Story

During a career defined by commercial work, midcentury architect Otto Stark - designer of downtown Chicago’s landmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Building (1968) - designed only one private residence outside of his own. Located in Grand Rapids, Stark’s Brosema House (1967) echoed his brutalist commercial style in its symmetry and austere use of color and materials. When our clients purchased the house in 2019, an extensive renovation was necessary due to the home’s age and catastrophic damage by mice and termites. Our goal was to refresh the home for a new era while honoring the architect’s original vision. We took care to stay within the home’s original ‘H’-shaped footprint, adding only a screened wall to create a back porch. Exterior trim was painted an iron-ore shade to match old photographs, and a third-stall garage that was in the original plans but later omitted was reintroduced on the lower level. We moved the kitchen to the front of the home to open the floorplan with a new dining area (featuring a waterfall accent wall and skylight to visually define the space) and an enlarged living room at the rear, preserving an original, circular iron fireplace and overlooking a natural area. We combined two main level bedrooms to create a new master and added a guest bedroom to the lower level to preserve the bedroom count. The home’s original, hand-carved entry doors from Spain - acquired by Stark specifically for the home - were repurposed as living room and master bath cabinets, as they were no longer viable as exterior doors. A new electrical system, roof, staircase, flooring throughout, paint and windows helped to complete the whole-home renovation. This project deserves recognition because we made a historic home habitable again while finding creative ways to honor the unique architectural vision behind it.