Thousands of years before Bob Appert and David Washburn took a leap of faith and created White Oaks Savanna, an architecture-driven community in Grant Township just west of Stillwater, the land was part of a vast swath of northern oak savanna, a unique habitat between the prairie and the forest. Like the century-old white oak trees that gave the community its name, Appert and Washburn are deeply rooted on the east side of the Twin Cities. While Appert, an architectural home builder and developer, works with clients across the metro area, he recently built a new home for his family in Lake Elmo. “The St. Croix River Valley lifestyle can’t be beat,” says Appert. “It’s half the price — and half the pace — of the west side.”
Photography by Rob Grosse / Spacecrafting
Washburn, a creative entrepreneur and developer, grew up on the south shore of White Bear Lake. His grandfather, a gentleman farmer, owned Juneway Farm, a bucolic property that’s now Dellwood Country Club. With farming in his DNA, Washburn and his wife Meg Anderson bought 120 acres of farmland in Grant in 1996 and founded Red Cardinal Farm to grow organic greens and other produce for Lucia’s, Café Un Deux Trois and other restaurants. “Meg and I have always felt the St. Croix Valley is one of the best-kept secrets in the United States,” Washburn says. “It’s a quieter, more relaxed Midwestern cousin of the wine country.” An aficionado of European design, Washburn also opened the Valcucine showroom in International Market Square, where he collaborated with top architects, interior designers and custom home builders to create sleek contemporary Italian kitchens for luxe homes and lofts.
A shared appreciation for land brought Appert and Washburn together in 2016 when a 200-acre farm adjacent to Red Cardinal Farm came on the market. While the soil was depleted after years of intensive conventional corn and soybean farming, the natural contours of the land were spectacular. As they walked the farm, with its picturesque turn-of-the century barn, ponds and heritage oak trees, they knew it would be the perfect setting for a highly curated collection of architect-designed homes nestled into the landscape. With a handshake, Washburn and Appert became the new stewards of the savanna.
Photography by Rob Grosse / Spacecrafting
“David and I believe that land is the ultimate luxury, so our first priority was restoring the savanna with the help of Minnesota Native Landscapes,” says Appert. “We then master-planned the community around the hills, ponds and woods.” Together with landscape architect Travis Van Liere of TVL Studio and the design team of Lars Peterssen, Gabriel Keller, Ted Martin and Ashley Vanden Bosch of PKA Architecture, they divided the acreage into 30 lots ranging in size from five to seven acres, carefully placing the half-acre footprint of each homesite to maximize the long views of nature and wildlife. Taking inspiration from The Sea Ranch, a design-driven community built in the late sixties on the Pacific Coast in Sonoma County, the team developed architectural guidelines to inform the design of each home. Guided by their commitment to architecture, Washburn and Appert became annual sponsors of the AIA MN Homes by Architects Tour.
They also co-hosted a rollicking White Oaks Savanna social with Artful Living for the local design community, complete with a BBQ truck, craft bourbon tastings and a blues band. The guests fell in love with the land and the developers’ vision for the community.
Photography by Beau Meier, Mike McCaw, Rob Grosse, Ben Colvin / Spacecrafting
One of the guests, architect Christopher Strom of Christopher Strom Architects, has designed three homes on White Oaks Savanna: Eye Land, the community’s first house in 2018, Valdres and Elysian Fields. All have been featured on the Homes by Architects Tour. “When David and Bob introduced the design guidelines, I was impressed,” says Strom. “Architects often have very different ideas about how much ‘house’ should exist in relation to the property, yet if a home neglects the views, natural light and dialogue with the land, it’s simply an object in a landscape. Today, I’m even more impressed that they’ve continued to uphold the guidelines, which have allowed me to grow as an architect and steward of the land and made White Oaks Savanna a very powerful place.”
In addition to master planning White Oaks Savanna, PKA Architecture has designed two striking modern homes in the community. When a couple returned to Minnesota after living in the South, Managing Principal and Designer Kristine Anderson and Architect Tammy Angaran designed Sandhill Residence, an award-winning, midcentury-inspired home named for the dozens of sandhill cranes that have flocked to the restored savanna. Prärie Hus, a modern Nordic/European home designed by architects Brent Nelson and Vanden Bosch for a couple who grew up with family farms in South Dakota, was showcased in last September’s Homes by Architects Tour.
Photography by Rob Grosse / Spacecrafting
“My colleagues and I are proud to have been an integral part of White Oaks Savanna since the beginning,” says Anderson. “David and Bob had such a clear vision of what the land could become, and it’s wonderful to see it come to fruition. Our homeowners have deep personal connections to the rural landscape, and it’s gratifying to design their homes and be a part of their happiness. One of our homeowners is an amazing photographer, and we love seeing his Instagram posts of the savanna, with drifts of snow in the winter, wildflowers in the springtime, waves of prairie grasses in the summer and the Northern Lights in autumn.”
With 16 completed homes by PKA Architecture, Christopher Strom Architects, Swan Architecture, Charles R. Stinson Architecture + Design, PLAAD, Imprint Architecture, Ron Brenner Architects and other local firms, four homes under construction and only a handful of lots for sale, the success of White Oaks Savanna is testament to the founders’ steadfastness. “Bob and I are honored to have gathered a community of people who share our appreciation for nature and great design,” says Washburn. “Whenever we have a White Oaks Savanna social or a neighborhood get-together, the conversation is always about architecture, how many varieties of birds we’ve spotted in the ponds and how much we value this incredible land.”
