Goodman House in NY by PRESTON SCOTT COHEN INC

Article source: PRESTON SCOTT COHEN INC 

With its monumental scale, the Goodman House extends the Modern legacy of radical gable form houses that began with McKim Mead and White’s Low House, was famously reinterpreted by Robert Venturi in his mother’s house and continues to hold the attention of numerous architects to this day.

Image Courtesy © Raimund Koch

• Architects: PRESTON SCOTT COHEN INC
• Project: Goodman House
• Location: NY, U.S.A
• Photography: Raimund Koch and Victoria Sambonaris
• Client: Arnold and Elise Goodman
• Project Type: Private Residence, Adaptive Reuse
• Project Schedule: Design, 2001-2002; Construction, 2003-2004
• Program: 4500 sq. ft. house including a Dutch Barn structure. Open living, dining and kitchen, breezeway/winter garden, four bedrooms, three bathrooms
• Design: Phil Wu, Kay Vorderwuelbecke, Wynne Mun, Aaron D’Innocenzo
• Consultants: Jack Sobon (Dutch Barn Specialist)
• Structural Engineers: Don Montgomery, Bill Bishop
• Lighting: Daina Yurkus

Image Courtesy © Raimund Koch

Like a guitar in its case, the Dutch barn frame within the house is foiled by its modern encasement.  The clients’ affection for the antiquated timbers combined with their desire for an excessively lit and predominantly undivided loft-like interior did not allow for the reintroduction of the mezzanines and partitions that typically stabilize barn structures from within. Lateral structural stability is reintroduced by means of a steel frame surrounding the timber structure.

Image Courtesy © Victoria Sambonaris

The building envelope is a curtain wall composed of irregularly distributed windows supported by the peripheral steel frame. It is as if nostalgia caused the emergence of a Modernist paradigm of construction more fitting to a commercial building than to a house. The narrowness of the graying cedar planks and free disposition of the windows creates the illusion that the façades are poured-in-place concrete.

Image Courtesy © Raimund Koch

Due to a passageway traversing the width of the whole interior space, the house seems to be turned inside out. Thermally transformable, the passageway converts into a winter garden by means of slide up screen doors and roll down glass doors. The living area and kitchen are combined seamlessly in contrast to the small bedrooms within one aisle of the tripartite barn frame. The relationship between open and compartmentalized spaces, large and small windows, the rustic and refined structural components and surfaces creates a rich and variable environment for living, entertainment, and exhibition of folk art.

Image Courtesy © Raimund Koch

Image Courtesy © Raimund Koch

Image Courtesy © Raimund Koch

Image Courtesy © Raimund Koch

Image Courtesy © Raimund Koch

Image Courtesy © Raimund Koch

Image Courtesy © Raimund Koch

Image Courtesy © Victoria Sambonaris

Image Courtesy © PRESTON SCOTT COHEN INC

Image Courtesy © PRESTON SCOTT COHEN INC

Tags: NY, U.S.A.

Category: House

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