This typical 70?s split level suburban home is being transformed into a highly detailed Art’s & Crafts style residence. It was the desire of our client here, a husband and wife contracting team,  to recreate their house in a style they admired while working with the “bones” of the original layout.  The couple phased the construction to live in the house during the work by keeping the bedroom wing in-tact while the public spaces were rebuilt entirely.  Jones Pierce brought to the table a design that would firmly establish a style they admired, the American Arts-and-Crafts exemplified by turn-of-the-century architects Greene and Greene, while capitalizing on rather than obliterating the predominant existing massing.  The result is a design which blends the Usonian origins of the 70’s Splitlevel with the eyecathcing detail of an earlier period.

Standout design features include the use of exposed stained timbers where they have the most visual impact: greeting visitors at the front entry, and at what will probably be the most-lived in-and-around space of the house: the elevated rear porch.  Natural lighting was a huge client priority, so vaulted rear spaces are provided with skylights that integrate with casement windows and transoms that redefine the open-to-nature solarium of the previous design.

Carrying the style inside means getting the period details right.  We interpreted the rift-sawn, stained oak running trim of Frank Lloyd Wright’s prairie houses and the Greene and Green aesthetic in a modern, budget-sensitive way without compromising on a well-integrated, architect-designed composition.  Large-scale pocket doors, art glass inserts and customized millwork take the interior far beyond the everyday. Functionally, the house had to be a “lifetime home” and includes an elevator, artfully placed to accommodate the four levels of the original house, and includes some of the most up-to-the-minute building technology.  Thinking long term, the client challenged us to incorporate at every turn construction elements and details that would prolong the life of the house and reduce energy costs. 

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