Residential

A new shore house a block and a half from the beach, on a street of suburban-style houses. Its pitched roof relates it to its neighbors while narrow decks wrap two sides of the second floor like boardwalks. The entry is on the side, leading into the center of the house; a stair wraps a double-height space over the dining area, lit by a skylight. Kitchen, baths and other “servant spaces,” as Louis Kahn would say, are organized in a line along the north side. Featured in Philadelphia Style magazine; photographs by Daniel Traub.

After a devastating fire the interior was completely reconstructed. A small classical pavilion, a pedimented free-standing curved wall and an arched partition define the first-floor rooms, giving the feeling of walking through a townscape. A five-foot addition at the rear holds a two-story glazed atrium facing south for passive solar heat, and a sgraffito by Michael Webb decorates the garden wall behind a fountain. “A house is a microcosm of a city, and a good city has house-like qualities.” Photographs by Tom Crane.

A little-used two-car garage converted to a family room, opening to a patio with a demountable wood structure that serves as the family’s sukkah. The façade suggests the tablets of the Ten Commandments, a form echoed in the frame of the sukkah.

An informal living and dining space added to a 1950s ranch house. One wing is angled to face directly into the south sun; warm air gathered at the glass façade is ducted to the colder north side. Pediment shapes in the fenestration echo the gables of the existing house.

A third-floor studio added to a two-story row house for the artist Lily Yeh. A south-facing glass wall works as a passive solar collector over a slate-tiled concrete floor that stores the day’s heat, and a roof overhang shades the high summer sun. On the front, a wooden crane over French doors hoists heavy materials up to the studio.

Two adjoining apartments in I. M. Pei’s towers merged into one for a client devoted to Feng Shui and Asian art. Three George Nakashima pieces set the direction and mood of the interior.

A seaside retreat for a Philadelphia doctor. Living spaces are raised to the second and third floors above parking, in view of coastal flooding. A rigorous linear form is softened by balconies and porches facing land and ocean, its white exterior a contrast to the red brick of Philadelphia.

A smooth modern house on a narrow lot among traditional houses. A central stair rises through the house to a roof terrace with views of the ocean; bedrooms are on the ground floor and the living spaces flow together above, set apart by changes of level.

An addition to a Victorian house that brings an elevator, hidden in the body of the house, from the street to the second-floor bedroom of Doug Ewbank, with a new sunroom and an accessible bathroom. The fire escape required for the third-floor apartment widens into a decorative balcony and descends to a new terrace over the garden.

A row of three new houses on an abandoned block of North Opal Street, near his carriage house studio, which he designed and developed. In the center, a carriage house with two parking spaces and an apartment above; to either side, three-story “studio houses” in Philadelphia red brick with tall ground-floor windows and wrought-iron guards.

A new red-brick town house on a vacant corner lot for developer Scott Donahue, with a mansard third floor to match its neighbors and an angled bay on the long 23rd Street façade. The corner site allows a central entry with living and dining rooms to either side.

Two back-to-back town houses running through from North 20th Street to Opal Street, with private gardens between them and flat but lively facades without projecting bays. Unbuilt.

A three-bedroom house with porches that echoes the traditions of Caribbean residential architecture.

A house divided into five apartments restored to a single-family residence, in phases: children’s bedrooms and playrooms, a secure garage and a small patio.

A four-floor renovation for a couple who wished to have separate quarters: his suite on the second floor, hers on the third, a library and exercise room above. A rear addition off the alley holds parking, a kitchen, a dining area and an atrium, topped by a tiled roof terrace.

An apartment overlooking the Square for a lawyer with an important collection of paintings and sculpture. With curator Scott Ryder he placed and lit each work; most hang along a long vaulted corridor finished, like the rest of the apartment, in new walnut millwork.

Two apartments combined around a central living and dining area, with the kitchen behind folding doors of etched glass and a custom bar in cream lacquer.

An apartment for the pianist Gary Graffman, newly president of the Curtis Institute of Music, and his wife Naomi. A second bedroom became a dining room behind an etched-glass door; a display shelf holds his Chinese art; a diner-style breakfast booth sits against the window over Walnut Street, and a moon-shaped opening echoes the Chinese theme. Published in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

A showcase apartment, with interior designer Judith Lieb, conceived for a sculpture collector. Built-in placements for sculpture include a miniature round classical temple holding a standing figure by Christopher Cairns. Published in The New York Times.

For developer John Turchi, a rental apartment building on the lot left empty after twelve small historic buildings were demolished in 2000. Recessed open-air terraces along the front give cafes covered seating on a street whose sidewalk is too narrow for tables. Unbuilt.

Renderings for a large stone house.

An addition and garage for a city house.

An addition to a suburban brick house.