Last month we posted photos of a house we designed in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, as it was under construction. We are now able to show this new photo of the main stair in the house, as the efforts of a team of finish carpenters, painters and wood flooring installers come to an end. The floor is old growth walnut and the stair parts are custom designed by our office. If you look closely at the stair landing below, you can catch a glimpse into the living room on the first floor.
This photo by Brian Vandenbrink of a home we designed in Maine is a great example of the fine craftsmanship we rely upon to see our concepts brought to reality. In this photo, you can see the painstaking care and compositional ability required to build the stone walls; the expert framing and finish carpentry work required to create the horizontal screened vents in the end gable; the precision and detailing required to construct the custom mahogany windows. We were very fortunate indeed to have Mike Hewes and Company as our general contractor for this house. You don't get this level of craftsmanship without a lot of talent, patience and coordination.
It wasn't so long ago that we built models in our office by hand: desks were often covered with grey chipboard, exacto blades, and modeler's glue. We used these models extensively for design--to make sure what we were designing was what we wanted--and for presentation--to make sure clients knew what we were giving them. And clients loved them. There is nothing quite like holding a well built scale model up to your eye and imagining walking inside it, around it.
Today we have shifted almost entirely to computer generated modeling, using advanced software systems. Truth is, they require a lot of hours to build a detailed model, but the benefits come the moment the first, inevitable design change appears. In very short time, roofs can be raised, window patterns altered, materials substituted.
The image shown above represents our design for a carriage house, replacing an existing garage, on the grounds of a lovely estate with a spectacular view of Boston. The glass wall you can see to the left of the model is positioned to capture that view. The estate has some lovely gardens, which will be augmented, when this project is built, by a handsome new greenhouse.
Recently we commissioned the renowned architectural photographer Brian Vandenbrink to shoot a house of ours on the coast of Maine; the first proofs have just arrived and we think they look great. The photograph we are posting here is a detail at the front entrance to the house, showing how you can see through the house toward the sea beyond. We'll post more of these pictures as we get them.
About to begin re- construction! A tired house in a lovely neighborhood outside of Boston, a rabbit warren of existing rooms, too many of them in fact, with small windows and little character, soon to be transformed into a spacious, open home for modern family living. And without adding enormous amounts of new square footage. And this is what will be coming soon: a new front entry, a new family room addition replacing the small existing sun room, new dormers, new windows and new roof. A small house transformed. We will be keeping you up to date with progress reports so you can watch the new house appear out of the shell of the old.
We'll be running our first ever print advertisement in the Beacon Hill Times next month, with a photo of a kitchen in a townhouse we renovated this year. We've been working on townhouses in Boston's Beacon Hill, Back Bay and South End neighborhoods for years now, and we've gained expertise not only in the design of these houses, but in the tricky task of shepherding these projects through the maze of city approvals they require. The renovation pictured in the advertisement involved five floors of a narrow townhouse, with the addition of a rooftop headhouse and deck--a wonderful amenity in the middle of the city.
Construction is underway on this family compound. The exterior trim and shingles at the Main House (foreground) are finished and painted; the laying of the stone veneer is yet to come. The Carriage House (beyond) is ready for installation of the windows, after which the exterior trim can be completed. The two buildings are located atop a knoll, in a valley, with the fall foliage as a colorful backdrop. Construction of the Barn and the Pool House will begin later this year.
The low stone site walls and wall veneer around both the Main House and Carriage House will help ground the house. The stone is a combination of Goshen and Ashfield stone; both indigenous to the Berskshires.
In the Main House rough plumbing and electrical work are finished and the walls are being plastered. The massive stone Chimney will help to organize the Great Hall into sitting and dining spaces. The exposed wood timber and structural decking roof system, with slender bronze tie rods, give the double height space a rustic feel.
