Columbus, Indiana, resident Nick Slabaugh tasked Chicago architect Grant Gibson with creating a low-cost home on a small lot near the city’s downtown. Its design references local architectural landmarks. Gibson says the building’s "low profile with a bulging roof element  Photo 2 of 4 in Editor’s Letter: The New Neighbors from A True Starter Home in Columbus, Indiana, Nods to Nearby Buildings by 20th-Century Masters

Editor’s Letter: The New Neighbors

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Columbus, Indiana, resident Nick Slabaugh tasked Chicago architect Grant Gibson with creating a low-cost home on a small lot near the city’s downtown. Its design references local architectural landmarks. Gibson says the building’s "low profile with a bulging roof element" recalls Eero Saarinen’s Irwin Union Bank, while the half-buried volume "is similar to Gunnar Birkerts’s Lincoln Elementary School."