Truly, One Of A Kind
A converted gymnasium, yes, but there's nothing old-school about it
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 BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES Despite its edgy modernity, the Winn condo in Seattle's former West Queen Anne Elementary School has a sense of easy looseness about it because the couple often rearrange and change out their art collection.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES The living room is a study in contrasting textures, from the metal pivot doors to the deep shag rug from Design Within Reach. An albino tortoise shell Larry Winn bought from a Boston antique dealer hangs over the fireplace; the linen couch is warmed up with boiled wool cushions in chocolate brown; the chairs are Italian and come from Limn.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES The rawness of a metal subway grate overhead, chandeliers crafted from Portuguese crab pots and the rough redwood table set on limestone columns keep the condo from feeling slick or sterile, despite its soaring volume and all-white walls. The painting to the right is by T.L. Lange.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES A metal-shelved library squeezed into the entry hallway holds the Winns' collection of art books. A glass catwalk gives access to the upper shelves as well as a second-story deck, while letting light flow through. Donald Sultan's screen print "Smoke Rings" and etchings from Picasso and Braque line the walls.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES The stage's terrazzo floor reflects the elegance of a vintage 1940s Steinway grand piano on its way to wrapping around to form kitchen countertops. Viking appliances in "Lemonade" and Susan Winn's collection of colorful dinnerware livens up and defines the open kitchen. |
The Winn condo is an exercise in architectural restraint, yet where needed, the architecture asserts itself in details that count:
• The old auditorium stage, a few steps above the main living area, is floored in ivory terrazzo that extends seamlessly into the kitchen to form the countertops.
• The walls appear to be floating partitions for art display, furthering the sense of gallery space. This illusion is created by muting the baseboards and stopping the walls short of the ceiling, with glass at the top so light flows between rooms.
• The stairs to the stage are cantilevered blocks of inky terrazzo that double as benches for extra seating at parties.
• Colossal glass doors pivot open to the courtyards off the great room and the master bedroom. When open, the mechanism and grandness of the 15-foot-high doors have great impact; when closed they read as window walls.
When Susan and Larry Winn chose appliances for their new kitchen, an anxious Viking dealer, not used to anyone buying color, called back three times to confirm they really wanted "Lemonade" ovens and fridge. He needn't have worried. The citrus-shaded appliances, floating in a wall of white cabinetry, are as precisely thought-out as the rest of the Winns' gym-turned-condo interior.
When you enter through the modest side doors of the 110-year-old West Queen Anne Elementary School, converted to condominiums in 1987, you'd never guess that the original gym and auditorium's voluminous space still exists just inside. "There was no road map for this," says architect Eric Cobb of the modernist Manhattan-style loft he designed for the Winns. "The building has such stature from the street that the place is part institution. Yet this condo is house-like with its own entrance."
The 3,000-square-foot condo is part gallery, too. Larry, owner of an art-publishing company called Grand Images, collects paintings, prints, sculpture, photographs, artifacts and first-edition books, all shown to best advantage in the loft's pale volume of space. When a realtor showed Susan the condo, she immediately realized its potential for displaying art. But first the 1980s interior had to be stripped and sandblasted back to concrete. The Winns hired contractor Eric Stelter of Flip Builders; Stelter recommended Cobb to design the new space, in part because he'd lived in New York and had experience both living in lofts and designing them.
The contractor, architect and owners worked together to solve problems like how to access the second-floor deck. When they decided to push the master-bedroom ceilings 15 feet high, a new route to the deck door was needed. The solution? A soaring, two-story library in the entry hallway. The library ladder and second-story glass catwalk provide access to books and deck, as well as buffer the bedroom from the main living space.
The Winn condo is an exercise in architectural restraint, yet where needed, the architecture asserts itself in details that count:
• The old auditorium stage, a few steps above the main living area, is floored in ivory terrazzo that extends seamlessly into the kitchen to form the countertops.
• The walls appear to be floating partitions for art display, furthering the sense of gallery space. This illusion is created by muting the baseboards and stopping the walls short of the ceiling, with glass at the top so light flows between rooms.
• The stairs to the stage are cantilevered blocks of inky terrazzo that double as benches for extra seating at parties.
• Colossal glass doors pivot open to the courtyards off the great room and the master bedroom. When open, the mechanism and grandness of the 15-foot-high doors have great impact; when closed they read as window walls.
Despite its aged brick façade in a quiet neighborhood of mostly older homes, the Winn condo feels more profoundly urban than anything you'd find in the newest downtown high-rise. The rock-pocked concrete walls and ceiling are exposed, bringing rough texture and rugged warmth to the cool space. The flames in the minimalist gas fireplace lick between white stone spheres rather than logs. Steel steps lead up to a guest suite squeezed in above the master bath. The interior so dazzles with its stylish detailing and one-of-a-kind pieces that you can't help but pepper the Winns with questions about materials, artists and what in the world were those three chandeliers in their previous life?
They were Portuguese crab pots, retrofitted with blown-glass lights and hung above an 18-foot-long redwood table resting on limestone columns salvaged from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
How does it feel to live in a condo with the heady volume of a circus tent, yet detailed with an acrobat's precision and grace? "Susan's flowers and dishes keep the place from being too hard-edged," says Larry, as does the eclectic assemblage of art and artifacts studding the walls. He adds that the condo interior might have been softer if the couple hadn't had a retreat at their old farmhouse in Chelan.
Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and author of "A Pattern Garden." Her e-mail address is valeaston@comcast.net. Benjamin Benschneider is a Pacific Northwest magazine staff photographer.
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