This studio office addition to an 1890s Victorian in Boulder created a comfortable, functional office space that also maintained the historic qualities of the original home. Built for a children’s book author and illustrator (and the creator of the Cottonwood Custom Builder’s logo), the new design by Boulder’s M. Gerwing Architects, created harmony between past and present with high clerestory windows that echo the second story dormers of the historic house.

Inside the addition a main studio space intersects with a reading loft connected by a raw steel spiral staircase.

To connect the studio to the main house, a doorway was cut through the home’s original 18-inch thick stone walls, which were left exposed as “trim”. The exterior of the home is a combination of fir siding patterns that echo the shingles of the old house.