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
The Restoration of a 19th-Century Barn
By Margaret Gilmour
By taking their time and creating a ten-year renovation plan, these homeowners overhauled a 1860s barn they now call home. Details include a geothermal system, radiant flooring and making use of architectural details they happened upon during rehab, or collected over the years.
If you’ve dreamed of living in a barn-turned-house, here’s a little inspiration from Kennett Square residents Traci and Bruce Jameson.
The couple says it was the description of the property that lured them to the old barn back in 1998. They had no idea the outbuilding was the part of the original Bayard Taylor estate.
The paper read: “For Sale: Barn home with stable yard and a secret garden.”
The Jameson’s had been searching over two years for an old house to restore, and as soon as they pulled into the driveway, they knew they’d found their project. They discovered the secret garden around back in the paddock. It had potential.
“We knew we could move in and live in it while we did the work,” Bruce Jameson says. “I calculated it would take about ten years to complete.”
It turns out, he was dead on.
It’s hard to believe that when the two moved in with their young children a decade ago that the previous owners had transformed the three-level, 1860s barn to a ‘60s contemporary. Details included wall-to-wall carpeting throughout, grid-less aluminum frame windows and one skinny metal front door painted turquoise. It was hardly a dream house then, but the two knew it could be in time.
With the goal of reverting the structure back to a barn, the Jameson’s started their rehab by hiring Pennland Contractors.
Bruce took on role of General Manager. Traci, with her background in graphic arts and design, became interior designer. Though this was their first remodel together, both grew up in old houses with families that took to restoring and repairing without question.
So they were well prepared, and they knew to proceed at brake speed.
“We weren’t independently wealthy. We needed to plan and save,” Bruce says. “We planned every detail out from the second we bought the house.” (more…)
Helena van Vliet: Architect For Your Senses
By Margaret Gilmour
Green architecture is a design philosophy that minimizes harmful effects on human health and the environment by using eco-friendly building materials and construction practices.
I talked with architect and land planner Helena van Vliet, whose work incorporates green building philosophies that embrace wellness. Her designs are built to nurture your body and soul, just as any retreat should, logically, yet, so many homes are designed with only style and function in mind.
Van Vliet, by contrast, plays up calming elements found in nature’s habitat, like the soothing sounds of water droplets or earthy materials meant to impress your senses.
Q: I understand that you offer your clients a variety of services including green architecture, interior design and healing. Can you explain how green architecture promotes healing?
There’s much more to creating a healing environment than just using non-toxic finishes, that’s a given.
To create a lasting healing environment, the building should begin to help establish or reestablish greater sensory awareness. (more…)
An Enchanted Home
By Margaret Gilmour
We were under the spell of architect Helena van Vliet’s charming house and simple lifestyle integrating village life with contemporary technology. The home’s curving architectural details add shape and texture to the open interior spaces colored in calm, earthy hues.
The Simple Home: The Luxury of Enough
By Margaret Gilmour
Just after we decided to make Chester County Dwell a reality, Leslie discovered this beautiful book. And its pictures and philosophy inspired us both as they seemed to echo ccdwell’s mission statement that we’d just about finished writing.
Inside its pages 21 houses are featured with six different approaches to creating a path to a simple home:
1. Simple is Enough
2. Simple is Thrifty
3. Simple is Flexible
4. Simple is Timeless
5. Simple is Sustainable
6. Simple is Refined
The concept is illustrated through full-color spreads of gorgeous photographs and through the lives and choices made by homeowners living in places ranging from small apartments to larger country homes. The author explains that simple doesn’t have to do with size, or style, rather it’s an attitude you take on and choose to embrace.
Even if you only look at the pictures, you’ll soon find yourself with an urge to de-clutter and scale back a bit. All the images are clean, spare and filled with ideas you can try right away, or use when planning future renovations. And the section on sustainable living is a great guide to living a greener, more responsible life.
The Simple Home will definitely inspire you toward a simpler 2009.
Buy it here: Good Reads
Getting Back to Basics
By Margaret Gilmour
We loved this home because innovative design decisions took the house’s original character and intimate scale into consideration. Walk into the addition, and it feels as if it’s part of the older structure. Yet, the well-conceived space is constructed with lasting materials and incorporates sophisticated energy-conservation strategies, as well as the basics: topography, sunlight and window placement.
