Jarring juxtapositions of technology and design might work for the sets in a Tim Burton movie, but they usually don’t for someone’s home. Many custom installers find that adding high-tech gear to an older house with a well-defined architectural style can be daunting because the technology can clash with or overpower the traditional design.
That was just one of the challenges facing John Baumeister — president of Baumeister Electronic Architects in Niles, Illinois — when he was asked to install a home theater in the basement of an expansive Arts & Crafts home in Glencoe, a North Shore suburb of Chicago. But he was prepared for it, since he had installed an elaborate audio/video system in the same house six years earlier. He was less prepared for the sight that greeted him when he arrived: the substantial house was now perched precariously on stilts.
"It was essentially being supported by scaffolding, and there was a bulldozer literally under the house, excavating," Baumeister recalls. Because building codes prevented the owners from expanding out, they decided to dig down to make room for a dedicated home theater, game room, and wine cellar.
The house, which was originally a two-bedroom summer cottage, had undergone several renovations throughout its history, resulting in a rambling design that Baumeister calls “Escher-esque.” It was set up as a mother/daughter home when the current owners — Matt, a business consultant, and Erin, his aerospace-engineer wife — bought the property. They’ve since done extensive work to rid the house of its disparate architectural styles, slowly returning it to its Arts & Crafts roots. So it’s not surprising that Baumeister’s team worked closely not only with Matt and Erin, but with their architect/design firm, Stephen Knutson Design of Evanston, Illinois.
For the installation six years ago, Baumeister’s main objectives were to install a whole-house A/V system and to give the owners control over the lights, the heating and cooling system, the phones, and the computer network. Using freestanding Crestron 1500- and 1700-series touchpanels and in-wall CT1000 touchpads throughout the house gave the owners the control they wanted, with four zones of heating and cooling, extensive light controls, and the ability to select any audio or video source from almost every room. Three Elan 660 amps power the whole-house audio system, while video goes through a switcher via Cat-5 cables to the various rooms. And because the basement foundation was being poured while his crew was working in the house, Baumeister was able to lay conduit in the concrete and run extra pipes and wiring that made installing the basement home theater less arduous.
SUBTERRANEAN BLUES
The four-year span between the basement’s construction and the start of the home theater gave the homeowners ample time to consider what they wanted. “Both my wife and I are comfortable with technology, but we don’t have electronics just for the sake of having them,” Matt explains. “We want to use what we put in, and we really appreciate the convenience features that come with high-tech gear.” He mentions the Crestron lighting system as an example. “We have about 150 light switches in the house — and having kids means that at any given time, a lot of the lights are on. I can’t tell you how great it is to be able to hit the Night Time setting on the touchpanel in my bedroom and turn off all the lights.”
In brainstorming the basement, the family wanted it to be appropriate for both their entertainment and for socializing with friends. They designated separate areas for the home theater, children’s game room, and wine cellar, but the home theater itself was designed to be a multi-use space. A stage would be built in front of the screen and a wet bar added to the back of the room so the family could have karaoke nights and the kids could dance and perform plays.
But first, there was a more immediate challenge to tackle. Once the concrete was in place, there was less room than originally intended. This meant that freestanding speakers weren’t an option since they’d take up too much floor space. And right in the middle of the room was a large wood pillar, built to hide a load-bearing steel post.
Baumeister took advantage of the awkward pillar by placing a Barco CineVersum 120 front projector up against it near the ceiling, almost completely hiding the projector from view. The high-definition three-chip DLP projector was mated with a fixed 8-foot-wide Da-Lite screen.
Baumeister used in-wall speakers from Genelec, a brand better known for its professional studio monitors. The sleek AIW26 satellites (bass-reflex models with a 3/4-inch tweeter and a 7-inch woofer) need just 3 inches of space behind them and come with their own power amps (120 watts each for the woofer and tweeter), which reside in the main component closet. The two front speakers flank the micro-perforated screen, while the center speaker is placed behind it. Two surround speakers are mounted on either side near the back of the seating area with two more in the ceiling of the bar area at the back of the room, creating a 7.1-channel system. Bass thrills are delivered by a pair of 10-inch Sunfire Solitaire subwoofers, which Baumeister hid in pockets beneath the stage and covered with fabric.
Lexicon’s sophisticated MC-8 surround sound preamp/processor serves as the brains of the system, which is controlled by a Wi-Fi-enabled Crestron TPMC-10 tablet. Besides operating the home theater, the family can also use the tablet to access their computer network.
FUN AND GAMES
The sophisticated karaoke system is fed by discs stored in a DVD changer. The audio is routed to the surround sound system (with reverb!) while the lyrics are sent to an LCD TV atop a cart near the stage. Wireless microphones make it possible for performers to move freely about the stage, and a digital camcorder mounted near the ceiling captures all the antics so guests can leave with DVD mementos of the evening. The camera also allows the karaoke shows to be seen live on any TV in the house.
