Jay Baker
Pat Whitaker and Dick Miles fell in love with, well, the street. The house was on a great street in University City. And the lot—the lot was nice and big.
The house itself was cramped and awkwardly divided, its floors rotting, its charms vanished. Fine with them; they'd buy it as a tear-down.
Not so fine with University City, where the historic register is sacred. The old house had to stay.
"Then we found out we could do whatever we wanted in the back and just restore the front," says Ms. Whitaker. An interior designer and CEO, she runs Arcturis, a leading commercial architecture and interior-design firm. Big projects don't scare her—which is good, because the little tear-down required "totally renovating one house and building a new one behind it at the same time!"
Start to finish, it took one year. The couple didn't argue once about aesthetics; both hungered for a Zen simplicity. "Less clutter, wide-open space—it seems to me a natural way to escape the complications of everyday life," Mr. Miles murmurs. "The old house had small rooms and low ceilings, so we had to implode it and start over."
"What we wanted was to have all the places we lived on the first floor," adds Ms. Whitaker, "just for the ease of it, and the flow. So now we have our bedroom on the first floor, and a small office, and a little living room that's a cozy place to read. Upstairs, there are three bedrooms for our children when they visit. The addition is bigger than the original house—we went from 1,800 square feet to 4,300!"
The Kitchen
No doors, no walls, no barriers, nothing to suck the air or block the light. Monochrome, sleek surfaces keep the area inscrutable, with none of that kitcheny feel that comes when big, chunky objects get stuffed into a room. Everything here's reflective: cabinetry of stainless steel, honed black granite countertops, a backsplash of subtly back-painted glass. The kitchen opens to the living room; nearby, a large dining table (not shown) is positioned for a view of the serene reflecting pool outside.
The Fireplace
Andy Warhol's Marilyn hangs over the fireplace; she belonged to Mr. Miles before the marriage. In perfect symmetry, Ms. Whitaker brought Warhol's Mick to the union. The stainless-steel mantel is a shallow 4 inches, not enough projection to interrupt the flow of the room.
The Backyard
"We didn't want much of a yard, so in the back, we built a pool," Ms. Whitaker says. "We just wanted the water out there for the serenity of it. In the front, it's all liriope—no maintenance." Floor-to-ceiling glass (a storefront window system) opens the home's interior to the pool. Outside, a rocking chair doubles as a sculptural form, keeping the Frank Gehry stone cubes company.
The Living Room
The main seating is inspired: B&B Italia's Harry (as in Belafonte) armchairs and Charles (as in the prince) sofa. The Frank Gehry Wiggle chair looks a bit like ribbon candy, but it's made of cardboard. And yes, it will hold your weight.
The Master Bath
"We just wanted it to be really spacious," Ms. Whitaker says, "and another place to put artwork," including a black-and-white tulip study shot by Mr. Miles. Reflected in the mirror: a clerestory window, filmed to add a frosted texture, and a stone ledge that gives soap and shampoo a simple resting place.
