DREAM GARAGES

DREAM

G A R A G E S

MF Architecture designed Autohaus, the Texas residence of two former race car drivers who collect vintage cars and teach auto restoration, with ample space to house and work on vehicles.

Sleek, modern home “showrooms” let car collectors put automotive eye candy on display.

OPPOSITE: LUKE JACOBS. THIS PAGE: CASEY WOODS by Shaun Tolson

Compact living quarters are located above an open area for gathering and displaying cars at Autohaus. SEVEN YEARS ago, when Cullum Homes set out to build a model residence in the Mountain Shadows community near Scottsdale, Arizona, the firm’s architects discovered that the site rested on an ancient river basin with very soft dirt—a rarity for that area of the Southwest. The team realized they could design a home with a traditional basement, which is unusual in Scottsdale and offered intriguing possibilities.

To make the most of them, Cullum’s architects designed a showroom-style, subterranean garage where a homeowner could store half a dozen automobiles, which could be easily transferred to the space via a scissor lift from the residence’s main three-car garage above.

The basement is equipped with a home theater, a lounge-like bar space, and a billiards area, while collector cars can be parked on display in a sleek, minimalist gallery behind fire-rated glass partitions. According to Lindsay Cullum-Colwell, Cullum’s managing principal and creative director, they nicknamed the feature a “car bar.” It wasn’t long before the firm began designing other homes in the area equipped with car bars of their own.

“It’s a casual space that brings people together and uses the vehicles as art for the room,” Cullum-Colwell says. “It’s about offering the homeowners an opportunity to display their hobby in their home and to share their collection with friends and guests.”

Welcome to the age of showroom-style residential garages. Although such spaces have existed for decades, they’ve gotten a design upgrade. Only a decade ago, the “in” look for dream garages involved neon signage, antique advertising paraphernalia, and other automotive memorabilia. Today dream garages adhere to a less-ismore philosophy.

“The way clients speak about what they want in their homes post-pandemic is much more personal,” says Cullum-Colwell. “It’s less about seeing something on the cover of a magazine or what their friends have in

The house celebrates the owner’s interests, luxury cars and outdoor adventures, blurring boundaries between indoors and out. A terrace extends from the auto gallery, offering views of L.A. West Hollywood’s Collywood House, by Olson Kundig, overlooks the Sunset Strip. their homes. It’s much more about how they want to live and entertain. The car bar is a way to create a living experience that’s unique to a homeowner who enjoys car collecting.” Olson Kundig, an architecture firm with offices in Seattle and New York, takes a similar approach with its clients. “We’re asking questions about their lifestyle, what’s important to them,” says Kevin Kudo-King, the firm’s principal and owner. “We always want the architecture to recede and defer to how people want to live in their houses and the things they value. We don’t want to overpower those things.” This philosophy dictates Olson Kundig’s approach to designing showroom-style residential garages, of which the firm has completed five in the past eight years. The firm’s most publicized garage project was for a 15,600-square-foot estate in West Hollywood with almost 7,000 square feet of terraces, gardens, and pools. The garage not only lets in natural light but is connected to an open-air sundeck where cars can be parked. It is also equipped with museum-grade lighting, another emerging trend in dream garages.

“Our clients who collect art live with their art every day,” says Kudo-King. “Now the car is becoming more of an art object that you want to appreciate for itself.

“A lot of architects try to do too much,” he explains. “Oftentimes, it’s about knowing when to stop and not overpower. This lets you appreciate each of the cars and how they relate to each other.”

In a much different space, Olson Kundig designed a car barn in Oklahoma with an interior catwalk that runs along the perimeter of the barn and connects to an elevated gathering space for entertaining. Kudo-King predicts that the elevated vantage point for viewing vehicles will become a trend. “With artwork or sculpture, that’s really important—to appreciate it from all sides,” he says. “And collector cars really are beautiful objects from every angle.”

BUILDING AN OASIS

When it comes to designing high-end garages, architect Patrick Ahearn specializes in car barns and carriage houses. As a collector with a considerable number of classic German sportscars and American automobiles from the 1950s and ’60s, he recognizes the significance of dedicated spaces to appreciate and maintain them. Although Ahearn designs homes all around the country, the majority of his work is rooted in New England, where zoning restrictions and lot sizes, not to mention historic neighborhood restraints and stipulations, limit the size of new builds. Because of that, carriage houses or “car barns” have become the preferred venue for dedicated garage spaces, providing unique and separate living spaces for homeowners to enjoy.

