Courtesy TOM BASSETT-DILLEY Sprouting up: The garage on Highland Avenue in south Oak Park was built with recycled wood and will sprout flowers on one portion of the roof in the spring.

The green concept, when applied to residential and commercial building, is becoming more and more commonplace, but architects like Oak Parker Tom Bassett-Dilley are now also shifting focus to smaller structures that aren’t usually seen by the public. These so-called buildings reside in the backyard and are designed to get the most out of small spaces.

No, it’s not Buster’s dog house, although that may be next to go green. Bassett-Dilley and fellow Oak Parker and local contractor Drew Niermann have created a green garage behind Bassett-Dilley’s residence on Highland Avenue.

The project began back in October when Bassett-Dilley needed a garage that could function in three different capacities, while not taking up too much space on his narrow, city-size lot.

"The idea I had was to create a space that could be part garage, part carport and part garden shed," he says. "In such tight quarters, you have to find innovative ways to really utilize the space and get everything you want out of it. We also wanted to be environmentally conscious about the process and to incorporate sort of a theme to the garage, which is how it blends in nicely with the garden in the backyard.

"You see a lot of the utilitarian, cheap, vinyl-sided garages, which is literally a box. The design aspect is not taken into consideration. It’s a generic product that is put on your site, not invested with care for design. We are doing the exact opposite, not for fashion purposes but for quality of living and for the environment."

Bassett-Dilley, whose architecture firm has been headquartered in Oak Park for the last two years, plans on marketing the green-garage concept. While it’s not the first of its kind in Oak Park or River Forest, making better use of a garage’s space and tying it into other aspects of the backyard is somewhat of a new idea.

Bassett-Dilley created an L-shaped structure for his green-garage prototype that still allows for 200-square feet of yard. "We’re gardeners, so we wanted to be sure room remained for that," he says. "And if we were going to be in the backyard, working in the garden, then the garage needed to blend in with the garden."

The garage is nearly complete and, come spring, it will literally blossom to life. One portion of the roof contains pre-planted flats that will grow flowers. Bassett-Dilley says he also plans to grow ivy up the side of the garage to highlight the flow of the garden.

Both Bassett-Dilley and Niermann incorporated other green concepts into the building of the garage. The structure was built using minimal metals and with salvaged siding.

"We try to do a lot of things to reduce, recycle and reuse," says Bassett-Dilley, who has designed everything from coach houses to large commercial buildings. "The motivation was to maximize my site while providing storage and a parking space, and doing it in a way that was environmentally friendly. It’s become a way of demonstrating something that I would like to continue to design for clients."

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