The client has collected an interesting mix of eastern art (southeast Asian sculptures) and western art (18th and 19th-century American portraits and landscapes). Their 1935 Maurice Fatio home was too small to display the collection. They came to us for an expansion.
The program expectations doubled the existing square footage. Adding a giant wing would overwhelm and diminish the charm and identity of the existing house. Instead we looked to the un-built lot to the east. The solution: build a new pavilion informed and inspired by the scale and characteristics of the original house. A centerline through the site established the pool location. This lap pool, along with a covered walkway, creates the visual and physical connection between the two structures. Where the covered walkway touches the old and the new has been carefully considered. Using the existing building facade as a guide for the new pavilion’s design, we mirrored the scale and massing of the existing building onto our new structure on the eastern half of the site, beginning a literal and metaphoric architectural dialogue between east and west.