Recently we were fortunate enough to have a project of ours published in Boston Home and Garden, in an article entitled "Kitchens that Cook." This was a challenging project: we were asked to transform a tired 1950's split level in a desirable suburb of Boston into an open, airy modern home for an empty nester couple. Our clients requested a house that had the feel of a Manhattan loft, so we lifted the roof on the house, allowing the ceilings in the main living areas to soar to 18'. The kitchen cabinets pictured above are maple, with countertops of black granite, a stainless steel backsplash and an oak floor accented in walnut. (Photo by Greg Premru)
On a point of land looking across one of the Eastern Shore's most picturesque waterways, we have recently finished work on a house for a family from the Washington DC area. These photographs are from our last site visit this past July, as the house was nearing completion. The summers are very warm and humid there, of course, so we designed this house for passive cooling that would reduce the number of days air conditioning is required for reasonable comfort. The house has a "thermal chimney," a large open vertical space at its center, which induces air flow through the house and out the high windows of the chimney wall.
The house is clad in two kinds of wood siding, both of which are used in traditional architecture in the region: vertical board and batten siding, typical in barns and outbuildings, and cove siding, often used on 19th century houses. We painted it all white to reflect the harshest of the sun's rays.
The house has a pool and a poolhouse which look back toward the dining and living rooms, and out to the water beyond. Landscape work is going at the house now and we are hoping to have the finished house professionally photographed early next spring. We just learned that the house will be part of an Eastern Shore House Tour this Christmas--so the pressure is on the owners now to buy some furniture!
We just received some new photographs of a house we have designed in New Hampshire, on a lovely hillside looking out toward the back slopes of the White Mountains. The contractors are making excellent progress, and the landscape work has begun. Carpenters are busy inside with the interior wood trim and kitchen cabinets are being installed. This is a view from the family room looking across the kitchen. Those beams in the ceiling are the actual structure that is holding up the house: no fake beams in this house.
We are an architectural design firm located just steps from the Public Garden in the historic Back Bay neighborhood of Boston. We design new houses anywhere a client will take us, renovate existing houses, and plan office spaces. We are flexible, diligent, detail oriented and we love what we do. Here we focus on works in progress, news about the office and recent publications. For our office website, just click on this link:
This photo by Brian Vandenbrink of a home we designed in Maine is a great example of the fine craftsmanship we rely upon to see our concepts brought to reality. In this photo, you can see the painstaking care and compositional ability required to build the stone walls; the expert framing and finish carpentry work required to create the horizontal screened vents in the end gable; the precision and detailing required to construct the custom mahogany windows. We were very fortunate indeed to have Mike Hewes and Company as our general contractor for this house. You don't get this level of craftsmanship without a lot of talent, patience and coordination.
About to begin re- construction! A tired house in a lovely neighborhood outside of Boston, a rabbit warren of existing rooms, too many of them in fact, with small windows and little character, soon to be transformed into a spacious, open home for modern family living. And without adding enormous amounts of new square footage.
In the Main House rough plumbing and electrical work are finished and the walls are being plastered. The massive stone Chimney will help to organize the Great Hall into sitting and dining spaces. The exposed wood timber and structural decking roof system, with slender bronze tie rods, give the double height space a rustic feel. 
Recently we were fortunate enough to have a project of ours published in Boston Home and Garden, in an article entitled "Kitchens that Cook." This was a challenging project: we were asked to transform a tired 1950's split level in a desirable suburb of Boston into an open, airy modern home for an empty nester couple. Our clients requested a house that had the feel of a Manhattan loft, so we lifted the roof on the house, allowing the ceilings in the main living areas to soar to 18'. The kitchen cabinets pictured above are maple, with countertops of black granite, a stainless steel backsplash and an oak floor accented in walnut. (Photo by Greg Premru)
We just received some new photographs of a house we have designed in New Hampshire, on a lovely hillside looking out toward the back slopes of the White Mountains. The contractors are making excellent progress, and the landscape work has begun. Carpenters are busy inside with the interior wood trim and kitchen cabinets are being installed.
