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An inspired renovation puts the ‘modern’ back in ‘midcentury’

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A 1954 Barton Hills home transformed

By Cindy Widner
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A twilight photo of the back courtyard of a modern home It has a second-story addition with wood shingled siding that angles out from the top of the flat roof until it meets the first-story wall, which angles inward. A single story of the house extends from there in the background, and there is a smaller structure facing the two-story structure, with a pool and a wooden deck in the courtyard in between.
1804 Rabb Road
Via Compass

While the renovation of this ranch-style home in Barton Hills is stunning overall, you’d be forgiven if your first thought is that it looks like the garage has been taken over by a wood-shingled space ship. Or maybe a wayward teahouse. Upon closer examination, however, one finds that it has experienced an extensive transformation by Dig:A architecture—one that brings it closer to contemporary-minimalist modernism than the vernacular style we tend to label “midcentury.”

Built literally in the middle of the last century (1950), the limestone-and-wood-frame home looks to have been originally a standard, one-story, ranch-style house of that era. Now it’s a two-story, stripped down modern inside with an addition that creates dramatic shapes and angles indoors and out.

The 3,400-square-foot home has three bedrooms and three bathrooms and features walnut and birch cabinets, oak flooring, and high-design tile and light fixtures. The master suite also has a dry sauna a soaking tub with a treehouse setting. All that wraps around a back pool and courtyard, with room for an ADU.

The listing for the home at 1804 Rabb Road is held by Carla Umlauf at Compass.

A twilight photo of the front of a limestone ranch style home that has been renovated with a wood-shingled, two-story addition on top of and behind the garage. there are a couple of trees surrounded by grass in the foreground and a gravel driveway and side yard.
The home was originally a one-story, ranch-style house.
Via Compass
A photo of a large interior space with a set of two rectangular, leather-covered benches pushed together in the middle. A three-paned, floor-to-ceiling window takes up one wall facing a pool. A low, horizontal wooden cabinet runs along the far wall, wraps round a corner, and abuts a wall-sized cabinet in the far corner.
The open living area features a vaulted ceiling with recessed lighting and oak floors.
Via Compass
An open kitchen with a long, marble-topped island with a recessed wood side underneath with a pattern that echoes a wall of wood cabinets behind it.
The shape of the open-kitchen island echoes the lines of the second-story addition balcony opening.
Via Compass
A stairwell landing with four wooden stairs below it that continues up the wall and around a corner to a second story open at the top of a two-story wall.
Floating stairs lead to a second-story addition.
1804 Rabb Road
A photo of wooden, floating stairs suspended from the ceiling with thin braided steel ropes.. There’s a skylight above them.
The stairwell is well-lighted and airy.
Via Compass
Interior photo of a room, maybe a bedroom or study, with a polished concrete floor and a L-shaped cabinet running up one wall and horizontally down the adjacent one. There’s a three-paned horizontal window facing a pool outside. There’s a rug under a circular ottoman in the center of the room.
Birch and walnut cabinets are featured throughout the home.
Via Compass
A photo of a bathroom with wood floors, a soaking tub in the corner with a tree just outside of it, a sink with a marble surround, and a glass-enclosed shower.
Corner windows create a treehouse-style bathroom.
Via Compass

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