This Car Collector’s Modern Washington Home Has an Auto Gallery That’s Bigger Than the Living Room
The Jet Age of the 1950s is associated with breakthroughs in aviation, including the introduction of jet engines and high-speed aircraft, but it was also a transformative period for automobile design and technology.
Similar engineering principles that drove innovation in the aircraft industry trickled down to cars, with automakers incorporating tailfins, chrome detailing, and streamlined silhouettes reminiscent of jets. Even the interiors were designed to echo cockpits. During that period, every manufacturer from Ford and Chevy to Chrysler and Cadillac introduced then-futuristic models that today are some of the world’s most prized classics sought after by collectors today.
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For one lifelong car enthusiast, their impressive collection of modern and Jet Age-inspired cars heavily influenced the design of his primary residence in Vancouver, Washington. Completed in May of 2024, the owner tapped the Portland-based multi-disciplinary studio William/Kaven Architecture to handle the architecture and interiors to fit both their lifestyle and a heavy-duty car collection. The home was named El Capitola after one of the resident vehicles, a 1957 Chevy El Capitola that was fully customized in 1958.
“The client brief for El Capitola was a dream assignment,” says Daniel Kaven, a partner at William/Kaven Architecture. “As someone fascinated by how the automobile has historically shaped architecture and city planning, this project allowed me to think deeply about the connection between car design and the modern American home.”
The single-story home is fairly modest in size, with three bedrooms, three full bathrooms, and two half bathrooms spread over not quite 3,200 square feet. More space, about 700 square feet more, was devoted to the 3,900-square-foot garage, which includes an office and car gallery. Situated on a slope overlooking the picturesque Columbia River, the ultra-modern home is constructed from board-formed concrete, steel, and dark brick. The home’s hillside siting allowed for dramatic views matched by the daring cantilever on the home’s southwest corner that acts as a carport for the owner’s day-to-day rides.
At the front, a partially covered courtyard garden entrance has a mature Japanese pine growing up through an aperture in a steel-framed canopy. Walls of glass provide tantalizing views into the car gallery and one of the bedrooms. Throughout, there’s a distinct midcentury-modern vibe, with open-plan living spaces, vintage artwork, and a masculine palette of materials that includes concrete and charcoal-colored masonry along with leather, chrome, and glass.
The spacious living room accommodates two seating areas, one facing a fireplace set into a masonry wall and the other facing a TV and backlit shelving housing a collection of model cars. Sliding glass doors on one wall span the length of the room and open to a patio with a fireplace and relaxing river views, while another wall of glass looks out across the entrance courtyard and into the car gallery.
The light-filled kitchen sports white oak cabinetry, state-of-the-art appliances, and an eat-in kitchen island with black granite counters that waterfall off the ends. Behind the range, the white zigzagging veining on the black granite playfully evokes a shark fin or the tail fin of a Jet Age land cruiser like a 1959 Cadillac. Nearby is a wet bar and a dining area/TV lounge.
With soaring, wood-lined ceilings, poured-in-place concrete walls and huge expanses of glass, the auto gallery holds up to eight of the owner’s classic cars, which include a jade-green 1956 Mercury, a gold 1952 Lincoln Capri, and other rarities on four wheels. Off to one side, a small office was designed to look like a classic mechanic’s reception office with vintage signage and license plates.
“In my book Architecture of Normal, I explore the ways in which building typologies in America have evolved to accommodate car culture,” Kaven says. “While historically this has often resulted in uninspired, stamped-out architecture, I make the case that good design can help heal the scars wrought by the automobile. The process of designing El Capitola, a residence that foregrounds the car as a design element rather than treating it as an afterthought, is really a capstone of that research.”
Click here for more photos of the car collector’s Vancouver, Washington, home.
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