Detroit architect designed this $2M Bloomfield Hills home for friends

Editor’s note: This story’s original headline and story incorrectly stated the designer’s work status when he designed this home. This version is correct. 

Detroit architect came out of retirement to design this $2M home for friends

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This striking contemporary house was designed by the esteemed architect Gino Rossetti in 1984 for a prominent Detroit family, who were friends. Its second owners have lived there eight years now, and they have given all its bathrooms a facelift and redone the kitchen fully.

© Michigan Video Tours
The unique exterior stacks three barrel-shaped rolls at a slant above the front entry. Inside, this creates a tall, rolling white ceiling that helps rooms glow with indirect sunlight. The house sits on two lush acres, thick with trees and shrubs.

Otherwise the house is as Rossetti designed it — high drama outside, with pierced circles standing up from its roof that make moving shadows a la Stonehenge. Inside the house is big, flowing and glowing with indirect light.

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Rossetti, reached this week at his home on the Continental Divide in Oregon, talked about building the house. Since 1999, his son Matt Rossetti has been CEO of Rossetti Architects in Detroit, especially known for sports venues.  

© Michigan Video Tours
An aerial view of this home at 1800 Rathmor in Bloomfield Hills. This house by architect Gino Rossetti is on a small private street and features a beautiful landscape, interior, distinctive design, fine new kitchen, finished lower level and a four-car garage.

Rossetti recalled designing this house with his friends. The husband wanted a contemporary house, but the wife did not. Overall, the husband prevailed, he said. “But I was trying to make it a warm contemporary, so she could fit in the things she wanted.”

An unusual detail provides both outside flair and inside glow. From its front view, the roof is interrupted by three big barrel rolls as wide as the building and stacked on a slant. 

Inside, this tall rolling ceiling moves indirect light through the house and softens the acoustics. 

“There’s a white glow that comes from glass at the ends of the house,” Rossetti said. “The vaults on the side reflect the light, but you don’t see (the strong sunlight).”  

On walls that face south and west, Rossetti used unusual piercings to create windows — high up and wide, for example, again for light that’s not a direct hit.

© Michigan Video Tours
Three white marble steps go up to the living room in this striking contemporary house architect Gino Rossetti designed on a posh private Bloomfield Hills Road. At far left, five more steps rise to the dining room, which has its wall half cut away. This lets the rooms look into each other from different angles and lets the indirect light flow. Both rooms are 30 feet long.

But he let rip with glass on the house’s rear sides, which get no hard sun on the northeast. The room facing north into the enclosed pool and patio has a wall that’s all glass doors. 

This house is on a private road passers-by may not know exists. It’s a street that has just 16 households, including many prominent Detroiters over the years. 

Even in this posh neighborhood, this home’s 2  acres of landscape are especially lush. It’s long, shallow front doorsteps climb gradually in waves like pond ripples. 

Inside, the rooms are large and open with walls eliminated or cut back so rooms look into each other. They have small changes of elevation — three marble steps here, five marble steps there.

These small changes in level are a device Rossetti also used in the house he designed for himself in Grosse Pointe Park in the 1970s.

© Michigan Video Tours
The 30-foot dining room of this home at 1800 Rathmor in Bloomfield Hills. This house by architect Gino Rossetti is on a small private street and features a beautiful landscape, interior, distinctive design, fine new kitchen, finished lower level and a four-car garage.

The living room and dining room are both 30 feet long, with the dining room five marble steps higher. The wall between them is cut away to hip height in the dining room, so the rooms look into each other, but from different angles. Built into one corner are a small sink and bar.

Square grids make a repeating theme through the house. In the dining room a mirrored built-in cabinet is made from grids that combine storage with display space.

On one side of the main staircase the wall is entirely made of open grids.

On its back side the house has a beautiful paved pool and patio enclosure. A brick and iron grid fence around it adds a solid feel. “You can see through it,” the owner said, “but it adds an element of privacy.” There’s also a pool house with a sheltered walk to the main house.

© Michigan Video Tours
A large and beautiful pool and patio are enclosed inside a brick wall and a square-grid iron fence. The large round hole pierced near the roof casts a shadow that moved around the patio.

Other main rooms include a large family room with a built-in media wall of burled blond wood. A library has two walls of bookcases finished in red Chinese lacquer. 

The current owners made one huge change — an all new kitchen to replace the 1984 version. At 21 feet by 20 feet, this is a beautiful space, with all new appliances and handsome cabinetry. It was designed by John Morgan of Perspectives Custom Cabinetry. 

It has lightly veined quartz countertops with cabinets that mix two finishes — the man-made product called Thermofoil in antique white and a handsome flat-cut walnut veneer with swirling grain. 

Designer home

Where: 1800 Rathmor, Bloomfield Hills 

How much: $1,999,900

Bedrooms: 4

Baths: 6 full 1 half

Square feet: 6,702

Key features: An unusual and stunning house by architect Gino Rossetti on a small private street of its peers. Beautiful landscape, beautiful interior, distinctive design, fine new kitchen, finished lower level games and rec area, four-car garage. 

Contact: John Apap, Apap Realty Group, 248-225-9858.

A note about photos

In order to limit our staff’s exposure to coronavirus, the Detroit Free Press is temporarily suspending its practice of using our photographers to capture images for House Envy and is instead using photographs prepared by listing Realtors, with credit to the photographers.​​ We thank the Realtors for helping in this effort.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit architect designed this $2M Bloomfield Hills home for friends