ARCHITECTURAL COLLABORATIVE

Situated on a sloping site with a shared driveway easement and prescribed parking on the lower level, the home was designed to maximize daylight into the walk-out basement. Parking was placed in the center of home to allow daylight and a connection to the outdoors in the surrounding rooms. By locating much of the home’s program below street level, the 3244 s.f. house maintains a scale in keeping with the surrounding historic mill cottage residences. The grade along the front of the site was pulled back from the home with stepped retaining walls revealing a sunken garden and above-ground basement walls. An entry bridge allows access to the front door above the sunken garden. UV-responsive, color-changing metal siding and cedar rainscreen clad the flat roof volumes of the home while fiber cement boards encase the shed roof volume. The shed was created to provide passive solar daylighting into the main living spaces while also providing south-facing roofline for a PV array. The home possesses a myriad of outdoor living spaces. The front balcony is a modern reinterpretation of the traditional southern front porch. The south side balcony is wrapped with a metal and cedar-clad bamboo planter which acts as a privacy screen and shading device. Accessibility was a strong consideration in the design as the homeowners were forward-thinking about aging in place. ADA-sized doorways and thresholds are provided as well as a shelled elevator shaft from the basement level.