Space 2,000 square feet | Rent “less than $2,000”
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Fortunately they had an agreeable landlord and no compunctions about getting their hands dirty. Carter knew her drywall from doing art installations, and as a teenager in Barrington Campbell had helped his father, a Scottish immigrant, build their family home. They added walls to one existing platform to create a semiprivate bedroom, cutting holes for an indoor window and a small opening for the cat, which likes to use the exposed pipes (thoughtfully planked with wood) as a catwalk. Carter installed and finished what she calls “super cheap” oak plywood for the floors (and on a recent visit to Seattle was pleasantly surprised to find the same material lining the escalators at the new Rem Koolhaas public library).
When he built the platform over his work area, Campbell wanted to improve on the ladderlike stairs he’d made for the bedroom, but he didn’t want them to jut out too far into the room. He found the solution in a photo of a ship’s staircase where left and right steps were staggered to make the steep climb easier. Below decks, Campbell’s homemade plate reverb–a huge suspended steel disk that’s used to create reverb during recording sessions–functions as both sculpture and divider. When Campbell’s nephews visit, he says, they like to hang on it and spin around. “They think it’s like Swiss Family Robinson in here,” says Carter.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photos/Robert Murphy.