Adjacent to the home theater is the game room, which has a foosball table, videogame consoles, two 38-inch Loewe Aconda direct-view HDTVs, and Sonance ceiling speakers. The kids can watch TV and movies in the room as well as use the separate sets for two-player competitions.
Many of the theater’s sources are shared with the upstairs family entertainment room and are hidden in closets upstairs. But there’s also a small rack in the basement for the projector’s outboard processor/scaler, the seven Genelec speaker amplifiers, the Lexicon processor, a Crestron ST Tune AM/FM tuner, a Sony DVD recorder, and a microphone preamp for the karaoke setup.
TEAMWORK
As impressive as the gear is, what really makes the home theater stunning is how seamlessly the electronics are integrated into the room’s Arts & Crafts design. This can be attributed to the close working relationship between Baumeister’s team and the architects, and to the architects’ attention to period details.
"We get involved with a lot of older homes,” says Steve Liska of Stephen Knutson Design. “And we like to make new construction blend in seamlessly with the existing house. One way is to hide the electronics in a master control closet instead of the room they’re serving."
Liska says that the cooperation between the architects and the installers was established early in the planning. “The home theater is built like a box within a box. Its walls were soundproofed and are separate from the basement walls, and the ceiling was dropped down with a special grid system that has rubber gaskets to prevent vibrations from traveling upstairs through the floor joists.” Liska had carpenters build and install the same Arts & Crafts-style crown moldings, baseboard trim, and handrails used upstairs, and he chose complementary colors and fabrics for the basement.
Those details were carried over to the theater’s seating. Liska commissioned Cinematronix to build 11 Mission-style reclining seats. To emphasize the Arts & Crafts feel, the architects had faux beams and soffits created, and they used period fixtures. Also, the stage’s proscenium arch was designed to match the room’s curved ceiling arches. Of course, a home theater designed and executed with these kinds of electronics and this kind of attention to detail doesn’t come cheap. Baumeister pegs it at about $450,000, including construction.
TAKE IT UPSTAIRS
|
THE HOME THEATER
|
| Barco CineVersum 120 high-def DLP front projector Da-Lite Cinema Contour 110-inch screen Escient FireBall DVDM-100 DVD and digital music manager Escient FireBall E2-300 digital music manager 4 Sony DVP-CX777ES 400-disc DVD changers Sony RDR-GX7 DVD recorder Mitsubishi HSU-747 VCR 2 DirecTV HR10-250 satellite receivers with TiVo Lexicon MC-8 preamp/processor Crestron ST-Tune AM/FM tuner 7 Genelec AIW26 powered in-wall speakers 2 Sunfire Solitaire 10 subwoofers Crestron TPMC-10 Wi-Fi touchpanel controller ProVideo CVC-870EX digital camcorder VocoPro Karaoke system |
"Initially, we thought we’d be coming in there for a retrofit,” Baumeister remembers. “But to our — and the builder’s — surprise, the owners wound up gutting a lot of things, and it turned into a major project. Fortunately, we had already run conduit and done a lot of pre-wiring, so the job wasn’t as involved as it could have been.”
Since Matt and Erin had installed new wood floors and period lighting in the family room, they wanted a clean look, so the freestanding surround system had to go. A cabinetmaker built a wall of cherry-wood bookshelves to house a 55-inch Fujitsu plasma HDTV and a Sunfire Solitaire sub, with room for three Sonance Silhouette in-wall speakers. Because it would take months for the cabinetmaker to finish the job, carpenters created a plywood mockup so Baumeister could accurately place and wire the TV and speakers. The source components, which are also used to feed the home theater, and a Denon AVR-4802 receiver were relocated to the master control closet, and a pair of Sonance Virtuoso 834 ceiling speakers were installed for the surrounds.
While the family room and the basement are the main entertainment areas in the house, most of the rooms are wired for audio, and there are flat-panel TVs throughout the house. The master bedroom has its own home theater system, including a 42-inch Fujitsu plasma HDTV that rises on an Inca lift out of a cabinet at the foot of the bed, three PSB M6X6.1 speakers resting on a beam above the bed, and PSB in-wall speakers behind the headboard.
There can be little argument about a project’s success when the owners, installers, and architects all rave about the results — and compliment each other’s contributions. “My wife and I were fairly actively involved because we didn’t want to wind up with an Art Deco theater-in-a-box,” Matt explains. “We’re very happy with the way everything turned out — and after living with the home theater for nine months, I’m finding that we use it even more than I’d imagined.”
If their high expectations for the project were met, it might be because Matt and Erin are “the perfect clients,” Baumeister says. “They’re proactive as well as educated and technologically savvy. But they’re willing to listen and discuss another solution instead of thinking they always have the right answer. Just as important, though, they really wanted to get it right, even if it meant taking more time. While a lot of homeowners just want the job to be done, these people would rather wait a year if it means getting what they want."