2 minute read
862 Fenimore Road Residence Additions and Renovations
CITATION
LARCHMONT, NEW YORK
MICHAEL GROGAN ARCHITECTURE
“The need to conserve modern structures has been recently recognized by Docomomo. This is a good example of a small project that reinforces the original language of the house, repairing deterioration and extending to bring cohesion to new areas of the house. Thoughtful gestures to the landscape were applauded. The jury appreciated the distinction in the drawings and captions between existing and new. Because of its location on a heavily traveled street, it inspires passersby to refresh their appreciation of the site.”
Jury Comment
Photo Credit: ©Albert Vecerka/Esto
This design involves additions and renovations to a 1958 modernist home that acquired a series of 1980s additions by architect Paul Rudolph. As the scope involved small yet conspicuous additions— primarily lower level expansions with link between the house and garage—a decision was made to blend the new extensions with the existing work. Though establishing clear differentiation between new and old is common, here the approach was informed by that of Rudolph himself. His additions, though expressive, nonetheless extended the existing language and materiality of the original. Similar to Rudolph’s earlier interweaving, a decision here was made to considerately supplement the existing elements by extending the spatial, material, and formal language of minimal wall and roof planes and informally-distributed apertures to resolve client demands while respecting and restoring all important elements in the predecessors’ work. A cohesive whole is thus achieved. Morphologically a series of grounded planes define the new additions as balanced counterparts to the loftier existing, elevated planes, most notably the dramatic series of Rudolph-designed entrance canopies covering a meandering, stepped entry sequence. Redolent of his Sarasota work, though in this context badly deteriorating, these have been restored to pristine condition. Other additions by Rudolph that transformed the home’s interior-exterior relationship were also preserved and fully-restored or, in the case of irreversible deterioration, rebuilt. Internally the renovation work sought to grant a cohesion to what was an uncoordinated series of spaces, most not by Rudolph. Externally, the new connection to garage, roof decks, and stairs was designed to resolve a complicated knot of circulation between various zones. This juncture offers the most conspicuous evidence of the addition, but the deployment of elements in the vein of the earlier architects enable this to read as one of well-considered, evolutionary accretion to the prior phases.
Project: 862 FENIMORE ROAD RESIDENCE ADDITIONS AND RENOVATIONS, Larchmont, New York Photo Credit: © Albert Vecerka/Esto
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