A Legacy Continues

Written by Jessen O’Brien / Photography by Alise O’Brien

When you move into a century home, it can often feel as if you’re becoming a part of the house’s story. But if walls could talk, this Ladue home would say that its legacy has always been entangled with that of its current homeowners, who took up residence in 1991.

“The house was built by my great aunt as a wedding gift for one of her children,” says one of the homeowners. When it went up for sale nearly 70 years later, “a lot of people came through; there was talk of tearing it down.”

That would have been a shame. The 1924 Spanish Mission-style home was designed by Raymond E. Maritz and W. Ridgley Young, a duo responsible for more than 160 of the city’s most significant residences, many of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

R.G. Ross Construction Co. worked with Mitchell Wall to build this airy glass conservatory.

Originally built in the shape of a cross -- allowing each room to maximize views of the surrounding landscape -- the home gained a wing in the 1990s to accommodate a growing family. This created a U-shaped courtyard where the old and new parts of the home met. Decades later, it would also create the perfect opportunity to establish a new entertaining space: a two-story glass conservatory that graciously blends indoor and outdoor living.

While the conservatory is notably modern, it is thoughtfully designed to reference period-appropriate architecture. “You can’t ignore the past when working on century homes,” says Tom Wall, the project’s architect and owner of St. Louis firm Mitchell Wall Architecture and Design. “At the 1851 World’s Fair in London, there was a building called the Crystal Palace, an enormous wrought iron and glass structure, that we drew from for this contemporary addition.”

The result is a “functional, flexible space that allows the [homeowners] to do so many things throughout the day,” says Rachael Dolan, Architectural and Interior Designer at Mitchell Wall. “There’s a bar for when they have parties and two tables that are normally in the space. There’s also a seating area they can move off to the side to allow for dancing or family dinners.”

Four wrought iron chandeliers from Lights of Tuscany were hung in the vaulted space, connecting it to the main home without obscuring the view of the gardens.

There were two motivators for the project: a new marriage had grown the family further, creating a need for extra living space, while at the same time the homeowner wanted to create a spot for “learning and sharing ideas to make the world a better place” where they could hold events.

“At first we thought we might put a conservatory on the other side, where there’s a patio,” says the homeowner. “When Tom came over he walked around the house and said, ‘This is the perfect spot’ because it was the only place where the old house and the addition connected.”

Putting the conservatory at the nexus of these two wings transformed the flow and function of the home. Previously, the only way to travel between the old and new parts of the house was through the kitchen, which became a high-traffic corridor, especially during family gatherings or when entertaining. Enclosing the courtyard alleviated the pressure on the kitchen, creating a new space that could seamlessly serve as an extension of both the informal and formal entertaining spaces.

An intricate tile by Mosaic House brings together the orange and blue shades that can be found throughout the home.

“What I love is that not only does the conservatory connect the first floor spaces, but also it connects to the second floor because of the two balconies,” says Dolan. “One is off of their master suite so that they can enjoy the beautiful view even from their bedroom.”

Although you would never know it, those balconies also hint at a challenge at the core of the project. In addition to creating a new entertaining space and improving the home’s flow, Wall and Dolan worked to establish continuity between the older portion of the home -- with its beautiful stucco work, rosette windows, and thoughtful details -- and the previous addition, which departs somewhat stylistically from the original architecture. For example, the second floor of the old wing has arched windows with blue shutters while the new wing has rectangular ones topped with wooden headers. And while the original wing had a balcony overlooking the courtyard-turned-conservatory, the addition across it did not.

The conservatory and patio connect the original home, to the left, with the previous addition on the right.

“We wound up taking that historical element and wrapping it around to have communication between the two spaces,” says Wall. “Every project has its own vocabulary. In order to maintain communication, you have to make sure that each part of the house is speaking the same language. Here, we were almost creating a translator to speak between the two parts of the house.”

Similarly, Mitchell Wall continued a dental detail from the original house to further connect the spaces. The dental work also serves to hold grass shades that can climb up to the addition’s peak to filter the light, allowing the sun to illuminate the space without overheating it. Geothermal heating and cooling were designed to sustainably control the temperature, ensuring that the space is as comfortable as the rest of the home even as the glass walls make it feel like part of the outdoors.

“We went out of our way to make sure it looked like an outdoor space that had been enclosed,” says Wall. “That really ties the space to contemporary European design, where you see these 800-year-old buildings being used for modern life. They don’t try to reinvent the wheel -- they work within the confines of the existing structures. We went an extra step: creating a new balcony, repeating the colonnades, and even adding dental work in the rooflines to make this feel like it’s an enclosed exterior space.”

Details like the sound of the water feature were carefully considered to create a peaceful environment for the homeowners.

The team also used color to unite the home. “The Sicis tile that’s in the fountain backsplash contains this really beautiful iridescent blue that ties it into the existing shutters and other elements that are already in the home,” says Dolan. “It’s a very calm, beautiful color, especially when you balance it with the exterior stucco which is a lovely yellowish orange.”

The fountain itself is mounted on the exterior wall of an elevator which was added to the home to improve its functionality, but which disrupted the conservatory’s symmetry. “I don’t believe in diminishing things,” says Wall. “Instead of trying to hide it, remove it, or work around it, we worked with it.”

“The homeowners wanted a space to entertain in, but they also wanted it to be a calm space,” says Dolan. “We put in elements like the fountain, adding a little planter detail and even considering the type of water flow to make sure it would create a soothing sound within the space while they sipped their morning coffee…a lot of times those little details can make or break space, especially when you have such a beautiful caliber of home. With each idea we presented to them, the homeowners got more and more excited.”

“When you have a passionate client, it makes a huge difference,” adds Wall. “It’s an intimate relationship.” Similarly, the homeowners noted “that the relationships we had throughout were really good” and praised the open communication, which allowed the project to run so smoothly they were even able to have guests stay without the construction interfering.

The Spanish Mission-style home was built in 1924 by Martiz & Young.

The result is another lasting addition to the legacy of the home their family built, one which enables them to better enjoy the beauty of the property’s gardens. “We now use this space more than our family room,” says the homeowner. “We can see the outdoors, and then we have running water and the light of the sky. We’ve seen the storms, the rain, and the snow slowly cover the windows…It just feels so good in here.”