New England Ranch Remodel

This rambling mid-century house in Andover, MA was designed in 1952 by William Hajjar. Hajjar graduated from MIT in 1942, 40 years before Flavin Architects' founding principal, Colin Flavin, enrolled there. In addition to his focus on designing houses, Hajjar was also active in research and developed double glass curtain walls, an early innovation in making buildings more energy efficient.

Our client had outgrown the original single-story house, and our challenge was to add a second floor without losing the low-slung character of the original massing. Our addition is set discretely at the rear of the house away from the street. We extended a rectangular bay window up to the new second floor, linking the new to the existing. To reach the second floor, we designed a new steel stair that wraps around the home’s original massive bluestone fireplace The second floor includes a primary bedroom suite and study. The exterior color scheme is a striking contrast of charcoal siding and white-painted concrete masonry units. In keeping with the spirit of Hajjar’s vision of energy-efficient housing, the home features a generous number of south-facing windows to maximize passive solar light and heat.