post-war conversion... schematic elevations

this myers park post-war home is about to begin construction - removing the roof & adding a second story. we hope that you are as inspired as we are!

this is the elevation that we settled on after much back and forth with the clients! As you can see, it's a bit of a hybrid of some schematic elevations that we sent them back in January 2011:

the story of my porch...

my porch renovation was approved by the historic district commission today! i'll post images soon...

but it's exciting because my porch is pretty unusual and has a great story. we have these crazy balusters on our rail that are completely out of place on a bungalow. this is an old photo, but you get the idea:

our elderly neighbor shared her old journals with us a couple of years ago, and she had documentation that the rails were salvaged from the c.a. williams mansion in 1955, when it was demolished for construction of the john belk freeway (277). here's a photo, and those are our balusters on the lower level.

i'm especially excited about this renovation project, because i love honoring the quirky history of our home. different columns, different stairs... but the same eccentric little rail.

rethinking a craftsman... approved elevation

construction begins this week on a renovation and 2nd story addition to this dilworth bungalow, so we thought we'd share a few 'before' shots!

the new front elevation is appropriately modest for this historic urban street. the renovation & addition are extensive - increasing the home's size to approx. 3000 sf.

this home falls within the dilworth historic district and the project was originally approved by the HDC in may 2009. modifications to the design were approved in july 2011.

postwar conversion... new project

we just started designing the renovation / addition to this myers park post-war home. we hope that you are as inspired as we are!

georgian refreshed... complete!

this was a great project - a family that couldn't decide between renovating and moving (which is very typical of our clients!). they really took their time through the design process, and as a result their home is perfectly tailored. and that's what we aim for - a perfectly tailored piece of architecture.

the front of this georgian remained mostly the same, with the exception of this new front entry. i love it. the gentle curve, chunky columns... it's all consistent with the style of the home, but refreshingly contemporary, too.

and here is an image of the front before the porch (yes, that's an enormously pregnant ME taking measurements and notes in front). but the real story is the back of this home - that's where everything happened.

you can see the form isn't foreign - it borrows from the original home. but everything else changed. our primary goals were to blow open the interiors in a dramatic way (the original layout was fragmented and cramped), and to design the addition to the back so that it had a gentle, scaled transition to the backyard - the owners were very committed to NOT adding on a 'box' in the back. the scaling of the addition was really successful on this project, as were the details. our attention to detail ensured that the architecture maintained a feeling of clean simplicity in even the most complicated situations (and wow, this house had some complicated situations!). the interiors are wide open for the full depth of the house on one side, and the family loves it.

the existing interior rooms were so small and fragmented that we couldn't really get photos of them - it was impossible to get the camera far enough away in a small room! this photo is a good example - the existing family room. It was about 7-6x14, very tight and oddly proportioned. through those interior windows (!) is the dining room and past that is a small galley kitchen. the route between the kitchen and family room was long and circuitous with some very narrow doors - which was a huge problem for this family.

and the 'after' - the interiors were completely opened up from the front of the house through the back of the house. here is the open interior looking towards the front of the house:

and this is the same space looking towards the backyard:

we were very deliberate in our alignments in this home, too - to get to a very reductive simplicity takes a ton of designing. there are a few spots where these alignments really worked out beautifully. i love this shot of the guest bedroom, it's so peaceful:

it's a gorgeous project, and such a departure from the original home. wow!

cape cod re-worked... complete!

i think the real success of this cape cod is that it just looks like it has always been there. the neighbors swear that they can't remember what it used to look like.

the house had already been renovated when the owners called us for some major re-working. the layout of the second floor was strange, with enormous areas of wasted space. in the original renovation, the design hadn't effectively used the clipped roof areas (hadn't used them at all, really) and the dormers were odd, long 3x10 hallways to nothingness. the two rooms upstairs were oversized and uncomfortable.

with some relatively minor changes to the roof, we were able to DOUBLE the square footage upstairs, adding an additional bedroom, bathroom, office, walk-in closets, study nooks, and more. it's a charming second story AND it can grow with this family.

working...

i love this photo of us at work this morning! diana and i visited our myers park georgian and spent some time reviewing the trim details. this is a very complicated project, and the goal of the architecture is to create something seemingly simple and clean. the alignments, rhythms, proportions... they're all so critical to the success of this project. it's getting close, and i can't wait to see it!