Dwell digs redlurered
A house rehab designed by Minneapolis-based redlurered is featured in the April issue of Dwell. "Keep Your Eye on the Balto" tells the story of entrepreneur Greg Martin's renovation of a "mustard-yellow brick building in Minneapolis' Whittier neighborhood." After months and months of demo work, Martin was left with 2,600 square feet of emptiness in the Balto Building. Not knowing what to do next, he hired redlurered, who came up with a plan for the living spaces.

The Dwell article isn't online, so instead of just summarzing the piece, I asked Martha McQuade of redlurered a few questions about the project. "The concept was to remove all of the interior elements to expose the overall volume of space, and then what was put back in was concentrated in the middle, away from the exterior walls," McQuade says. "This allows the long, tall proportion of the existing building to be read on the interior. It also takes maximum advantage of the existing windows which are quite large and have a tall narrow proportion."

Light colored wood and translucent polycarbonate were chosen for the walls, partitions and lofted floor space. "The idea was to make the insertion feel like a light colored piece of furniture in the space -- as if it were placed there, not attached to the structure)," McQuade says. The designers on the project were Connie Lindor and Scott Muellner, also of redlurered.

This is a project I'd love to see in person. Maybe someday.