Midcentury craftsman house
Chautauqua Institution, New York·An existing house, reimagined·Built with Alexander Construction
- Where
- Chautauqua Institution, New York
- Type
- Existing midcentury house, reimagined and rebuilt, with a downstairs apartment
- Work
- Design, Architectural Review Board approval, construction with Alexander Construction
- Service
- Chautauqua Institution
Midcentury lines, Chautauqua rules.
The owners started with a tiny one story house on a slab, on a narrow lot inside the grounds. One of them is a concert pianist, so the list was specific: a music room, three bedrooms plus a guest room, and a rental unit on the lower level. The lot sits in a part of the Institution where new work has to recall the plain midcentury modern houses around it, and the firm needed a variance from the Institution to add the floors.
The answer was two full floors over a lower level, with decks on the south side and a full glass wall with transom windows along the whole south face. The views go into a wooded lot owned by the Institution, one of very few left on the grounds. From the front walk the house fits in beside its neighbors. The main room runs living, dining and kitchen in one line, and at the far end the music room, with its grand piano, closes off behind a twelve foot movable wall when the sound needs to stay in. Below, a separate apartment has its own entrance off the back deck.
Trees had to come down with the Institution’s approval, and some neighbors did not understand the plan at first. They do now. The firm has been back for musical gatherings in that room. Alexander Construction built it, and the work finished in 2022.
The owners wrote about the process afterward.
Don and his team were wonderful to work with. It began with a long conversation during which Don really listened to what we wanted our new home to be. He made our vision come alive, and together with the skillful craftsmen of Alexander Construction, vision became reality. We appreciate the ease of communication we had with Don, and all the ways that Harrington Architecture made this process more enjoyable.
From the front, it fits in beside its Victorian neighbors. Behind, a wall of glass faces the trees.
Inside and out.
The house as it was.
Have a lot or a house on the grounds?
Decades of projects approved by the Architectural Review Board. A few lines about what you have in mind is enough to start.