Rick Hawkins grew up on a rented farm 25 miles east of Columbus, Ohio, growing corn, wheat, and soybeans with his parents and five siblings. When the farm was put up for sale in the late 1970s, Rick, by thena successful entrepreneur, purchased it so that his elderly parents could stay on the property and the family, most of whom still lived nearby, could continue to gather there.

In 2008, he did a total renovation of the farmhouse and some outbuildings, but as their grandchildren multiplied, Rick and his wife, Karen, who live in Austin most of the time, realized there was a need for more space. That’s when the idea was born to resurrect an iconic structure from Rick’s agrarian upbringing: the corn crib.

The keystone corn cribs of the 19th and early-20th century were masterpieces of functional Midwestern design. The walls were slanted out in a V-shape to keep rain off and slatted to circulate air, so the shucked ears of corn stored inside would dry. The floor was elevated to keep vermin at bay. The form was long and low to allow loading by wagon, while the V-shape helped to funnel the corn downward.

By the 1950s, combines were shelling corn in the field and other machines were doing the drying. Corn cribs began to disappear. To Rick, re-creating one of these familiar forms and tucking a guesthouse inside seemed like the perfect way to blend the old with the new.

“We wanted it to look like it belonged there but to be really surprising when you entered it,” says Karen, an artist. The couple hired landscape architect Jason Kentner, owner of the Columbus firm Implement, who had worked on the earlier farmhouse remodel, to design the structure.

Essentially, it’s a rectangular box inside a shell modeled on a classic corn crib. Amish carpenters, renowned for their knowledge of traditional farm buildings, did the construction and helped decide questions like the pitch of the facade, the type of wood to use (local poplar), and the spacing of the slats. Interior designer Jill Hawthorne assisted with furnishings.

Lights set between the exterior screen and the inner walls make magnificent use of the slats, turning the building into a glowing lantern in the dark country night. Inside, an open gabled ceiling features beams salvaged from a 19th-century barn nearby that Rick and his brothers worked in when they were growing up. The layout is simple: sitting and dining area, galley kitchen, bathroom, and sleeping area all in a row. A loft above the bathroom brings the total square footage to 700.

To Rick, the space feels just right. “I think it’s an appropriate size for the scale of the farm. Too big a structure wouldn’t have felt right,” he says.

That respect for the integrity and history of the farm is something he shares with Kentner. “One great thing about farm buildings is you can always look at them and say, ‘That makes perfect sense,’” says Kentner. It’s a testament to his skill, and Rick’s vision, that the same can be said of this modern twist on a symbol of the past.

Project Credits:

Architect: Implement / @implement_studio

Structural Engineer: APCO

Interior Design: Jill Hawthorn

Flooring: Graber’s Construction

Landscaper: Klamfoth Landscape Management

Cabinetry: Signature Cabinetry

Metal fabrication: Robert Karlson Fabrication

Appears In

This Corn Crib Guesthouse Honors Agrarian Architecture