WINTHROP RD., BROOKLINE

Like many of Brookline's marvelous two-family houses, this building built around 1890 had been altered many times.  The replacement of an aging kitchen presented the opportunity to take advantage of the unique siting of this house - sitting at the top of a slope with an extensive and wooded rear yard.  The sequence from the street, to the existing (slightly modified) materially rich and introverted central hall, to the 'release' of the framed view of the treetops from the kitchen becomes the memorable counterpoint to the cross-axial en filade of the original rooms.  As a result, this larger spatial composition gives gravity to the new sequence and becomes the most striking and memorable event of the house.  The additional task of reconfiguring the somewhat haphazard and piecemeal organization of the storage and bathroom allowed the master bedroom, bath and guest bath to be greatly simplified and brought into a more spatially cohesive and efficient union with the original plan of the house.  

In the lower level, formerly a basement apartment connected by a service stair, the expanded program of study, guest bedroom and bath, wine cellar and laundry suggested the redesign and reversal of the stair, which, now integrated with the interior of the house, becomes a space for the vertical display.  The layout of the lower floor, through the use of floor to ceiling sliding doors, was designed so that the whole space adjacent to the rear yard could be enjoyed when the guest bedroom was not being used and could be easily reconfigured for privacy when required.