An ‘architect’s icon’ in Cherry Hill

When Nikki and Dean Drizin try to recall how they found their mid-century modern Cherry Hill home, they’re not exactly sure.

It may have been online. It may have been when Nikki knocked on the door.

Or perhaps they became unknowingly connected to the house years earlier, when aspiring architect Jay Reinert, who would later come to work for the Drizins, admired it as he rode past it on his moped to his classes at Cherry Hill High School East.

Regardless of the true origin story, Dean has no trouble recalling his reaction: “Get the house.”

“We couldn’t not make an offer,” he said. The house became theirs in 2024.

They had originally asked Reinert about redesigning the house they already owned at the time, so it would be attractive and suit their future needs, but they quickly realized that wasn’t going to work.

“We could only do so much with that,” Reinert recalls telling the Drizins. “We couldn’t make it a mid-century modern home located on a golf course.”

So they bought the Cherry Hill mid-century modern ranch instead, and within a year, it was transformed into what Reinert calls “an architect’s icon.”

Originally a three-bedroom, three-bath house with a huge office, it became a four-bedroom, 4½-bathroom house. Built in 1964, it’s located on the edge of the Legacy Club, with golf-course views from Dean’s office, the main living area, and the primary bedroom.

Nikki is a pharmacist, and Dean, who works in corporate development for a home healthcare agency and is also a Naval Reserve flight surgeon, is content with a small office.

This frees up space for two kids’ bedrooms and a bathroom. The couple have a 7-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter.

Reinert said clients often want to simply add space to the rear of the house. The Drizins wanted more than that — an office for Dean, better play space for the kids, more light, and views of the outside from every part of the house to provide a connection to nature.

But first Reinert had to undo renovations made in the 1990s that had awkwardly divided up the interior space and covered it with travertine tile — “kind of a Tuscan vibe of the time,” he said.

Reinert divided the house into three zones.

The “service zone” includes the garage, mudroom, pantry, kitchen, bathroom, and Dean’s office. The “living zone” comprises the foyer, reading and music area, TV area, dining area, and ping-pong space. And the “sleeping zone” has the primary suite, guest room with bath, powder room, two children’s bedrooms with designated bath, and laundry room.

One of the biggest changes came right at the front entrance.

Instead of an immediate step down into the sunken family room, there is a partition filtering the view of the full interior, centered on a two-sided gas fireplace. Reinert calls the slat-wall partition “a veil.”

“It’s partly open — you know there’s something interesting behind it,” Reinert said.

Reinert also leveled floors to connect spaces, and “we worked with the rhythm of the ceilings to help organize the spaces below.”

A two-sided fireplace divides the center of the home, with the dining area on one side and the living room on the other.

The Drizins haven’t changed the kitchen much. It had top-of-the-line appliances installed by the previous owners but was dark and gloomy. So they took down a wall, allowing outdoor views from the kitchen. “Now it’s bright and airy,” Nikki said.

They also added a small office for Dean on the main floor, set up the basement for storage and added to it a play room for the kids.

“We made the interior ours, perfect for our family,” said Nikki.

The service zone includes a mudroom added during renovations — that’s a concept that Reinert says is fairly recent architecturally.

“Most people don’t recognize mid-century modern homes as worthy of preservation,” Reinert said. But “it’s nice to be able to pay homage to a time that was really, really special.”

It was, he went on, “a time when architects were trying to reimagine how the design of a home could support and reflect their culture, lifestyle, and values.”

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