to the landscape was the main thing. There’s the hero view from the living room, two bedrooms look into a grove of newly planted maple trees to the front, and the primary suite looks east for privacy.” Beneath the living wing is a daylit basement that walks out on grade—space for a future office and theater room.

Crafted Details

Working within those simple forms and a focused material palette, Cody made sure every detail supported the storyline. The landscape procession sets up the big view of the pond. The front sidewalk extends from the driveway, floating within a 12-foot-wide gravel bed that mirrors the width of the glass breezeway, “so that inherently you know where the front door is and get the view to the pond when you step inside,” he says. The two wings partially enclose a rear patio that can be entered from the breezeway or the kitchen.

Cody also worked closely with the builder and subcontractors to ensure that trim profiles were minimal and well crafted. The half-round gutter system uses the same material as the roof, with round downspouts that blend with the house. Using a custom metal brake on site, Ethan’s crew created a drip edge that folds back, as fascia, to receive an integral gutter on the bottom. The spruce siding, applied as a rainscreen and thermally modified to increase its durability, was finished with a custom stain inspired by the bark on the surrounding trees. And the foundation and patio retaining wall were made with a metal pan cast-in-place concrete formwork system. The team collaborated to establish the formwork joint locations and finishing for the top of the wall.

Coming from a restaurant background, the client had strong ideas about the kitchen and appliances. “He was looking for calm interiors and wanted the kitchen to be simple with minimal clutter,” Cody says. A back-of-house pantry stores dry goods and countertop appliances, while the kitchen layout was driven by outdoor views. There, a 4-foot-wide island is centered on two 12-foot-wide openings—one leading through sliding doors to the east patio, the other a window facing west. Its 14½-foot length is centered within the vaulted gable volume and the big view of the pond to the south.

A spare interior palette of painted drywall and white oak floors and millwork keeps the focus on the Iowa landscape. “This was such a unique project for us—simple, yet so many small details went into it,” Ethan says. The honed granite countertops and backsplash and a blackened-steel-plate kitchen hood and floating shelves lend darker accents. “To hit the budget, we had to keep the interiors simple and let the site do the work for us,” Cody says. “Ethan comes from a millwork background where the details matter; they were an incredible partner.” The builder set up shop in the garage and site-built the custom millwork, including the kitchen cabinets and the headboard and double vanity in the primary suite.

In a finishing touch, Cody and the client and contractor visited nurseries to hand-select the trees that animate the front of the house. “A lot of care went into really sliding this simple gable form into the landscape, to make it feel like it’s been there for years,” Cody says. The result is a home that feels grounded in place while highlighting the best features of the surrounding landscape.