Colonials

“The simplicity and honest beauty of the early colonial styles have influenced American house design for over 300 years. The Neocolonial Style is a continuation of the Colonial Revival Style begun in 1925 as a return to the image of traditional American ideals."
American Shelter
Lester Walker

The Colonial, and the Neocolonial, house has over the last 75 years been typified by a boxy and bulky massing that echoes the original colonial home. Whereas the original had environmental and economic reasons to be this shape, these reasons no longer existing in the America of the 20th Century. So in transforming the Colonial we look to expand the house into its yard to breakup its mass and to give it a three dimensional quality that it previously lacked.

A Symphony of Parts

The Sound of Music

Built in 1941, this neo-colonial home is typical for its style and era, the original house had a large living room, large dining room, small kitchen, large parents’ bedroom, two small children’s bedrooms, and a small garage. A guest bedroom with porch was located over the garage. Again typical for its era, the house was closed to its yard. The rear façade of the house presented not much more than a solid wall to the yard.

Using the original home’s structure and siting as our departure point, we expanded the house along its rear and side. A new entry canopy at the front door provides shelter for guests arriving at the house. A new pediment has been added at the front to stress the verticality of the chimney, bay window, and bedroom windows and visually anchor the house. The new garage / parents’ bedroom addition is made distinct from the original house to break-up the overall mass of the house. A bay window to the east side and roof top deck above the new mudroom provide exterior space to the new parents’ wing. The new breakfast room and kitchen extends into the yard and has windows on three sides to catch morning and afternoon light. The barrel vaulted breakfast room is echoed at the front entrance by the new barrel vaulted canopy.

Bud Dietrich AIA ALA NCARB

15501 Bruce B. Downs Blvd. Suite 3708 Tampa, FL 33647

1310 Johnson Drive Suite 1715 Buffalo Grove, IL 60089

847-757-8001

bud@hfdarchitects.com