Meadow House

Kuhn Riddle received last year’s highest recognition from the Western Massachusetts American Institute of Architects, the 2010 Honor Award, for its “Meadow House.”

In their review of the project, the jurors called it “beautifully restrained,” noting that it revealed a “clarity, simplicity, and depth of understanding of the space.” The project’s site strategy was praised for “[claiming] the site without dominating it.”

KRA’S Elizabeth Morgan reflects on the project’s development to date:

This project began with a phone call from Tim Tomlinson, a general contractor in Western Massachusetts with whom we’ve worked on a range of residential projects. Tim had purchased a site in Hadley, MA a few years ago as a development investment.

When he called, he explained that he didn’t want to build a spec house and hope for the best —the market is too tenuous right now for such a risky move. So instead, he asked us to work with him to develop a comprehensive design for the site that included a small cluster of sustainable homes.

Hadley is an agricultural community spread across the plain of a river valley. Located between two college towns, it is a place with an iconic vernacular history of farmhouses and tobacco barns. The site, a seven-acre parcel near Amherst’s downtown and Hadley’s commercial district, is a rolling meadow that can accommodate three building lots. As planned, the property preserves two acres of shared open space that can never be developed.

Although the site is on the edge of a suburban zone, it is distinctly rural in character. We felt that the natural qualities of the site could be maintained if we conceived of outdoor spaces around each home as small jewels of manicured space set into an otherwise uncultivated landscape.

For the houses, we developed a design for a single-story, 2,000 square foot home with three bedrooms. The size, layout, and spaces can accommodate a variety of homeowners, from new families with children to recent retirees.

The design of the house is inspired by the tobacco barns and farmhouses of Hadley. We wanted to evoke the traditional architecture of the area, while still creating something in-line with our more modern aesthetic as designers. We also felt that this “modern vernacular” approach to the project would appeal to a broad range of homeowners. The simple geometric forms of the building are easy to construct and formally distinct. They are both modern and traditional, crisp and inviting.

In response to the program, we broke up mass of the house by separating it into a living zone and a sleeping zone. With this approach, we maximized views out and sunlight into the spaces. The climate of each volume can be controlled independently, since the spaces would be naturally trading-off the times they were most in use—the living volume during the day and the sleeping volume at night.

We staggered these volumes on the site to create a semiprivate zone in the front of the house that was south facing. Rather than a singular object in a field, the houses appear as clusters of outbuildings and barns and create a series of outdoor rooms with different scales, orientations, and characters.

The project began with a phone call. It ends – for now – with a hope. That people will want to build the houses we’ve designed – on this site or another.

That they will want to live and grow old within a timeless house that is rooted to its region, in context with its surroundings. And if they build at the Hadley site, we hope, above all, that the meadow will thrive.

Elizabeth Morgan

Before and (almost) After

Sometimes, the “before” and “after” says it all. This building, once a Packard dealership in Greenfield, MA, had seen better days but will now serve as offices for Greenfield Cooperative Bank. Click on the photos for a larger view.

More information on the project is available at our website..

Discovering Ode

Sometimes, things just come together.

When we began working with Kristin Kelly to design her new women’s clothing boutique in Northampton, MA, she expressed a desire that the store provide an experience of discovery for the people who shop there.

With a great downtown building as the project’s starting point, we embraced Kristin’s idea and made many discoveries along the way. From our initial sketches through design, demolition, and construction, the experience of working on this project was one of collaborative discovery.

Ode, a new women’s clothing boutique: A design based on the idea of discovery.

The space began covered with layer upon layer of materials, prior owners covering the last tenant’s vision…

another layer of sheetrock,
paint,
dropped ceilings,
carpet.

The layers were stripped away to reveal the bones of the 1850’s building beneath and to expose its hidden beauty: a plaster ceiling covered with medallions, a deep cove that encircled the rectangular space,

and brick party walls on both long sides, beautiful in their inconsistency and remnants –

a wooden header from a former window,
the occasional marble brick.

The structure of the building was exposed, the steel beam that moves through the space from storefront to back wall now playfully supported by wood columns.

To these discoveries, other found materials and objects were added:
wide wooden floor boards from an 1800’s barn loft,
antique trolleys,
vintage pipe stands.

These materials are mixed with modern, clean lines: crisp white walls that float in front of the brick, a simple layout of dressing rooms and office that create display walls, nooks, and alcoves.

The spatial idea is also one of discovery. The wide open glass storefront, a modern juxtaposition, allows views through the full depth of the store – the eye drawn all the way back: the flooring wraps up and over a series of boxes creating the shoe display. Above them, a turquoise patina wall catches and holds the eye.

As you wind your way back, a series of discoveries: petite vignettes in lit alcoves, the clean white walls a contrast to the red brick, each holding a “closet” of clothes that tells a story:

a character’s dress,
shoes,
a handbag.
An old dresser spilling open to expose exquisite bits of clothing.

The columns also tell a story; each one a placeholder for antique tables, dress forms, and display. The register counter, placed to capture a view of the entire store for the employees, is a painted medley of enormous moldings, capped with black slate.

Finally, after you’ve woven your way through:
a series of golden dressing rooms with linen curtains,
just waiting for you to try it all on.

Rachael Chase

Ode, at 263 Main Street in Northampton, MA, is across from The Academy of Music and opens Tuesday, August 17. A special Grand Opening night will be September 10, during Northampton’s “Arts Night Out.”

UPDATE! Ode is opening Wednesday, August 18.

Funky Chimney

A client sent us this recent snapshot of the old center chimney from their house in Hardwick, MA.

Shown here in a photo taken from the third floor (looking down to the second after the top of the chimney had been removed), the chimney has 6 flues of varying shapes and sizes, and the chimney walls are thin and pushed right up against the framing.

After some significant cracks developed (and a fire or two), they felt it was time to rebuild. With the new chimney, the owners will have four flues and a better night’s sleep!