Building a home is always an expressive act. And while essentially a gesture of the ego, of will, it need not be narcissistic. A well-designed home should manifest its owner’s personality, but the best also address the street they stand on, whether that’s a quiet suburban cul de sac or a busy stretch in a densely populated urban neighborhood. Of course, not every homeowner is interested in dialogue. But when Cody Derrick decided to create a special place for himself in Salt Lake City, he wasn’t about to shut the door and call it a day.
The founder of cityhomeCOLLECTIVE, a real estate and interior design company, Derrick was looking for a true sanctuary when he approached Sparano + Mooney Architecture to design his house on a narrow lot close to downtown. He wanted to realize a home that was very much his own, one that gave him all he needed and nothing more. “I never wanted a large house, but I did imagine it to be spacious,” he remarks.
Taking their client’s lead, principals John Sparano and Anne Mooney fashioned a one-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot residence that features an open-plan living space, a small pool surrounded by a patio and a separate guest suite. “This is a tight site with significant restrictions, so we maximized the building envelope within what was allowed,” shares Mooney, “providing moments of expansion and compression you experience as you move through the spaces. For example, the oversized porch and entry provide a grand entrance for a relatively small home, and the double-height great room is a wonderful contrast to the more intimately scaled bedroom.”
While a strong sense of enclosure defines this long, linear box of a house, there’s nothing bunkerlike about it. At the street, the structure presents a massive, double-height wall of windows, allowing a glimpse within. And along its length, deep indentations relieve the monolithic massing of the home. “The home is actually very contextual within its neighborhood surroundings,” observes Sparano. “The scale of the residence matches that of the adjacent homes.”
For Derrick, “home” has always represented a “commitment to create solace, beauty and creative sovereignty.” In this house, he opted to dress the interiors in a dark color scheme. To balance that, describes Sparano, “We developed the architecture to illuminate the spaces carefully through precisely located windows and connections to the outdoors at the front of the home, the center courtyard and the back garden spaces.”
Appreciative of every place he has lived (“Thank God for old Victorians, mid-mods, and every flat in between” ), Derrick was determined to build a house that carried echoes of those that he’s known in the past, while fully representing the way he meets the world now. “What a trip to really think about the mood of our past houses, to decide how we want to feel now and to choose what to bring with us from past vibes. This place feels like just that – an integrated expression of my past houses with my current self.”
“Cody is definitely an extraordinary client,” notes Mooney. “His program was surprising in that he was less concerned about resale value than a typical client, even though he is a savvy real estate professional. Sophisticated design and livable experience were prioritized instead, and that was refreshing for us.”
One aspect of Derrick’s program that evinces his individuality was his decision to blur the boundaries between his bedroom and bathroom. A deep tub lies parallel to his bed and a double vanity sits directly behind the headboard, with two mirrors suspended above. His individuality is evident, too, in the pieces he’s used to furnish the home. There are Hans Wegner Wishbone chairs, a sizable sectional from Molteni&C and all sorts of random bits – antlers, mismatched candlesticks and lots of plants in a variety of pots. Two very large, old-school crystal chandeliers hang high in the double-height living space. “we salvaged them from an estate in Milan,” relates Derrick. “Sounds fancy. They actually are. I love mixing natural, earthy materials with old glam. Same with art – modern mixed with classic. Houses are such a good opportunity to balance ourselves out. A little grounding, a little dreaming, a little play, a lot of mood.”
Photography by Matt Winquist and Kerri Fukui.
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