Considered the first suburb of Houston, the Houston Heights neighborhood is where homeowners Michelle White and Haden Garrett purchased their starter home in 2011: a 1,000-square-foot Sears kit bungalow with plenty of historic charm. “Houston Heights is defined by this vernacular 1920s architecture that’s totally disappearing as the neighborhood develops,” said White, who is the head curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Menil Collection. When it came time to expand the home’s footprint, White and Garrett turned to Marisa Janusz of Janusz Design to create a sensitive addition that would respect the home’s historic character.

“In the Heights, a common phenomenon is the ‘camelback,’ where additions are so large they look as if they’re trying to swallow the original house,” explained Janusz. She worked with the home’s previous owners to sketch out a plan for an addition that went unbuilt before they sold to White and Garrett. “Marisa eloquently solved that problem by designing an elongated addition that you can barely see from the front of the house,” White said.

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