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Omaha Magazine

The Wigert Residence

Dec 05, 2017 02:40PM ● By Alex Priest
On a winding drive, in the northwest Omaha neighborhood of Hidden Creek, sits a residential showcase of contemporary green architecture. The newest addition to the neighborhood is Christine and Ben Wigert’s sleek home.

Designed by award-winning architect Randy Brown, the structure angularly unfolds down a grassy lot with the cookie-cutter designs of suburban Omaha strategically nestled behind a grove of dense foliage.

For seven years prior to building this residence, the Wigerts had been living in a starter home. By 2015, they were ready for a change—“to start the next chapter of our adventures,” Christine says. Thus began their hunt for the perfect new home. Having green space with a view was a priority, and this quickly took them from looking downtown to Dundee to further and further west.

One day Ben saw a home that Brown, his friend, had designed in a new neighborhood called Hidden Creek (near 134th Avenue and Fort Street, close to Standing Bear Lake). They had seen images of this neighborhood before and heard it was out of their price range. However, Christine says they reached out to Brown on Facebook, and “he replied almost instantly and was excited to hear of our interest.” The design process began almost immediately. “After a few e-mail exchanges and sharing of prototypes he designed,” she says, “we were hooked on the idea of working with him.”

After the initial messages, Brown presented several designs with floor-to-ceiling windows for views onto the creek and a rooftop deck. Then one day, Christine says, “Randy surprised us with an entirely new blueprint for a very unique home. He said that after working with us for a few months, he had created a new vision for our home based on getting to know us.” Hidden Creek and their soon-to-be neighbors were also “perfect because the modern eco-living captured both of our favorite design styles and united us around our love for modern architecture.”

Dark wood floors wrap the space while compact nooks, angular supports, and wall cutouts are scattered through the spaces. There are few, if any, 90-degree angle walls— even some of the floors are ramped. The residence is one large open floor plan with the living room attached to both the kitchen and dining room.

The result is a 4,000-square-foot one-of-a-kind structure clad in vertical charcoal-gray siding. It is not only user-specific, but site-specific. Cantilevered spaces and open-ended decks complement the fusion of outdoor and indoor space. Strategic views are emphasized with a flood of indirect and natural light, and a 2,000-square-foot rooftop deck (with space for future gardening boxes) looks onto the wild grasses, forest, and creek adjacent to the building.

The interior design matches and extends many of the tropes found on the exterior. Every space in the two-bedroom home is unique, and nothing is left unconsidered. Dark wood floors wrap the space while compact nooks, angular supports, and wall cutouts are scattered through the spaces. There are few, if any, 90-degree angle walls—even some of the floors are ramped. The residence is one large open floor plan with the living room attached to both the kitchen and dining room. The open concept and high- lofted ceilings “allow us to share the space at all times,” Christine says.

Although the home is now complete and they have moved in, with Brown’s open-ended design, the Wigerts say that there is still “lots to dream about” on both the interior and exterior of their contemporary home.

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Visit moderneco-homes.com to learn more about Hidden Creek.

This article was printed in the November/December edition of Omaha Home.

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