Winning Combination

RIGHT Before, a small wing on the first floor of the original house suggested the perfect spot for an extension. | ABOVE A small balcony off of the master bedroom gives owners a place to watch over activities in the back yard. | INSET RIGHT The project depicted in the office Christmas card.

Additions & Alterations

Focus |
Family Room
Breakfast Room
Kitchen
Screened Porch
Master Suite

Committed team effort among owner, architect and builder
garnered a first place prize for Sympathetic Addition
in the Great American Home Awards from
The National Trust for Historic Preservation
and Old House Journal

The location of the house was near perfect: on a tree lined street across from a pretty park with pond, just minutes away from the center of a camera-ready commuter town. On the other hand, the house itself was not nearly as perfect: short on space and in dire need of a kitchen facelift, it made up for spatial and practical shortcomings with its photogenic Craftsman Colonial details and a good-sized lot ready for an addition.

By chance, the requirements for breakfast and family rooms on the first floor with a master suite on the second fit together snugly in a wing that I expanded out from and built up on a shallow bay that already jutted out from the back of the original house.

I filled the crook of the newly-formed L-shaped footprint with a screened porch serving both original dining room and new breakfast room.

While the floor plans essentially designed themselves, this was not the case for the interior and exterior elevations: it took concerted effort on my part to achieve apparent effortlessness on their parts. Seamless melding of interiors and exteriors ultimately rendered a picture perfect pairing of great house with great location.

As a postscript, the judges of the Great American Home Awards recognized the efforts of the entire building team when it awarded the project first place for Sympathetic Addition, making this a winning project all around.

Additions & Alterations

With Sympathy:

Designing an Appropriate Addition on an Old House

A measured blend of yesterday’s eye appeal and
up-to-date creature comforts yields an addition
of authentic flavor spiced with innovations.

The street façade of the old house, above, remains unchanged: distinctive features are repeated throughout the addition. Notably, a gabled bay taken from the second floor of the old house unifies old and new elevations by its repetition.

1 Relieving what could have been the addition’s relentlessly long and plain façade, two matching gabled bays on the second floor anchor its center: the one on the left is new. Window types, styles and sizes from the old house are repeated on the addition. 2 Shallow projecting bays on the first floor are similar though not perfectly matched. 3 The animated façade retreats to the back yard. Where does old stop and new begin? 4 A gabled bay pulled through from the opposite side of the house centers above the split stair of the screened porch. 5 The split stair lets the family into the house from driveway and back yard. 6 The ins and outs of the addition’s façade make it appear original.

Additions & Alterations

1 Removal of the bay in the old dining room allowed a doorway to the screened porch. 2 The old back door opened to a deck where the addition now stands. 3 The breakfast room’s bay reuses stained glass from the old dining room. 4 The breakfast and family rooms offer a view of the back yard. 5 Off of the driveway, the screened porch’s sheltered outdoor living. 6 Black walls delineate new construction on floor plans. 7 An outdated kitchen renovation called for a retrofit. 8, 9 The old butler’s pantry remains efficient with ceiling-high cabinets. The peninsula sits where the wall between the old butler’s pantry and kitchen once stood. 10 New spaces replicate proportions of existing rooms while flowing openly.

Additions & Alterations

A Room with a View:

On Retaining, Repeating & Reusing Building Elements

Emphasis was given to one particular
building element: the window.

Before putting pencil to paper, I decipher the ingredients of an old house—identifying unifying notes and underlying essences—so that I may build on them when designing an addition. In reusing design elements and building materials outright or by recombining them in a new way, I strive for the results that newcomers will not be able to distinguish old from new—or at least they will have to think about for a while. Building components and materials that somehow seem familiar do not reveal an addition’s fresh-built truth. A convincing and cohesive addition to an old house is achieved by retaining, repeating and reusing distinctive building elements.

1, 2 The arched canopy over the front porch inspired the Kitchen window’s cornice and brackets. 3, 4, 5 A leaded glass window relocated from a bathroom takes pride of place as it overlooks the stairwell and provides a focal point in the master suite. 6, 7, 8 A stained glass window preserved by clear glass offers its colors to the original dining room and an adjacent shower room. The window’s height off the floor and its translucency ensure privacy. 9, 10 The diamonds of the master bedroom’s window repeat unique patterning in original attic dormer windows.

Additions & Alterations

Focus |Family RoomBreakfast RoomKitchenScreened PorchMaster Suite

Winning Combination

Committed team effort among owner, architect and builder garnered a first place prize for Sympathetic Addition in the Great American Home Awards from The National Trust for Historic Preservation and Old House Journal

Additions & Alterations

With Sympathy:

Designing an Appropriate Addition on an Old House

A measured blend of yesterday’s eye appeal and up-to-date creature comforts yields an addition of authentic flavor spiced with innovations.

Additions & Alterations

Additions & Alterations

A Room with a View:

On Retaining, Repeating & Reusing Building Elements

Emphasis was given to one particular building element: the window.

Focus |
Family Room
Breakfast Room
Kitchen
Screened Porch
Master Suite

Committed team effort among owner, architect and builder
garnered a first place prize for Sympathetic Addition
in the Great American Home Awards from
The National Trust for Historic Preservation
and Old House Journal

A measured blend of yesterday’s eye appeal and
up-to-date creature comforts yields an addition
of authentic flavor spiced with innovations.

Emphasis was given to one particular
building element: the window.