BROOKLINE RESIDENCE
Massachusetts

With Susan Bienen Johnson, interior designer

This substantial Queen Anne style house, designed by locally renowned architect E.A.P. Newcomb in 1882, has a two-level Roxbury puddingstone base with stucco and half-timbering upper levels. Over the years it alternated between a single and a two-family residence, and for a time it was a home for discharged prisoners and then a lodging house.

We worked with the owners to develop four concept options to revive the property. They chose a three-level rear addition with restorations and renovations to the existing house. The new plan clarifies the circulation through the house by adding a four-level rear stair tower that serves the top floor apartment and is also used by the owners to move between the floors of the addition.

The addition at the garden level has a yoga/exercise room with a bamboo floor over a radiant slab with an adjoining bedroom suite. At the main living level, the dining room is relocated to overlook the garden and opens to a renovated and enlarged family kitchen.

New and refinished quarter-sawn white oak flooring connects the rooms to one another. A gas fireplace with tile surround adds warmth to the dining room on cold winter days. A two-story bay window with expansive glazing, including transoms and sidelights, imbues the dining room and garden room with natural light. A side entry deck and stair give direct access from the dining room and kitchen to the lower terrace for outdoor dining.

At the third level, the master bedroom has a barrel-vaulted ceiling with lunette window and cherry flooring. The master bathroom includes a deep soaking tub; a combination of glass, porcelain and stone tile; a bamboo vanity and casework; and a radiant floor. A family bathroom, laundry area and storage are also included.

The top-floor apartment is reconfigured with a new dormer in the living room that connects to the gable-roofed stair tower. A panoramic band of windows brings natural light down through the suspended stair and provides a lookout over the neighborhood. The tower steps back at the top level to lessen the impact of its height on the garden.

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