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House Feature

An "Electric Bungalow" in Urban St. Paul

By Camille LeFevre, Home Feature Editor
Last Updated: Feb 23, 2025

When the elderly gentleman across the alley asked Tom Fisher and Claudia Wielgorecki if they'd like to buy his house, they said yes. It was just the opportunity the couple had been seeking. Their three-level home in St. Paul, where they'd raised their two daughters, had become too big for the couple: They'd long closed off the third level to conserve heat in the winter.  

Fisher and Wielgroecki had also discussed what it would take to live a low-carbon life and where they might age in place. Fisher is the former Dean of College of Design at the University of Minnesota, a longtime architecture professor, director of the Minnesota Design Center, and Dayton Hudson Chair in Urban Design in the College of Design. Wielgorecki is a former architectural historian and computer programmer.

Table of Contents

  1. Built on the Existing Foundation  
  2. All On-Grid All-Electric Home
  3. Low-Carbon Life 
Fisher Residence Entry
Fisher Residence Entry. Photo Credit: Gaffer Photography

So, they turned their house over to their daughter and son-in-law with two children, got their younger daughter and son-in-law to move in next door, and began working on what their architect calls their "Electric Bungalow." Designed by Salmela Architect in Duluth (Fisher has written several books on architect David Salmela's work), the 1,700-square-foot infill house in an urban neighborhood near the University of Minnesota runs on solar power.

Youtube play iconBuilding an Energy Efficient Home on an Existing Foundation

"The goal in doing this house was to show how one could do a relatively affordable, urban, energy-efficient house on a very tight urban site," Fisher told Rise readers back in 2019. "Cities all over the world have old houses on tight urban sites that need to be redeveloped. I was hoping this house would be an example of what you could do."

Built on the Existing Foundation  

The team discussed whether to keep the existing structure, a single-level, one-bedroom, 700-square-foot bungalow. "But, the wood frame of the house was caving in," Fisher recalls. So, the team deconstructed the house with help from an organization that employs former convicts. Concrete, wood, appliances, metal, stucco, and other materials went in separate bins for recycling. Stained-glass windows found new homes. Fisher says that 80% of the former structure was recycled.

They kept, however, the 1911 basement and foundation. "That allowed us to avoid excavation, which would have disturbed the existing oak trees on the site," Fisher says, some of which were upward of 100 years old. Keeping the basement and foundation also reduced the couple's construction costs.

Fisher Residence Bedroom
Fisher Residence Bedroom. Photo Credit: Gaffer Photography

The architects designed the new house to cantilever slightly over the 20-foot-wide-by-32-foot-long foundation, adding 100 square feet to the first level. The extra square footage allowed the architects to include a full, accessible bathroom and a bedroom (with a stacked washer and dryer in a laundry closet) on the 1000-square-foot first level. Fisher and Wielgorecki anticipate that someday they will live solely on the main level, so the architects addressed those aging-in-place concerns. Currently, the lower-level bedroom is the grandchildren's play area.

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All On-Grid All-Electric Home

The team capped off an existing gas line early in the construction phase. The couple wanted to decarbonize the house and reduce their risk of exposure to carbon monoxide. With a grid-tied 5.4 kW solar array on the south-facing roof slope, they now power much of their all-electric home. Fisher enjoys checking in with the app on his phone that shows how much energy they've purchased daily, how much energy they've generated, the energy stored in their Tesla Powerwall home battery, and how much electricity they've used. "Very early in the morning," he says. "we may need to draw from the grid until the sun comes up.  

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Fisher Residence Living Room
Fisher Residence Living Room. Photo Credit: Gaffer Photography

For now, though, the couple "uses every square inch of the house," Fisher adds. Having achieved a low-carbon life, he adds, "It's great living in this all-electric house."

Article By

Camille LeFevre

Camille LeFevre is an architecture and design writer based in the Twin Cities.

Camille LeFevre