Kitchen Tour Spectacular

Dan Smith, Allied Member ASID
150 Portland Ave. #305, Minneapolis
The old Whitney Hotel—a former mill built near St. Anthony Falls in 1879—is undergoing a major loft transformation that will eventually be the upscale Whitney Landmark Residences. Dan Smith, a designer with the Italian kitchen company Valcucine, created a progressive, modern kitchen in a model unit.

Valcucine is known for its environmentally friendly, technologically advanced, and ergonomically correct kitchens, and Smith incorporated these features in his design. But to avoid looking like an industrial kitchen, Smith chose a rich color palette for the wood cabinets, which have a dark, wenge-looking finish. An inlaid aluminum pinstripe detail on the cabinet faces adds more sophistication, and the upper cabinets lift and stay up to prevent the repetitive motion of opening and closing doors. Most of the lower cabinets contain four-foot-wide drawers, and the drawer beneath the sink features a built-in recycling center.

Unlike the Crystallite main counter, a quartz-based product manufactured by Valcucine, the center island has a stainless steel countertop for an urban feel, and its center channel is equipped with wet and dry storage containers, cutting boards, and a knife rack.

While it’s progressive and modern, the kitchen is far from sterile. “I think there’s a huge misconception that a contemporary kitchen is going to be cold and white and plastic,” Smith says. “But with the wood [cabinets] and stone counters, this kitchen is really sophisticated and really beautiful, but it’s also very contemporary.”
Resources:
Appliances: Alpes cooktop, Miele dishwasher, Liebherr refrigerator
Cabinets: Valcucine
Countertops: Crystallite, by Valcucine
Flooring: Tanek Inc.

David Heide, Allied Member ASID, Associate, AIA
788 Goodrich Ave., St. Paul
Even though the previous kitchen in this home was fairly new, a remodel was necessary due to poor insulation and cramped spaces. The homeowners were doing a complete addition to the basement and first and second floors, and designer David Heide looked at the project plans to incorporate an open kitchen with adjacent breakfast area that was in keeping with the spirit of the 1880s home.

Throughout the area, painted v-groove wainscoting brings back the Old World feel, as does the Queen Anne sash-style stained glass in the window behind the sink. A modern rendition of a butler’s pantry links the kitchen and dining area, complete with a china cabinet and large walk-in food pantry. Also important to retain the 1880s feel was Heide’s goal of keeping everything in scale. “Part of this project is our philosophy to create spaces that are appropriate in scale to the existing house,” he says. “It’s not this 1880s cottage in front with a huge great room in back. We’re looking to further the aesthetic of the house in keeping with its proportion.”

The end result is a compact kitchen with a clean-cut floor plan. “The traffic circulation is such that people can pass through the room from the back door and have access to the house without disturbing the cook, who is safely protected by the island,” Heide says.
Resources:
Appliances: Wolf cooktop and wall oven, Sub-Zero refrigerator
Cabinets: Custom, designed by David Heide Design Studio
Countertops: Harvest gold granite from Midwest Tile, Marble, & Granite
Flooring: Maple
Lighting: Custom, designed by David Heide Design Studio