This project re-organizes an 1849 barn's interior spaces with a layered series of lofts, bridges, and catwalks composed around a centralized gathering and performance space - all below a large new light monitor / cupola.  The space serves as a larger alternative to the small present living and dining rooms in the clients' adjacent antique home. The barn will accommodate extra guests, and serve as a general recreation and relaxation space.

 

Above the largely sound stone foundation, re-construction was comprehensive. Much of the timber was re-designed and re-built to accommodate new lofts and cupola. The former exterior wall plane was restored in-place for the warmth and character of the original materials, and then wrapped in an 8-inch blanket of insulation, the whole thing then sealed inside modern building-wrap, new clapboards, and thermal windows.

 

The 12 foot square barn doors were re-built and supplemented with glazed and screened companions. On the primary side, visitors can be welcomed emphatically with a quazi-ceremonial rolling-open of the massive doors, or one can sneak in via the "girl-scout door".

 

Builder: Colonial Barn Restoration 

Design: Tim Hess, David Chase, Chip Dewing all for DSA Architects 

Landscape Architect: Thom Wirth 

Interior Decorator: Manuel deSantaren

Kitchen: Kochman, Reidt + Haigh

Lighting Designer: Chris Ripman  

Photography: Richard Mandelkorn