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.
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:
