KAHN RESIDENCE

The Kahn house in Lima, Ohio at first glance harks back to nineteenth-century Gorhic Revival. The board-and-batten siding and the pointed central gable seem as quaintly all-American as Grant Wood's famous "American Gothic" painting. The symmetrical chimneys, the curious oval windows, and the high porch with pairs of skinny posts evoke the past.
Yet this is no literal reproduction. Despite latticework, divided-light windows, and other elements associated with a distant time, this is a modern house—abstracted, pared down, and painted pure white rather than the earth colors that A.J. Downing advocated 150 years ago. The continual back-and-forth between strikingly modern and old-and-familiar is what makes Hugh Newell Jacobsens design so intriguing.

The view toward the entrance makes the house look as if it's not terribly large. But when the long and elaborate side of (he house comes into view, a different character emerges. Suddenly the house looms larger, becoming more of a mansion than a Gothic cottage. With its two-story bays, still more chimneys, and its powerful symmetry, the Kahn house recalls the grand houses of the past—though the impression is given an unusual modern twist by the squaring off of all the chimneys and by the placement of a skylight at the roof's peak.
The contrast between modern touches and an older character pervades the interior as well. Transparency and openness dominate some views, but other perspectives feel more traditional. This is a house of contradictions, provoking varied sensations—in one moment closed in, and in the next instant wide open and filled with light.