Spacious, green living in N. Liberties condo

Outside, Liz Kinder and Tim McDonald's Northern Liberties house is a study in contemporary, sustainable design.

Inside, it's a comfortable home and a mixture of necessities for the couple and their three children.

They call it a rowhouse, despite its obvious difference from the thousands of attached dwellings lining Philadelphia's streets. McDonald, an architect, takes issue with those who don't see the design connection.

"I disagree with the thought that there is little relationship between ours and other duplex rowhouses," he says. "In fact, they're identical in plan, it's really just about 'tweaking' the row and harnessing its inherent wonders, rather than inventing something new."

His very creative "tweaking" produced their condominium as part of the Thin Flats complex, designed by McDonald for a parcel of blighted industrial land near a former meatpacking plant.

The front facade of the couple's two-story, 1,900-square-foot unit is a mosaiclike grid of narrow glass panes and wood-composite panels. Their bedrooms are set into the lower floor.

(An identical unit is located below McDonald and Kinder's, with the bedrooms and living areas reversed, so a neighbor's party disturbs no one's sleep.)

As in a traditional rowhouse, the home receives light from the front window of the living area and the rear bedroom window. But there's no sense of being in a tunnel here. That's because the unit is illuminated from above, courtesy of a skylight in the hall that floods the center space with light.

Opaque glass walls in the bathroom also allow light to pass through.

"The kitchen-bathroom core works as a 'lantern,' with laminated-glass walls sending light to the hallway," McDonald says.

In the main living area, with its painted green walls, the couple's children, ranging in age from 4 to 1, jump and play and just seem to enjoy the space, which stretches from a large kitchen with counter and stools through a dining area and beyond.

One recent morning, as Kinder comforted 3-year-old Steele, who was lying on the couch what with seemed to be flu symptoms, McDonald made coffee for guests at the other end of the living/dining/kitchen continuum. Sound from the two conversations didn't seem to collide within the space's 23-foot length.

Would you call this a great room?

"No, that is too suburban," McDonald says. "It is just a living room, dining area, kitchen."

Here, the walls are lined with photos of family members and drawings by Steele and 4-year-old Jack Peter. (Toby is only a year old.)

Kinder, a professional potter who studied at the Royal College of Art in London, says she "loves glass and color" and was the voice behind the bright walls and the photo display.

"I designed the three bathroom sinks," she says, leading a visitor to large glistening vessels in shades of pale pink, blue, and green.

Behind the dining island, the kitchen wall is covered with shiny white plates adorned with drawings done by the two older children. Kinder fired them in her West Kensington studio, where she works four days a week.

"I give a lot of credit for the decor and color to Liz," McDonald says.

Low bookcases line a long wall leading to a three-foot-wide balcony. They serve not only as a place for storing reading material, but also as a surface for more family photos.

Who designed those bookcases?

"We got them at Ikea, and they fit into this room nicely," McDonald says of the 18-by-23-foot space.

Though set up for casual living, the sun-filled home has a very serious side, too, designed as it was for one of the region's first moderate-cost, green, sustainable buildings.

McDonald, who is certified as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) architect, says he and Kinder typically spend no more than $60 a month on electricity, and less on gas in the winter months.

The water for their backyard garden is provided by a recycling system of rain barrels.

Savings on utility bills were designed into the building: The windows are double-glazed, and the entrance's double layer serves to insulate the unit.

Stairwells are translucent laminated glass, punctuated by locally fabricated, recycled-steel hardware.

"It's about natural light being able to enter as much as it can," McDonald says.

Such touches affect the experience of the interior, he adds.

"If you have this sense that one room is connected to another room by way of light passing through thresholds, you get an appreciation of total space and proportion."

Tell us about your haven by e-mail (and send some digital photographs) at properties@phillynews.

com.

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