A 1970’s ranch house designed by Y. Toshimoto included a detached studio. Dark, uninviting and not capturing the view of a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, the frame studio was removed. The new studio is built on top of the existing foundation and connected to the main house. The new fireplace is a ruinous form that flows inside to outside between two spectacular Japanese red maple trees. The steel frame supports a floating fir rafter, purlin, planked ceiling. The architectural goal of the room is to capture the view of the intimate mature garden, the intermediate view of the water, and the long distant view of the horizon.
A modern and efficient GOLD certified Green home on a heavily wooded site on Whitehall Creek. Two story glass walls capture the creek views and bring the natural landscape indoors.
We were enlisted by Los Angeles designers Robert Willson and David Serrano to bring order, light, and modern amenities to this ruinous 19th-century Mexican residence. To accomplish that we kept the three original rooms and added guest rooms, a new kitchen, a dining room, a pool, and a master suite that is now connected to the rest of the house.
Because the structure is bracketed by adjoining houses, the only existing windows were on the street facade. To introduce natural illumination and breezes, we introduced numerous clerestory windows, oculi, and small glass-block skylights throughout. We also devised two diminutive courtyards, one between the two guest rooms and the other off the kitchen. In the kitchen we created custom cabinetry inspired by traditional Yucatan doors.
This classic 1950’s California rancher was once owned by William C. Boyd, the actor who portrayed Hopalong Cassidy. We renovated the main house, the garage/studio, and the 1980’s guest house designed by Frederick Fisher.
As is typical in the hillside neighborhoods around Los Angeles, from the street you can’t tell what this property has in store. The site is a South-face descending promontory, with the existing buildings looking over one another to 270-degree views of Los Angeles. Our site modifications helped connect the different elements and make the passage through the site more fluid. We placed a new pool in alignment with the guest house, so that they are an extension of one another.
The main house already integrated into the topography, so our renovations opened up and exploited the view. We introduced large panels of fixed and sliding glass to reduce the line between interior and exterior space.
Like the family that once spent long, golden summers in its embrace, the Barnhart home on Anne Arundel County’s Cypress Creek has matured. The former “little house with a big porch,” as owner Ellen Barnhart describes it, has been replaced by a contemporary hideaway that’s both a retreat for her and a gathering place for her three children and seven grandchildren—a “Zen cottage.”
This waterfront home on Maryland’s Eastern Shore had a great setting and lots of potential. The house had large rooms with high ceilings and period detailing, but it still needed a lot of work and updating.
Larger windows and pieces of fixed glass were added to the water side of the home to capture the view. The screened porch on the water side was completely rebuilt. Large expanses of bronze screening allow the view to be appreciated with minimal interruption. Small windows and doors leading to the screened porch were replaced with tall French doors to maximize the view and capture breezes.
An airy addition to the back of the original 1840’s eyebrow Colonial farmhouse is both seamlessly integrated and decidedly not intended to mirror the older structure’s small rooms. A new eat-in kitchen and sitting room feature walls of windows overlooking a panoramic pond and native plant landscape. The reorganization of the historic farmhouse and new addition very efficiently includes 3 bedrooms, 2 ½ baths, and 3 primary living spaces in less than 2000 square feet.
Preservation/restoration techniques were used to recreate the look and feel of the original farmhouse. Simultaneously, advanced modern construction methods were used to create a comfortable energy efficient environment with a manageable maintenance program.
A 1980’s condominium was gutted to the studs and room defining walls were removed. An open loft-style living space was created with a social kitchen open to the living and dining areas. Instead of walls, freestanding custom cabinetry defines the limits of the new kitchen. A large bow window was added making the kitchen area roomier, creating space for a large table as well as a sofa and arm chair. The focus of the kitchen is an Italian marble work table that allows both cooking production and dining. The goal of the design was to create a kitchen that integrates active cooking, free flowing socializing, with a premium emphasis on the conversational participation of the cook.
In the rest of the apartment the existing fireplace and structural columns define the irregular progression of spaces. The rooms flow into one another, with repeating motifs such as an L-shaped cutout in a wall and an L-shaped fireplace mantel. In the ceiling, fussy grilles were removed, and lighting is recessed into geometric troughs creating a Mondrian-esque pattern.
