Welch Residence

The central brick portion of this house was built in 1820. The stone portion may have been slightly earlier and was likely built to house the family as the main house was under construction. Afterwards it became the kitchen, and was separate from the house itself. The two story portion was added later, and after several additions the kitchen remained in the same location. Four windows, two doors, and a very large hearth made this room very un-functional for a modern kitchen.

After exploring different ways of improving the kitchen, my advice to my clients was to simply leave it as it was. As long as it remained where it was, the location would never truly function as a proper modern kitchen. Naturally, the next thing was to look at potential alternate locations where a fully functional modern kitchen could exist. Ultimately the ideal location turned out to be on the other end of the central brick mass.

We were able to create a very large family space, including the new kitchen and pantries, as well as a new mud room, a bar, and a sitting/dining area. This space is flexible enough that it is now frequently used as an intimate family gathering space, with a dining area for four. However this space also transforms to a casual dining area which is able to accommodate as many as sixteen.

From the exterior, I was challenged to create a building that was tall enough to connect to the existing second floor without becoming too imbalanced with the other end of the house. This challenge, which included the balancing of roof lines, also allowed me to use cues from the existing house while invisibly including modern amenities such as a multi-level elevator and an attached garage.