SIDEWINDER

Wooden deck and steps attached to a beige house with brown trim, surrounded by grass and trees.

Wooden deck attached to a house with stairs and railing, surrounded by trees and greenery.

Wooden outdoor deck with stairs and railings, planters with greenery, beige siding of a house, and surrounding trees and bushes.

Wooden deck with railing and stone steps leading to a house, with greenery in the background.

Wooden deck with stairs and railing, adjacent to stone steps and green plants.

Wooden deck with stairs and railing leading to a house, surrounded by grass and trees.

Wooden deck with stairs and planter boxes attached to a beige-house exterior, surrounded by greenery and a stone retaining wall.

Wooden staircase with planters, greenery against textured siding, outdoor setting.

Wooden outdoor staircase with handrails next to a house in a garden setting.

Wooden deck with built-in planter boxes filled with green plants and a small staircase.

Wooden deck with stairs, planter with green plant, and horizontal house siding.

Wooden porch with stairs and railing, next to a house with siding, surrounded by trees.

Wooden deck and stairs with railing, adjacent to house with window, surrounded by greenery and trees.

Wooden outdoor deck stairs with railing descending into a backyard with trees and greenery.

Wooden outdoor stairs with railing, surrounded by trees and a mulched ground.

Wooden deck and stairs with railing, adjacent to planter box and surrounded by garden mulch and trees.

Wooden staircase with railing leading to an elevated deck surrounded by greenery, with a rustic white shed and trees in the background.

Wooden footbridge with curved railings and steps near a wooden fence and weathered building.

Wooden outdoor staircase with handrail and nearby shed.

Wooden backyard deck with steps, railing, and adjacent garden area with stone retaining wall and plants.

Wooden deck with steps and railings in a backyard setting, surrounded by grass and trees, with a view of neighboring houses.

Wooden deck with stairs, railing, and planter box in a backyard

A small house with light-colored siding and a new wooden deck. The deck has stairs with a railing and planters on the sides. There are shrubs and trees in the background, and stone steps leading to the lawn area.

Wooden deck and stairs attached to a house with a door, surrounded by greenery.

Ann Arbor, MI (2023)
Project Size: 200 SF

Sidewinder is an exterior renovation and addition to a home in the Ann Arbor Historic District, transforming a modest secondary entry stair into a cascading sequence of deck spaces.

Navigating the space between a sloped topography and the multi-level datums of the existing home, the intervention comprises cedar-clad stairs and landings that produce a single linear axis for circulation and additional spaces for repose and gardening. In addition to its programmatic and formal intentions, the project serves to remediate rotten framing, a defunct underground cistern, and crumbling foundation and ledgewall masonry.

The project explores a tactile and expressive design vocabulary in the introduction of a new balustrade. Characterized by a continuous thickened rail that creates a usable ledge surface for tools or drinks. Its exaggerated profile accentuates the terracing of the landings below. Sweeping across the top of this rail, a winding handhold further elaborates the gesture of the balustrade while introducing a dynamic, haptic experience.

Opposite the guardrail, the deck is bordered by a series of elements designed to buffer between deck and house. Along the stair, this buffer is created through elevated planter boxes that integrate garden and circulation within the shared language of terraced cedar-clad surfaces. At the lower landing, the planter box transitions to a low baluster which plays multiple “buffering” roles. Visually, it frames the new foundation wall, celebrating its texture while providing a layering effect that eases the contrast between the elevation’s old and new masonry materials. In a tactile sense, this baluster provides a more comfortable surface for the body, while introducing another functional ledge on which tools and objects can be placed.

The notion of “terracing” that permeates the project ultimately extends from the deck into the yard itself, where new stone retaining ledges define three discreet levels, which are differentiated materially as mulch, lawn, and gravel zones. In clearing and codifying these discrete spaces, they become stages for a variety of yard and garden activity, all visible and accessible from the new deck.

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This project was completed in collaboration with:

Travis Williams - Principal in charge, Project Manager
Kasey Vliet - Construction Manager
Elpis Wong - Design
Trevor Herman Hilker - Design
George Crnkovich - Lead Carpenter
Joel Masinde - Journeyperson Carpenter
Cody England - Journeyperson Carpenter

Structural Consultant - SDI Structures

Construction Team: In Parallel Architects + Builders, LLC (General Contractor), Van Ingen Construction

Jane Messinger Photography - Finished Photography