“These buildings become an oasis on your property,” he explains. “The age of the McMansion is over, which is good. Now it’s about scale and about creating a sense of place. You can take a large estate and break it into pieces and, in doing so, you’re creating interesting spaces between the buildings. Those spaces can become as important as the buildings themselves.”

Most of Ahearn’s carriage house and car barn projects start at $500 per square foot. Needless to say, these automotive enclaves, which can be designed to double as entertaining venues, typically require a sizable investment. The cost, he says, is a reflection of what clients are seeking.

“People are looking for a really high level of fit and finish,” he says. “They want to have a timeless space. Even though it’s new construction, these buildings can look like old, restored carriage houses from the ’20s or

“The car is becoming more of an art object that you want to appreciate for itself.”

—Kevin Kudo-King, Olson Kundig, architects

A car barn designed by Patrick Ahearn honors traditional New England architectural aesthetics.

Beadboard walls and brick floors add character to the carriage house at Carisbrooke, a home in Wellesley Farms, Massachusetts, designed by Patrick Ahearn.

“These buildings become an oasis on your property.” —Patrick Ahearn, architect

’30s. There’s a sense of implied history that people really want.” Across the country, Oregon-based Vault specializes in showroom garages that start at $100,000 and typically reach a mid-six-figure price point when all is said and done. However, “what makes a great garage isn’t how much money [it costs] or how much stuff you can cram into it,” says company owner and founder Chad Haas. The best gauge of success is a space “that makes family and friends say ‘wow’ when they walk in—one that reflects the homeowner’s passions, interests, or personality and that has architectural continuity with the rest of the home.”

For example, Haas designed a garage for a Texas client who wanted a space to display his collection of MercedesBenz, Ferrari, and McLaren sportscars alongside his collectible guitars. Custom-built cabinets were installed to house amplifiers and loudspeakers, while polished black flooring, sleek lighting, and a select few porcelain and enamel neon signs custom-made to reflect classic European sportscar logos added a dash of color.

“I tailor my designs toward my clients’ design aesthetic or passions,” says Haas, who takes on just a handful of

The gambrel carriage house takes its cues from the main home. Second-story windows help flood the interior with natural light.

dream garage projects each year because of the amount of time and energy they require. “None of the projects that I’ve done look like any of the others. I want to curate things that are highly personalized to my client. My job is to give them something they never would have expected or envisioned on their own.”

PASSIONS DRIVE DESIGN

Based in Austin, Texas, MF Architecture burst onto the upscale residential garage scene with the design and construction of Autohaus, an Austin residence that is

as much a working garage for a pair of former race car drivers as it is a traditional home. The house features compact living quarters that seemingly float above an open garage area, with views into the garage from the second floor.

“We try to challenge clients by asking them to give us some latitude to rethink what the living spaces in a home could be,” says Matt Fajkus, the firm’s principal. “Often we begin to unravel and get to the bottom of what most interests our clients—whether it’s pieces of art or cars— and that will influence the entire design process.”

MF Architecture specializes in modernism, which according to Fajkus makes it easier for them to create homes with museum-like garages. Much of their design work explores the dichotomy between solids and voids, where a stone wall transitions into a glass-paneled section and vice versa. Recently their architects channeled that stylistic signature into creating a residence known as the Octant House, where the homeowner’s two noteworthy collector cars are displayed inside a glass-enclosed showroom—a space where glass walls meet at the corners of the room and few other building materials are visible.

“It sounds contradictory, but sometimes the best architecture becomes the backdrop,” Fajkus says. “When you design and build a detail well enough, it kind of disappears, and that allows the cars themselves to become the actual showpieces.”

The glass-walled car showroom at this residence in Pacific Palisades, designed by Abramson Architects, shows off cars as pieces of art.

Car enthusiast Patrick Ahearn designed this 4,000-square-foot car barn in Martha’s Vineyard for his collection.