Additions
A Welcome Addition
When the owners of this house asked for an addition, architect Ralph Cunningham saw a chance to save it from itself. Built in 1912, the house, he says, was originally "an excellent example of the bungalow style." A 1970s family-room addition, however, was ill-matched to the home's traditional exterior. Inside, the addition stepped down oddly and jutted out from the original volume, disrupting the floor plan.
Cunningham's design eliminated the mismatched family room, replacing it with an addition that reunites the house with its bungalow heritage.
A gable roof with deep overhangs and exposed rafter tails and twin shed dormers aligned above first-floor bay windows all echo forms in the original structure. Approving of these nods to tradition, one judge said the addition "looks like it was always there."
But the design also breaks with the past, Cunningham says, providing interior living space designed to suit modern tastes. The addition includes a family room, breakfast area, and deck, plus a second-floor bedroom suite and cantilevered balcony. Such a contemporary plan, Cunningham notes, would never have been built in a 1912 home. Still, because the addition extends the original volume within one width, the new living space joins seamlessly with the old.
Category: Additions, over $250,000
Location: Washington, D.C.
Contractor: J. Scott Hundley, Potomac Valley Builders, Poolesville, Md.
Designer: Ralph Cunningham, AIA, Cunningham and Quill Architects, Washington, D.C.
