Cover story
By Rebecca Teagarden
A Box Of Surprises
In a simple place, space is well used for life well lived
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 BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES Architect Eric Cobb designed for the Kogans a simple box full of surprise. The surprise being that it's not simple at all. "The nature of it being a simple, singular box is something we were interested in expressing from the street." From the street you see a flat roof and cedar siding. But from the east, it reveals a shed roof and painted cement fiberboard.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES "We wanted to unwrap the box at the point of entry," Cobb says. "The cutout adds length to the house and provides a large, covered entryway and deck."
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES "In the context of the neighborhood, the house feels tiny. But when you go inside it feels quite large," Cobb says. "It ends up being a 950-square-feet space you understand. You're still down two steps at the entrance, a very obvious place to take off your shoes and hang up your coat, but you're not immediately thrust into the box. You have a decompression zone."
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES Marcos Kogan sits at the dining table Cobb designed to go with the flow. "There simply wasn't enough area or interest for creating a separate dining room, so we have a table on casters that can be pushed up against the island for day-to-day dining conditions," Cobb says. "And when they do entertain, the table can be pulled away and furniture can be moved to create space."
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES Next to the living-room space is another area: It is office, guest room and den. "The height of the cabinetry was a subject of huge negotiation," Cobb says. "It had to divide yet connect . . . maintaining that feeling of singular space but getting just enough privacy for being in bed and when they're working."
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES "We made every conceivable move we could make to be efficient and nonredundant," Cobb says. "It was essential, not desirable. For example, there's one door. What is the deck is also the porch."
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES The living area is separated by the bookcase dividing the office/guest room. Given the footprint of the house, Cobb says, "we wanted it to feel as much like a single room as possible. The house is of a singular element, not a series of rooms tied together." |
CLEAN LIVING. That's what Jenny Kogan likes. And lots of light and no clutter. So when Eric Cobb designed a compact contemporary box of a home for her and her husband, Marcos, Jenny couldn't have been happier.
"I can clean the house in half an hour and go do something fun. Why do I need more than what I have here?" she says, seated in the big, open room that is their living room, kitchen, dining room and den/guest area.
The Kogans, 72, don't have time for housework. He's a retired entomology professor at Oregon State University, but he hasn't quite gotten the hang of retirement. Marcos is still finishing research and working on a book. He walks and swims every day with a coach. She works out. They grew up in Rio de Janeiro and have been married more than 50 years.
It was their builder, Eric Stelter of Flip Builders, who helped the Kogans imagine the perfect post-career home close to their daughter and her family in Seattle's Bryant neighborhood. He did it by taking the couple on a walk through the site's original cottage.
"We walked through it, and he said, 'Is there anything about the house you love?' " Jenny says.
There was not. The only thing they liked was the location.
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So Stelter knew that little, broken-up rooms were not for the Kogans. They wanted a new-century house on top of the old foundation. And he knew just who could design it.
"Eric Cobb came right over, and over a bottle of scotch we knew we could work together," Marcos says.
So Cobb gave them only the good stuff in a small package. He enjoyed that, being from Brazil, the Kogans were not shy about Modern architecture. "It's about the space and the sculpture," he says.
He gave them floors of birch plywood and industrial-gray rubber in a pattern of circles. On counter surfaces, the same gray laminate is used throughout, even on the Cobb-designed dining-room table. The only bedroom has quiet, diffused light through a frosted vertical window.
Architect: Eric Cobb, E. Cobb Architects (www.cobbarch.com).
Size: 950 square feet. One bedroom, great room, office/guest area, 1 ½ bathrooms, full basement.
Goal: A contemporary minimalist home with a lot of light and easy access, and takes no time to clean.
The master bath, with a space-saving slider door, has a toilet, shower, sink (no tub) with the same rubber flooring. The washer-dryer unit is stacked, tucked in a corner.
"The washer serves as a hamper," Jenny says. "We have to make every space count. If it takes floor space, it has to do double duty."
Across from the washer-dryer are cubbies for the ironing board and laundry storage.
All that lack of space gives Jenny time to look out her 4-feet-tall, wrap-around windows, which she views as art.
What she loves about the Erics, Cobb and Stelter, is "this passion that great design is not only for rich people."
The Kogans were on a budget, about $220,000, which Marcos says they exceeded by 30 percent. They had to make some tough compromises, "but when you see it, it's so well-resolved," Jenny says. For example, the couple gave up a second-floor loft and a pop-up that would have given them a view of Mount Rainier. Instead they have a big, open room that adds to the light feeling Jenny loves. The façade is cantilevered, adding 75 square feet to the one-story open plan.
"I've known Marcos and Jenny for 22 years," says their son-in-law, Steve Griggs. "They could make a banquet out of bread and butter. They don't need much to live very well."
Rebecca Teagarden is assistant editor of Pacific Northwest magazine. Benjamin Benschneider is a magazine staff photographer.
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