A Glass Cube Blends Old with New for Award-Winning Design

By Margaret Gilmour

A contemporary glass cube joins an 18th-century schoolhouse to a 19th-century barn as a geometrical centerpiece linking old and new.

When artist Clayton Bright takes you into his Chester County home, right away you notice how the palette of clean-lines and high ceilings are softened by the use of natural materials like the locust tree salvaged from the yard and made into a post, or the banisters retrieved and reused after the battered corn crib was torn down.

Even in the conservatory, a light-filled breezeway that connects the barn to the house, a cross section of a 282-year old white oak is built into the wall.

When Clayton bought the property just across the road from his Pennsylvania farmhouse in the mid-1990s, he intended to make it into a studio. In fact, he planned his renovation for years before construction began by collecting fallen trees, rescuing old doors from Lancaster County and recycling barn wood as he came upon it. “I began layering in the wares while I had the chance,” Clayton says.

Imagined additions came and went. The worn out 1750s bank barn and 1800s stone schoolhouse sitting for six years before Clayton contacted architect and neighbor Richard Buchanan of Archer & Buchanan Architecture Ltd.

Clayton wanted a plan to marry old with new. “I didn’t have the visual vocabulary to come up with the skin of the new building,” he says. “I knew I wanted the addition to be glass, and that I wanted a modern part to vibrate against the old part. But I had no idea how to put it all together.”

The two began collaborating on a design that was honored in October 2009 by the Pennsylvania Council, Society of American Registered Architects (SARA) Design Awards, for the addition and renovation.

“The scheme allowed us to knit the old house and the barn together at the first floor,” says Richard Buchanan. “As a consequence you only see the level changes inside the barn where the transitions are made.”

Outside, the rustic v-shaped timer brace and bold, contemporary gestures of the glass wall blends ancient Chester County buildings with sculptural expressions suited to the homeowner’s passion for the three-dimensional art form.

The design intentionally exaggerated the views to the valley below from both the conservatory and the glass great-room.

In the conservatory this is achieved with telescoped elevations receding away from the glass windows and upward into the hillside. As a result, you step downward from the guest room at the back, and into the conservatory’s front edge of the barn. Here, high ceilings accentuate the space while natural materials and colors subdue it.

“It’s a cascade of landscape from inside to outside,” Richards says. “And all of this is concealed in the restored skin of the old barn.”

The great-room addition, a two-story, geometric, ceiling-to-floor glass structure, was designed to meet Clayton’s goal of “creating the appealing and startling juxtaposition of ancient and modern,” says Richard.

The ample space also serves Clayton’s desire for a room alongside the kitchen where everyone always congregates. The first floor of the stone schoolhouse becomes a cozy, tavern-like dining room when more space is needed for family gatherings.

“There is a nice balance to be had when you make an adaptation to a house with respect for the old and yet express the new. We try to do this in a way that it can on some level be timeless,” says Richard. “You don’t want the new elements to be trendy and promptly fall out of favor, nor do you want the old to get swept away.”

No, the old doesn’t get swept away. Instead the history of the old dairy farm and stone schoolhouse are underscored by contemporary details that compliment the setting.

And, just as Clayton was in no hurry to jump-start construction, he is taking his time completing his renovation. It is still a work in progress. He admits to being “a solution oriented person,” tackling one project at a time. He does much of the interior work himself, engineering details like a sconce system that lights up an entire artery of the house so you can walk from one area to the next without flipping on a switch or being left in the dark.

Outside, because the house sat so close to the road, Clayton designed a walled sound barrier made of stone and bordered by a small, Japanese water garden he could view from the kitchen window.

“Clayton treats his house like one of his paintings or sculptures he keeps returning to,” Richard says. “He is enjoying polishing the details as he progresses. It’s an ongoing expression of his artistic talent.”

Time line:

Mid-1990s: Bought the property

2001: Sketch/concept made:

2002-2003:  Basic structure/framework for additions completed by Jack Young General Contracting.

Glass cube addition includes:

• downstairs: great room, kitchen, laundry/mud room area, powder room.

• upstairs: Master Bedroom, misc. elements of the background addition, 3 bedrooms + 2 baths

Restored barn includes:

conservatory-

•lower level: three tier Conservatory and Library with guest room, bath + storage area

• upper level: remains barn storage loft

apartment -

• above garage to the west

ECO-FRIENDLY DETAILS

• Hydronic radiant flooring throughout

• Double-glazed windows and Kawneer curtain glass systems

• Recycled wood + barn doors, hardware and fittings from old buildings/barns

• Reused architectural elements from older barns/buildings throughout the house (like doors, beams, salvaged stone, window sashes)

• Use of wood from the property for structural and sculptural pieces (at the stair)

• Collected architectural elements throughout the years to use later in the house

• Reuses water from pond to water plants, landscaping, garden pond feature

• The steel trellis is not only structurally integral but shades the glass façade in the summer (with grape vine); and when it dies in the winter it allows the sun to warm the interior clay tiles

• Saved existing structures for new use vs. tear down and new building

• Future planning of solar panel for natural energy

• Wherever possible materials locally obtained to reduce eco impact from travel

RESOURCES

Archer & Buchanan Architecture Ltd.

West Chester, PA

610-692-9112

John Young General Contracting

West Chester, PA

610-269-4296