{"id":23582,"date":"2020-07-28T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-28T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/?p=23582"},"modified":"2020-07-28T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-28T13:00:00","slug":"evolving-a-home-over-four-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/2020\/07\/28\/evolving-a-home-over-four-decades\/","title":{"rendered":"Continuities and Transformations: Evolving a Home Over Four Decades"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This story first appeared in the 2020 issue of Designlife Magazine.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Tesar has been designing his home over the past 40 years. Since 1979 he has been collaborating with former students from the College of Design to shape the gradual evolution of his house to \u201chome.\u201d He embraces building as a process, rather than a product, interwoven with the lives of its inhabitants, its place and those who built it, and his home is a true reflection of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The house in 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tesar moved to Raleigh to join the faculty of the College of Design in 1975. In their search for a home, Tesar and his wife, Holly, chose to live in an existing neighborhood within walking distance of campus and bought a small ordinary 1930s house with \u201cpotential for improvement\u201d on Rosemont Avenue. Soon afterwards, Tesar ran into Harwell Hamilton Harris at school, who advised, \u201cDon\u2019t do anything right away. Live in the house for a while and observe how it looks and feels during the different seasons. Your ideas will be better for it.\u201d Tesar followed his advice, \u201cobserving\u201d the house for more than four decades, gradually making transformations over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur first step was to make the entrance more inviting,\u201d Tesar says, \u201cadding a front deck, wider entry steps and renovation of the foyer. We enlisted the help of Tom Brown, a talented former student, who\u2019d become a builder. It was a pleasure to
work with Tom. We have worked out many challenging details together over the years, such as developing a simple way to extend the house\u2019s skimpy roof overhangs. By sistering one-by-fours onto the rafters and new two-by-six extensions, we simul-taneously created a deep overhang and decorative roof edge that catches the sun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The house today<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fresh interpretation of the exposed rafter tails you see in the neighborhood,\u201d Brown explains. \u201cI relish developing details like these and always viewed working on Paul and Holly\u2019s house as a sort of \u2018detail laboratory.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next transformation \u201ctook a village\u201d to build, involving a whole range of former design students. Brown, Russ Stephenson, Patrick Ryan and Greg Paul all contributed at different times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe house sat like a small turd on a big piece of land,\u201d Tesar says bluntly, \u201cunrelated to anything around it. I wanted to find ways to tie it to the site.\u201d So, in 1985, he chose to dramatically extend the house out, creating courtyards and gardens surrounded by low walls, columns and trellises. \u201cFinally,\u201d Tesar says, \u201cthis \u2018object\u2019 was becoming more of an \u2018environment\u2019 woven into place with a series of connected indoor and outdoor rooms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t until two decades later that Tesar focused his attention on a screened porch and dining room re-do, collaborating with former student Patrick Ryan, a highly skilled craftsman and builder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cPatrick was unusually gifted and a good friend. I greatly respected his talents,\u201d Tesar says. \u201cUnfortunately, he is no longer with us, but his work remains. We made it a priority to design our new bedroom around the beautiful custom cabinets he made for us 15 years ago.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown recalls, \u201cPat could come up with 10 solutions to any detail crisis. Paul and I were in on all of these deliberations. It was a joyful time. Returning to Rosemont for this latest renovation, I was continually reminded of Patrick. I found endless examples of his genius and craftsmanship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, in 2015, the Tesars saw the necessity to make the house fit for \u201caging in place\u201d and engaged architect Tina Govan, yet another student of Tesar\u2019s, to help with what they hoped would be their final addition: a new master suite and one last remake of the foyer and front porch. For Govan, it was deeply satisfying to collaborate with her close friend and professor on the finale to his lifelong work, and to work with old friend and classmate Brown to build it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have such a long history with Paul, Holly, and 804 Rosemont Avenue,\u201d Brown says. \u201cDuring this latest renovation, we dismantled the same front entry deck I\u2019d built in the \u201870s, and it was fascinating to see how well it had stood the test of time. It sometimes felt like an archeological dig into my past. While replacing a skylight, I found my old Boy Scout pocket knife that I\u2019d left under the flashing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd it was especially powerful for me,\u201d Brown continues, \u201cto complete the stairway in 2019 that Paul, Patrick, and I had started in 1980. There were unresolved bits that are finally done now, 29 years later. It was like collaborating with my 24-year-old self, something few builders get to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nPaul Tesar House<\/a>