Newton Center Stair Colonial

• City: Newton, Massachusetts
• Notes:

  Another classic house type that we find here in Newton, MA, the center stair colonial originally built in the 1930’s.  These houses are characterized by a front entry directly onto a staircase that bisects the first floor, with living to one side, dining, the other with a kitchen to the rear, they are notoriously segmented with poor communication between the spaces.

  As with many houses of this vintage, this example had gone through a number of poorly considered and constructed renovation and additions.  We were tasked with creating a new open floor plan on the first floor, where the kitchen, living and dining room spaces are continuous and open to one another, a new garage, and secondary mudroom entry.  We stripped the structure back to the original 1930’s structure and added, or rebuilt, two new side wings.

  The second floor was re-organized to house a new primary bedroom suite, “jack-and-jill” children’s bathroom, and three children’s bedrooms.

  The yard required a series of retaining walls that allowed for new patio living space and a level playing yard