The Symmetry Of Simplicity

On a small site, a Queen Anne couple thrives in the comfort of form

THE NEIGHBORS know architect John Pangrazio and his wife, Kristi, as the people with the fancy glass garage. The couple designed their stand-alone, single-car garage to double as an entertainment room because theirs is the smallest lot in the long-established Queen Anne neighborhood, about 45 by 60 feet.

"We pull the Volkswagen out and use the garage as a pavilion," Pangrazio says. "It was the way to get best use of our limited space." The Pangrazios have hosted block parties and benefits there, and can set a table for 16 under the cozy glass roof. "I like to call it the Garage Mahal," Kristi says.

Natural light, fresh air and nature's greenery are important to both Pangrazios, and John has the skills to incorporate such amenities into a house. Pangrazio, 61, is a member of the American College of Healthcare Architects and a past president of the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health. He's also a partner at NBBJ in Seattle, one of the largest architecture firms in the country. He specializes in designing healing medical environments, including buildings that enable researchers and clinicians to work together efficiently. He lectures and consults widely, often as an advocate for light-filled, cheerful spaces with art on the walls.

Here, he and his wife first chose the setting — a neighborhood high on the south side of Queen Anne Hill that catches both morning and evening light — and then looked for a house. The site was crucial; a house could be reconfigured to meet their needs.

The place they bought in 1996 had been built around 1910. The good news was that not much had been done to it, and the bad news was that not much had been done to it, Pangrazio says. Nearly everything about the structure was original.

"The bones were good, and it was very straightforward as a piece of architecture," he says. "The form of the house was so comforting — the kind of two-thirds/one-third proportion of the exterior view — that I didn't feel the need to change that. It's very graceful."

The goal was simple: Respect the exterior architecture and make it work as well on the inside. In houses of this era, Pangrazio says, builders typically paid attention to the exterior symmetry, but not to the interior, especially upstairs, where the bedrooms are. Often, the result was big windows and small closets.

General wear and tear meant the best course was to take the interior completely apart and put it back together, installing new electrical and mechanical systems and restoring woodwork.

But first came a bit of reflection for the recent empty-nesters.

"We asked ourselves, 'How do we really like to live?' " Pangrazio says. "Well, Kristi likes to cook. I like to eat. At least we knew the kitchen needed to be a first-class redo."

He drew plans and hired building contractor Jerry Fulks, while personally seeing to variances and other paperwork. Meanwhile, the couple moved into a condo downtown for nine months until construction was completed. Today, the house is not any larger, just reconfigured. Each floor has about 950 square feet, plus a basement with a small guest room.

"We use every square inch," Kristi says. "I'm in every room every day."

On the first floor, what had been the dining room off the kitchen was converted to a family room. They enclosed an existing porch to expand the kitchen by about 80 square feet, adding French doors that lead to a small deck shared with the garage.

A new skylight brightens the way upstairs, where a spare bedroom now serves as an office. A wall between two small bedrooms was removed to create a single master bedroom. It has two doors into the hallway because Pangrazio liked the symmetry, and just in case someone might want to restore the dividing wall to have a third bedroom someday. Here, windows capture light from dawn to dusk.

Outside, the down-sloping driveway was impractical, and the old, freestanding garage had outlived its usefulness. Pangrazio thought it best to tear it down, add fill to bring the area level with the house, build a new garage and then link the two structures with a deck.

Seattle's silvery light inspired the Pangrazios to imagine the new garage as a kind of greenhouse for people. "We wanted some connection to outside," Pangrazio says. "I stayed with the hip-roof design because we wanted it to be consistent with the character of the house and not be offensive to neighbors."

Roll-up doors let weather in or keep it out on each end of the structure, and it's just a few steps to the kitchen or basement powder room. Once the garage was finished, he added the adjacent deck himself.

Finally, the couple wanted to have an open view of greenery. "It's documented that patients do better if they're exposed to nature," Pangrazio says. "We all need nature." The exposed corner lot was a particular challenge, however. Allworth Nussbaum, a landscape-architecture firm, planted a green screen to eliminate the need for thick privacy drapes and maintain the view to the outdoors.

"This is the property we have. It's very small, but we don't want to have more than what we can really enjoy," Pangrazio says. "Whatever we have, I want to take care of it and celebrate it."

Dean Stahl is a Seattle freelance writer. Benjamin Benschneider is a Pacific Northwest magazine staff photographer.