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Contractor: Meahan Construction
Completed: 2000
Set within a New England context, this 800 s.f. addition sits prominently on a historic in-town street with houses dating from 1890 through 1930. The original structure dates from 1927 and exemplifies the Colonial Revival style of its era. Although modest in size, its first owner was also its designer and builder, a graduate of Pratt University, class of 1914. Good bones were evident everywhere-- 9?ceilings, plaster walls, simple mouldings and trim, and wide clapboard siding. The program called for expanding the Kitchen and adding a connecting Family Room on the first level, and a new Master Bedroom suite on the second level. The design solution entailed moving the original screen porch (which was somewhat clumsily entered from the stair landing) to the rear of the house, where it now connects to the Mudroom and Kitchen. At that same end of the house a new two-story structure was designed. The design goal was to respect the original scale and context of the house, a case where the architects hand would be invisible to a passerby unfamiliar with the project. The new roof line was set two feet lower than the existing ridge and the facades set back by eight inches. The modulation of these new elements creates a sense of scale and street presence that a simple extrusion could not evoke. The interior eave in the Master Bedroom is set low, vaulting up to eleven feet, and intersecting the street-side cross gable. The lowered ridge restrains this from becoming too voluminous for the character of the home. Other work included the removal of a vintage coal furnace and the complete replacement of the electrical, plumbing, and mechanical systems, including new central air conditioning. The existing windows were replaced with matching sash. The new matching windows were specified with historically proportioned casings and meeting mullions, lending a unity between old and new.
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