This is a first floor renovation and second floor addition of an existing one-story house. The kitchen moved from one side of the house to another, creating an open plan flow between kitchen, living room and views to the backyard. Views through the house from the front door, tucked to the side are carefully choreographed to pull you through the house with ease. The muted hues highlight the owner’s colorful collection of artwork.

Photographs by Johnathan Kelso

This 1940’s existing one-story brick house contained elements of both the 1930’s bungalow and soon to be ranch house of the 1950’s.  The first floor plan was opened up so that it spiraled around a new second floor staircase with a red solid wall as it’s focal point.  On the other side of the red wall is a wet bar counter that serves the built-in banquette.  As you move through the space, open views balance artfully placed walls or built-in elements for privacy and separation of spaces.   A successful open plan is not just about removing all walls, but carefully choreographing what is opened up and what is shielded.

The kitchen would not be complete without a dog bowl bar built in to the end of the counter.  A new second story was added that maintains the one-story appearance from the front of the house. The second floor included three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a large family room.

Photographs by Johnathan Kelso

This project involves a complete renovation and addition of a 1950’s home in Atlanta. The existing one-story home was renovated and a second story was added to the structure.

The signature piece of this project is a new glass enclosed living room off the back of the house with concrete floor and angled cathedral ceiling.

A key component to this project was to move natural air through the house to efficiently cool it down during warm Atlanta days. Motorized transom glass windows were located above the open family room on the second floor. With carefully positioned ceiling fans, naturally cool air is pulled from the low windows at the first floor level up through the stairwell and exhausted out of the transom windows at the top of the space.

This project involves the renovation of and addition to a 1940’s brick house in the Minimal Transitional Style that is typical of the area. This style marks the transition from 1930’s bungalow houses to 1950’s ranch homes.

The design called for the opening of many of the smaller first floor rooms into an open floor plan to improve the flow and visual connection between the once closed-off rooms. The stair to the second floor was rotated so that it engaged with the bustling center of the house rather than hiding in a back hallway. A large island plays multiple roles in the organization and function of the space. On the kitchen side, it functions as a kitchen island with cabinetry below and knee space for stools. As it extends into the dining room, the island has open shelves for displaying books and pottery.

On the second floor a new master suite and guest bedroom with an en-suite bathroom were created by expanding the house toward the rear of the existing attic. In order to save space, we combined the master and shower and master tub into one larger space so as not to lose the retail value of the tub nor the practicality of a larger shower.

This project involves the renovation and addition of a small 1930’s bungalow. A complete renovation of the first floor provided the owners of this house with an open floor plan; where kitchen, dining and living room are all visually connected and receive natural light from three sides of the house. A new master suite located in the rear of the first floor plan, provides a quite space away from the busy center of the house.

In order to achieve greater ceiling height in the living room, we stepped the floor down rather than raise the ceiling due to an existing second floor. This created a natural separation between the kitchen and living room while bringing the living room two steps closer to the back yard. 

This four season house was built upon an existing summer cottage footprint that sits pinned between a private dirt road and a lake front yard.  The open plan living space is designed to maximize the view to the lake while maintaining privacy from the dirt road without turning its back to it.  The kitchen is situated on access with the screened in porch with French doors that open 180 degrees to blur the distinction between indoors and out.  A high transom window in the living room allows for the view to expand vertically and watch the trees soar above.

Natural materials such as local bluestone, cedar siding, hickory floors and a reclaimed wood mantle take cues from the surrounding landscape.

This client purchased a log home from the 1700’s that was dismantled and trucked to the site.  The architectural task was to design a house around the historic log cabin that would be re-assembled on the site and new mortar, called chinking, installed between the logs.  The logs were showcased throughout the plan both outside of the home as well as inside.  The logs and their linking corners are the organizing feature to the home.  The interior of the log home is repurposed as the formal dining room, integrating new and old wood.

