Project Statement

THE EVENT

It was a warm, muggy Friday afternoon in late March, and I had stopped by the house to let our golden retriever Lily out prior to a meeting with a client. The weather service had issued a high tornado threat for that day, but that was not uncommon for our part of the country during the spring months.

Upon arrival at the house a tornado warning was activated on my phone. I immediately turned on the television. The local weather man said that a tornado was on the ground in west Little Rock and headed for the Cammack Village area of town, which is near my neighborhood. At that point it was about 4 miles from my location, and I figured that I had a few minutes to prepare. Well…that was not the case. Within seconds the power went out and I could hear the “train sound” and see the very dark cloud approaching from the southwest. I grabbed Lily and headed to the basement and managed to get us safely below within seconds of the tornado striking the house. I could hear the tornado grinding the structure of the house and heavy vibration of large trees striking the ground. Dust and insulation filled the air, as an abrupt silence came shortly after the tornado had passed.

As Lily and I ascended the stairs, I could see daylight and feel the rain pelting my face through sections of the ceiling where the roof had been sheared off the house. The entire upper level of the house was strewn with furniture, broken glass, debris, and mud. We were ground zero, direct hit of what we would find out later was an EF3 tornado with winds of 150 mph and traveling at 50 mph.

THE DESIGN

The original house was a ranch style home built in 1955. It had a simple hipped roof form with 8-foot ceilings throughout. We had remodeled the kitchen and the upstairs bathrooms recently and had no plans to move. The house is located on a cul-de-sac in a great neighborhood in the middle of the city.

After living in the house for 12 years, my wife and I had a good idea of how we would rebuild if we ever had the opportunity. We have a love for mid-century modern and the expression of structure, daylighting, and simple clean lines. Our intent was to not expand the footprint of the proposed home and only build within the rectangular shape of the existing house. For two reasons, cost, and the fact that my wife and I are minimalist by nature.

Our intent was to salvage as much of the existing structural framing as possible. After demolishing the badly damaged upper level, we were left with a very sound platform from which to build. The original house had 2 small bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and very little closet space upstairs. The decision was made early to design a large primary suite. Locating the primary bedroom with a view of the valley, and creating a spacious, daylit primary bath and closet were a priority.

The proposed living room, dining, kitchen, and office were kept in a similar location to the original house. A larger, covered deck was created as an extension of the living room to the outdoors and to the view. All spaces downstairs were completely renovated; 2 spacious bedrooms, 2 baths, a home gym, and lots of storage!

The primary roof structure of the upper floor consists of 6 – 3ply 16” deep LVL beams of various lengths bearing on the perimeter walls. One center ridge beam is set at 14’ above the floor and the others sloping to the north and south forming a gentle A frame. This creates vaulted ceilings for all spaces on the upper floor. Trapezoidal windows located just below the roof create daylit spaces and provide views of the sky.

The house was rebuilt in 10 months, and we have been living in it for almost a year. We were very fortunate to have good insurance, a competent contractor, and many friends and neighbors to help us along the way!