At One With The Trees

In Architects’ Alley, nature is a backdrop to everyday life.

- Amy Burger

If you happen to be driving down the winding stretch of West Adams Avenue in Kirkwood’s Sugar Creek Valley on a summer day, you likely won’t see the homes nestled in the woods on the bluffs that frame both sides of the road. Only in winter, when the trees have lost their leaves, are most of these architectural gems visible to passersby.

Recognized as a “neighborhood of distinction” by the Kirkwood Landmarks Commission, the area is unofficially known as Architects’ Alley because of the number of architects who’ve settled there, designing a smattering of houses meant to blend into the landscape. Among them is a striking Midcentury Modern home belonging to Randy and Joy Miltenberger.

“Architects came here because it’s in close but at the same time you’re out in the woods,” says Randy, principal of Miltenberger Architects.

The Miltenbergers’ home, built in 1958 on nearly 3 acres of woods, is believed to have been designed by a local architect named John L. Haff. Randy and Joy bought it 25 years ago and are its third owners. When the house came on the market, the couple’s real estate agent suggested that they take a look at it. They say they were taken aback by its 1950s time capsule state.

“That is cool now but not so much when you grew up with it,” says Joy, “but Randy had a vision. He transformed the house.”

They started by building a nearly seamless addition in 1996 that would reconfigure the home, which features floor-to-ceiling windows across the back and sides, blurring the line between the outdoors and the interior. They relocated the entrance to create a distinct foyer that leads into a small study overlooking a tree-filled covered atrium on the lower level.