Weathering St(ee)L House

Location:

Forest Park Southeast neighborhood, St. Louis, Missouri

Type:

Live-Work studio

Construction:

Steel frame, oxidizing steel cladding

Size:

4,300 sf

Project Team:

Derek Hoeferlin (lead designer/architect), Bemberg Architecture (permit set), Jonathan Stitelman (designer)

Recognition:

2021 AIA St. Louis Merit Award

Winner, 2022 Design STL Architect and Designer Awards "New Build" category

Publications:

Dwell Magazine, "Houses We Love," November/December 2022

design StL Magazine, "2022 Architect + Designer Awards," March/April 2022

Archinect, "10 Architectural Facades that Stood Out This Week," November 2022

Archinect, "10 Modern Home Designs We Liked This Week," October 2022

Project Completion:

2021

Client:

Joe Pentland

Project description:

The client for this live-work studio is an artist who designs, programs and builds kinetic sculptures that are pattern-based in concept. Other than the foundation and superstructure, the client built the majority of the house himself. The project is constructed as a series of pre-fabricated steel structural bays clad in a weathering steel rainscreen over rigid insulation and metal framing. The 100x30-foot long rectangular form relates to the surrounding historic late-19th and early-20th century architectural context. The material choice of oxidizing steel is a contemporary counterpoint to similar adjacent brick tones. The short elevation respects and aligns with the front faces of the neighboring row housing. The longer elevation, similar to other buildings along this stretch, holds the edge of the site boundary next to the sidewalk. The more private side-lot of the project is utilitarian in experience and scope, utilizing the double-wide lot for outdoor work and leisure. The interior amplifies the exposed large-scale steel structure with a jet-black, gallery-white and galvanized-silver color palette, providing generous double-height work spaces for the client to build and test out his kinetic designs on polished concrete floors. The sculptures are displayed in a copiously daylit-washed front gallery space, set on wood floors economically salvaged from unused 18-wheeler tractor-trailer beds. The more private, second floor living spaces contrast the rest of the project with a more domestic concept that is compressed in scale with a colorful material palette. The entire first floor is dedicated to workshop and gallery spaces, while the smaller second floor is for the kitchen, living room and a small office, bedroom and bathroom, with access to an outdoor balcony and the flat roof.