This home on Dupont Avenue in Minneapolis began as a triplex on Newton. The purpose then was to create a micro-community of dwellings that would allow the parents to age in place, the teenage kids to finish out their high school years, and a grandparent to stay close by. After several design iterations we concluded that the original lot was too small for these ambitious goals. That and a pandemic resulted in a delay which, incidentally, also served as a hidden opportunity. Half a year later, a larger lot had become available, one that could better accommodate the client’s vision.
Project Highlights
Size: 5,600 sq. ft.
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Timeline: Completed 2024
Typologies: New Construction - Residential - Multi-Generational - Age-In-Place - Sustainable Design
Project Collaborators
Re-Dwell, Inc. (General Contractor)
A.M. Structural Engineering (Structural Engineering)
Mom’s Design Build (Landscaping)
CSD Custom Woodworks (Cabinetry)
Making Room for the Whole Family
In the intervening time, however, some of the aims and desires had changed. The project was still meant to be a micro-community of sorts. But instead of three individual units, the new goal was to provide two separate wings in a single house—one for the kids and one for the adults—with both wings having some proximity to an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) in the rear yard. It was a simplified version of the same concept: a place for three generations of a family to stay connected.
Layered onto all of this was a deep-seated drive for sustainability. In at least a couple ways, the clients were ahead of their time. For one, they wanted to go all electric and eliminate gas entirely from their home. But the price point for electric heaters for their radiant heat system were beyond the budget (costs have since decreased since). Additionally, they wanted to remove themselves entirely from the grid by plugging in the 53 solar panels on the south-facing shed roof into a bank of batteries in the basement. But the know-how to accomplish this just wasn’t available at the time (now at last a more mainstream idea). Despite this, the R-25 ICF (Insulated Concrete Form) walls, triple-pane glazing, and rooftop solar has made the home very near net zero.
