This residence is situated on 3 acres of land along a river in a Connecticut suburb. When the property was purchased there existed a home which belonged to an architect and his artist wife. Over three decades the architect added to the original early sixties suburban ranch. The first addition was a 2-story modernist box clad, and the second and third were studios for him and his wife. The couple passed away and the property sat deteriorating.

Our clients who purchased the property desired a home to accommodate the needs of them, their married children, and many grandchildren. The clients also requested to incorporate the many antiques and artworks from their previous historic home.

A major obstacle to renovating and further developing the site were code restrictions from the local Conversation Board, Planning Board, Zoning Board, Fema and the Dept. of Buildings. These setbacks and restrictions once charted on a survey indicated that the existing home was mostly in non-conformity and that a thin sliver of land was available to build on “as of right”.

After meetings with the various agencies of jurisdiction, it was determined that we could renovate the existing nonconforming structures as long as we did not propose an increase in volume and we could expand into the “as of right” zone.

Part of our solution was to repurpose the existing structures: artist studio into children’s sleeping/recreational wing, architect’s studio into a family living area and modernist box into kitchen and master suite. We then engaged the old with a new sinuous structure (in the “as of right zone”) which contain a new entry, mudroom area, garage, and workshop (our hobbyist client is building a boat). The new structure creates a front and rear courtyard of which we worked in a pool and outdoor kitchen area.