Mid-sized modern attached two-car garage in Kansas City.

Our clients wanted to create a room that would bring them closer to the outdoors; a room filled with natural lighting; and a venue to spotlight a modern fireplace. Early in the design process, our clients wanted to replace their existing, outdated, and rundown screen porch, but instead decided to build an all-season sun room. The space was intended as a quiet place to read, relax, and enjoy the view. The sunroom addition extends from the existing house and is nestled into its heavily wooded surroundings. The roof of the new structure reaches toward the sky, enabling additional light and views. The floor-to-ceiling magnum double-hung windows with transoms, occupy the rear and side-walls. The original brick, on the fourth wall remains exposed; and provides a perfect complement to the French doors that open to the dining room and create an optimum configuration for cross-ventilation. To continue the design philosophy for this addition place seamlessly merged natural finishes from the interior to the exterior. The Brazilian black slate, on the sunroom floor, extends to the outdoor terrace; and the stained tongue and groove, installed on the ceiling, continues through to the exterior soffit. The room's main attraction is the suspended metal fireplace; an authentic wood-burning heat source. Its shape is a modern orb with a commanding presence. Positioned at the center of the room, toward the rear, the orb adds to the majestic interior-exterior experience. This is the client's third project with place architecture: design. Each endeavor has been a wonderful collaboration to successfully bring this 1960s ranch-house into twenty-first century living.

Mid-sized modern attached two-car garage in Miami.

Photo of a mid-sized modern attached two-car garage in Kansas City.

Rosedale ‘PARK’ is a detached garage and fence structure designed for a residential property in an old Toronto community rich in trees and preserved parkland. Located on a busy corner lot, the owner’s requirements for the project were two fold: 1) They wanted to manage views from passers-by into their private pool and entertainment areas while maintaining a connection to the ‘park-like’ public realm; and 2) They wanted to include a place to park their car that wouldn’t jeopardize the natural character of the property or spoil one’s experience of the place. The idea was to use the new garage, fence, hard and soft landscaping together with the existing house, pool and two large and ‘protected’ trees to create a setting and a particular sense of place for each of the anticipated activities including lounging by the pool, cooking, dining alfresco and entertaining large groups of friends. Using wood as the primary building material, the solution was to create a light, airy and luminous envelope around each component of the program that would provide separation without containment. The garage volume and fence structure, framed in structural sawn lumber and a variety of engineered wood products, are wrapped in a dark stained cedar skin that is at once solid and opaque and light and transparent. The fence, constructed of staggered horizontal wood slats was designed for privacy but also lets light and air pass through. At night, the fence becomes a large light fixture providing an ambient glow for both the private garden as well as the public sidewalk. Thin striations of light wrap around the interior and exterior of the property. The wall of the garage separating the pool area and the parked car is an assembly of wood framed windows clad in the same fence material. When illuminated, this poolside screen transforms from an edge into a nearly transparent lantern, casting a warm glow by the pool. The large overhang gives the area by the by the pool containment and sense of place. It edits out the view of adjacent properties and together with the pool in the immediate foreground frames a view back toward the home’s family room. Using the pool as a source of light and the soffit of the overhang a reflector, the bright and luminous water shimmers and reflects light off the warm cedar plane overhead. All of the peripheral storage within the garage is cantilevered off of the main structure and hovers over native grade to significantly reduce the footprint of the building and minimize the impact on existing tree roots. The natural character of the neighborhood inspired the extensive use of wood as the projects primary building material. The availability, ease of construction and cost of wood products made it possible to carefully craft this project. In the end, aside from its quiet, modern expression, it is well-detailed, allowing it to be a pragmatic storage box, an elevated roof 'garden', a lantern at night, a threshold and place of occupation poolside for the owners. Photo: Bryan Groulx

Mid-sized modern attached one-car garage in Kansas City.

Traditional two-car garage in San Diego.

Rosedale ‘PARK’ is a detached garage and fence structure designed for a residential property in an old Toronto community rich in trees and preserved parkland. Located on a busy corner lot, the owner’s requirements for the project were two fold: 1) They wanted to manage views from passers-by into their private pool and entertainment areas while maintaining a connection to the ‘park-like’ public realm; and 2) They wanted to include a place to park their car that wouldn’t jeopardize the natural character of the property or spoil one’s experience of the place. The idea was to use the new garage, fence, hard and soft landscaping together with the existing house, pool and two large and ‘protected’ trees to create a setting and a particular sense of place for each of the anticipated activities including lounging by the pool, cooking, dining alfresco and entertaining large groups of friends. Using wood as the primary building material, the solution was to create a light, airy and luminous envelope around each component of the program that would provide separation without containment. The garage volume and fence structure, framed in structural sawn lumber and a variety of engineered wood products, are wrapped in a dark stained cedar skin that is at once solid and opaque and light and transparent. The fence, constructed of staggered horizontal wood slats was designed for privacy but also lets light and air pass through. At night, the fence becomes a large light fixture providing an ambient glow for both the private garden as well as the public sidewalk. Thin striations of light wrap around the interior and exterior of the property. The wall of the garage separating the pool area and the parked car is an assembly of wood framed windows clad in the same fence material. When illuminated, this poolside screen transforms from an edge into a nearly transparent lantern, casting a warm glow by the pool. The large overhang gives the area by the by the pool containment and sense of place. It edits out the view of adjacent properties and together with the pool in the immediate foreground frames a view back toward the home’s family room. Using the pool as a source of light and the soffit of the overhang a reflector, the bright and luminous water shimmers and reflects light off the warm cedar plane overhead. All of the peripheral storage within the garage is cantilevered off of the main structure and hovers over native grade to significantly reduce the footprint of the building and minimize the impact on existing tree roots. The natural character of the neighborhood inspired the extensive use of wood as the projects primary building material. The availability, ease of construction and cost of wood products made it possible to carefully craft this project. In the end, aside from its quiet, modern expression, it is well-detailed, allowing it to be a pragmatic storage box, an elevated roof 'garden', a lantern at night, a threshold and place of occupation poolside for the owners. Photo: Bryan Groulx

Inspiration for a mid-sized contemporary attached two-car garage in New York.

Design ideas for a large modern two-car garage in Little Rock.

Inspiration for a traditional two-car garage in San Diego.

Chad Holder
Photo of a mid-sized modern one-storey white exterior in Minneapolis with mixed siding and a flat roof.

This is an example of a traditional two-car garage in San Diego.

Design ideas for a traditional garage in San Diego.

Photo of a traditional garage in San Diego.

This is an example of a traditional two-car garage in San Diego.

Design ideas for a traditional two-car garage in San Diego.

This is an example of a large contemporary attached three-car garage in Dallas.

Inspiration for a large modern attached four-car garage in New York.