The deep front porch of the house offers a view of the corner of the log home.  The great living room has a view of the logs underneath a catwalk that joins the two sides of the second story.  The owner’s artifact room has view toward the double-height great room opposite the two-story fireplace built out of local river rock found on the 100 acre site. The stair pulls natural light through the open risers in between the chunky wood treads.

This existing one-story bungalow sits in a historic district of Atlanta.  A new second floor with front dormers and a new gable roof were added to house five kids bedrooms, two bathrooms and an open play area.  The kitchen was expanded to incorporate a free-form island sitting on top of the restored existing kitchen cabinets.  The existing corner screened in porch was incorporated into the interior space of the house allowing for a large, light-filled corner dining area in the open plan.

What is the most important element to designing a house for five kids? A functional, light-filled mud room. A built-in shoe bench, hooks and cubbies as well as a cork board for messages sit at the base of the stair ready to get any family organized at the start and end of each day.

Photographs by Johnathan Kelso

When adding a second floor to a small 1930’s bungalow in a historic neighborhood with roof and height restrictions, the first question is always where to put the stair.  This project places the stair in prominent view towards the rear of the open living space that naturally divides the dining room area from the mud room which leads to the master suite.  The central stair participates in all aspects of daily life including stadium seating for whatever is going on in the living room.

The screened in deck offers a soaring view of the 100-year old trees in the back yard with a new gable roof. The private back deck provides an aviary-like oasis from the social front porch.

Photographs by Johnathan Kelso

This ground-up, new construction house posed two problems that were solved with architectural means. First, the owner purchased a corner lot in a very social community and wanted to find a balance between addressing the two street fronts as well as a private backyard oasis. The architectural solution took the form of two squares that linked together. Each square addressed their public street fronts with windows and an entry “front” porch where the two forms overlapped in the center. This layout created a natural barrier to the backyard which had an even larger deck, shielded from the street by the house itself.

The second concern was how to make the partial second floor that was built under shed dormers not overheat in the summer. The traditional Gable roof design does well in hot climates like Atlanta because it allows the hot air to rise up through the attic. When building a shed dormer, there is no attic buffer between the living space and the roof. The architectural solution was to put a green roof on the shed dormers which would not only cut down on water runoff and pollutants, but most importantly would add extra insulating qualities to the interior space below.

Ever wonder if a historic neighborhood would accept a green roof? The answer is yes! This project involves the design of a free-standing two-car garage in the rear of a single family residence in a historic district. The historic commission not only allowed the construction of a green roof but praised it for incorporating environmentally friendly solutions.

The green roof garage is conceived as a single pitch shed roof to hold modular planters designed to receive a variety of planting material that require little maintenance. The roof will be visible from the rear patio as well as neighboring yards which sit higher than the client’s lot. This roof will appear as a plane of greenery among the newly landscaped retaining walls and plantings.

Green roofs help reduce storm water runoff rates, volumes and pollutants.

This project started with a 1940’s one-story bungalow with cantilevered corner additions from the 1970’s. The renovation included a new second story addition, a transition space to link the existing garage to the house, and raising the existing ceiling height by two feet to accommodate a new layer of transom glass throughout.

This post war Transitional style house was transformed into a Prairie Style house with Frank Lloyd Wright elements including an open plan that pinwheels around a sculptural hearth, large eaves over a transom glass level in order for natural light to penetrate deep into the interior space.

How do you add on to a 5,000 square foot castle with 18” thick stone walls built in 1920? With the opposite of thick stone walls, steel and glass. This projects converts the first floor of a recreation room that once housed carriages and then cars, into an over-sized eat-in kitchen. Above the kitchen the existing metal roof- enclosed deck will be replaced with a light and airy steel and glass conservatory.

This 1930’s one-story bungalow is situated in a historic Atlanta neighborhood. The renovation includes removing a non-historic sun porch, a complete first floor renovation as well as a new second floor addition. The second floor is tucked into a new gable roof in order to maintain the historic character.

This American Foursquare house from 1920 will get a two-story addition in the rear. The addition will add a spacious new kitchen, expanded dining room and new master suite.