Project Description
This article appeared in the September 2019 issue of ARCHITECT.
Located at one of the northmost points in Wisconsin, the hamlet of Cornucopia was named for its abundance of resources, which in the early 20th century included timber, fishing, and farming. Today, the local economy is driven by tourists and seasonal residents—including two semi-retired physicians from St. Paul, Minn., who bought a property on Lake Superior with the intent to restore its natural landscape. An earlier house and garage on the site had been demolished, and initially, the owners renovated a log sauna into a habitable cabin and added an outdoor privy. They later retained Duluth, Minn.–based David Salmela, FAIA, to design a more substantial, though still modest, complex.
Salmela has been churning out a remarkable body of work for decades, drawing on an affinity for natural materials, a deep interest in Scandinavian design precedents, and a profoundly nimble and quirky approach to form making. In Cornucopia, he designed a 1,368-square-foot single-family residence as the centerpiece of a complex that preserves the old cabin as a guesthouse. He also added two new pavilions (a garage and a workshop), which sit atop the hill and create a sense of entry between their simple volumes and direct visitors’ perspective toward the main house and the lake. As for the privy, Salmela recast its role by moving it and wrapping it in a wood screen that provides privacy for a new outdoor shower.
The main house is a simple 18-foot-wide volume—a single story at the west end, and two stories at the eastern. From the mudroom entry under a broad 10-foot cantilever, visitors are enticed into the main space—shared living, dining, and kitchen—by a large divided-light window. A bath and guest bedroom complete the first floor, which opens to a broad cedar deck overlooking the lake. A bright red stair ascends to the master suite on the second floor where a door opens to an asymmetrical balcony that shelters a stone picnic table below.
Classically Modern design is never far from Salmela’s mind. The second-floor balcony alludes to Alvar Aalto’s Villa Mairea, a reference that Salmela claims he noticed afterward. The downspouts for the house’s flat roof are a more intentional recall of Le Corbusier’s sculptural concrete confections, albeit rendered in framed 2x cedar members.
Natural wood predominates, along with a restrained but precise use of color. Flush, horizontal tongue-and-groove interior walls contrast with the board-and-batten ceiling. Salmela-designed deck chairs face the lake and contrast with the black cladding of the main house and new outbuildings. The matte black is achieved with panels made from Richlite, an extremely durable paper-based material often used for skateboard ramps. “It’s a unique material,” Salmela says. “It’s more expensive than other sidings, but it is maintenance free.”
“Circumstances often force creativeness,” Salmela says. And creativity is where he has always excelled. In Cornucopia, “the new isn’t imitating the old, but there’s an indescribable harmony between the stark modern and aged tradition,” Salmela says. “And that is the mystery of architecture.”
Project Credits
Project: Rothe Amundson house, Cornucopia, Wis.
Client: Gail Amundson and Peter Rothe
Architect: Salmela Architect, Duluth, Minn. . David Salmela, FAIA (principal, designer); David Getty (project lead)
Structural Engineer: Meyer Borgman Johnson
General Contractor: Tworek Construction
Size: 1,368 square feet
Cost: $436,593