Jon Anderson, FAIA, of Jon Anderson Architecture, has lived and worked on the same block in Albuquerque, N.M., for 42 years. A smart buy in 1975, while he was at his first job out of architecture school, got him a half acre and several old houses near the city’s downtown. He raised his family in one of the homes and rented several others out. After he left a 12-year gig with Antoine Predock’s firm in 1991, he took over one of the rentals and opened his own office. Jon’s 15-person practice handles a mix of residential and commercial work, with K-12 school projects now a strong revenue stream for the office. With his children grown and launched in their own careers, Jon finally got around to designing his own modern dream house with his wife, Laura. He already had permission to tear down one of his rental houses and went about securing approval of his design from the Landmarks Commission, which has jurisdiction over the neighborhood. Then he hit a few snags.
His concept, with its decidedly modern exterior, was rejected by the commission. It pressed for something more in keeping with the prevailing bungalow style of neighboring houses. It was a disappointment, for sure, but given his deep roots and financial commitment to the area, Jon couldn’t abandon the effort. So he went back to the drawing board and designed a different house, one with a bungalow-friendly exterior and some surprising, satisfying twists.
Photos: Kirk Gittings Photography
RD: You’re a modern architect and wanted to build a modern house. How did your plans blow up?
JA: There are two big requirements for new buildings in my neighborhood: A new house has to be of appropriate scale to surrounding buildings; and patterning of windows and doors has to be compatible with others in the area. So I did a modern house with stucco, burnished block, and metal fascias.
When I first submitted it to the Landmarks Commission, they seemed to really love it. I went back several times and we made some changes. Then it came time for the six commissioners to vote on it. Only one commissioner voted yes—the one architect on the panel—and all the others voted no. I was pretty shocked because one of the things the guidelines stressed was they didn’t want to replicate historic styles.
So I took it to the city council, which was a huge deal to do. But they refused to hear it, and said they would abide by the decision of the commission.
I let the whole thing sit for two years. Then I decided to bend my principles and do a house I knew would get approved.
Tell us about the goals of the new design.
JA: We set out to downsize, but we ended up with about the same size house. The new house occupies a footprint of about 1,000 square feet. My wife plays the piano, so we needed a music room for her 7-foot grand piano. We also love to listen to music and have a high-tech stereo inside the cabinets in that room. There are six sets of hardwired speakers, four in the house and two outside. We play LPs and stream music.
On the top floor, we have a 600-square-foot master suite and a media room. The first floor and lower level have bedrooms for when the kids come to stay. My son lives in Vancouver, Canada, so when he visits it’s usually a longer stay.
The entertaining spaces are much bigger than our old house and are what we emphasized in the design. We wanted a great open kitchen, because when we have guests over or the kids are in town, we cook. Guests can sit and have a glass of wine or chop vegetables, if they want. It’s a perfect setup for that kind of entertaining. We have several workspaces, an eat-in bar, and a casual dining area. It’s funny, at one time I thought I would be sitting at the bar most of the time, but I usually end up sitting at the table.
The other critical aspect of the design was that we wanted it as energy efficient as possible. We’re going for LEED Platinum. We hired a consultant, but it’s still a ton of work. Once we’ve gotten that platinum certification, we’ll go for Net Zero.
We have a solar array on the roof, and the year before I installed the array our power company stopped paying for excess power. But we can run the whole house with it—the heating, air conditioning, appliances, lighting—and we power the guest house and garage. I even have a Tesla that I can charge with it in the garage. We do have gas cooking and a gas water heater, but I think I can make up for those with the excess power.
One of the most dramatic design elements is the steel stair. How does it fit into the overall design and how was it built?
JA: I built the garage behind what was the rental house 25 years ago. It’s a three-car garage with guest quarters above. I built it myself. It’s real, traditional 24-gauge corrugated steel with a crystalline texture. It used to be shiny and now it’s a nice warm gray.
I would have loved to do corrugated steel for the new house. But the commission would not let me do that. They wouldn’t even let me do a corrugated roof.
So we did a steel stair inside the house. I wanted a high ceiling in the main area—the interior is open to the 27-foot-high ridge. The steel stair rises from the basement to the upper-level master. Its structure preserves the openness of the space and allows light to pass through. There’s also a section of glass floor for light transmission into the basement.
The stair was custom built by a steel fabricator—a father-son operation. They’ve done a ton of work for us over the years. They fabricated the stringers in their shop and then site-built everything else. We didn’t want any bolted connections, so they jigged it up and field-welded the pieces in place.
The treads are 2-inch-thick maple with recessed clip angles. The stringers are steel tube. The treads do not deflect. The stair does not move; it doesn’t even vibrate. Although, I have to admit the cats were a bit leery of it at first.
Although the exterior design is instantly recognizable as a bungalow, when you look closely, the detailing is quite modern. Can you explain how you played with the form?
JA: The exterior is a traditional, three-coat cementitious stucco—not synthetic; it’s the real thing. The color coat is manufactured here in town. It has a float finish that’s sponged to float the aggregate out to the top. It’s a finish that can express the sharp edges of the architecture.
We had wanted a lot of big windows and glass on the exterior, but the commission wouldn’t let us do big windows. So I found very big terrace doors that were designed for high-rises and used them instead on the front porch. The porch is on the north side, so we didn’t need the deep overhang for sun protection, but it’s lovely to sit out here even in a light rain.
The doors do have manual, chain-drive roller shades for privacy, and other windows are shaded as well. Remotes can be added to them later, if we want. The shades for the large 12-foot sliding glass door on the west side, though, operate on a remote.
That’s the side where you see the pitched roof cleave to allow a tree to pass through?
JA: Yes. That tree is 90 feet tall, 80 to 90 years old, and 18 inches in diameter. We carefully demoed the old house around it. And then we basically notched the new house to go around the tree, and laid out the plan around that concept. It made sense to get a lot of glass around the west face of the notch. The electronic shades for the glass filter about 20 percent of the heat gain.
The roof is essentially a cold roof. One of the issues of doing the composition shingle roof is they won’t let you install it over insulation. So it’s insulated with 2 inches of urethane foam sprayed in, then there’s a plastic membrane vapor barrier. There’s a second roof built with 2-by-4s, and that’s sheeted and shingled. Air moves through and out the ridge vent. It’s cooler in summer and warmer in winter.
You’ve lived in the neighborhood for more than 40 years. Why did it take you so long to build your own house?
JA: I was always so busy. We started the firm doing residential work; now we’re doing about $100 million in public school work. It’s the public school work that’s allowed me to build a house and buy a Tesla.
But, you know, we live close to downtown, close to concert venues and restaurants, and I commute 65 feet to work—if I could get away with it, I’d love not to drive at all.
Plans and Drawings
