2018 City of Decatur Design Award for Residential Historic Rehabilitation.

The original home was built in 1933 with CMU, hard coat stucco and plaster in a Mission Style with Mediterranean accents. The interior walls are 9” thick and solid concrete while both the first and second floor are elevated slabs. The original home is filled with unique details such as steel casements windows, low wooden doors, minimal trim, rounded corners, and arches. The design was and is still very unique in The Winnona Park Historic District which is full of beautiful homes with various styles.

The new owners wanted to renovate the home to accommodate their growing family, but moving the existing CMU interior walls was not feasible so it was decided to design an addition. The addition provides features the original home lacked such as a spacious kitchen, family room and a master suite. The new kitchen is placed along the existing exterior rear wall and open to the new family room. The addition nestles into the sloping grade and creates a courtyard adjacent to the family room thus providing indoor / outdoor living connected by a large sliding door. The interior details of the addition complement the existing home with similar features such as clad casement windows, minimal trim, rounded corners, arches and thickened jambs. The exterior provides a continuation of the Mission Style and Mediterranean details with hard coat stucco, round windows and hipped roof. The addition compliments the original home, but also simultaneously stands on its own.

The existing conditions and site presented a unique design challenge. Through careful design and attention to the detail; the owner, architect and contractor conceptualized, designed and built an addition to accommodate todays standard of living alongside an 85 year old home which was given new life and can remain an important fixture in a historic neighborhood.