Consultants: David Kefferman, PE (Structural Engineering)

In this significant AIA Honor Award winning Addition / Alteration to an existing 1960’s Modern house on a sloped site in Pound Ridge, NY – our office was asked to reconsider three major aspects of the current condition – creation of a formal entry, an addition of a master suite, and a sustainable re-cladding of the entire house. Our approach centered on a qualitative response to the inherent characteristics of the site, which included intrusion of large old growth trees into the immediate area of the house, the dramatic coloration of the site’s seasonal foliage, and the daily use of the occupants which prescribed clear articulation of private and public space. Our response to these challenges entailed floating a new master suite on a forest of columns that reinforce an existing line of trees and create a procession towards the newly organized formal entry suspended underneath.  The columns themselves operate as a sophisticated structural system where each tips towards a projected point at the center of gravity, giving an innovative balance, stability and equilibrium to the new addition.  The cladding begins to conceptually organize and index the interior space.   Public areas are detailed with a rain screen of warm cedar finishes reflecting the outdoor environment in which they are situated.

Consultants: CODE LLC (Expediting)

Method Design collaborated directly with Interior Designer Nina Blair on this project to renovate a 2000sqft Tribeca loft.  The primary condition the design team chose to combat in the alteration of the space was the lack of natural and direct sunlight into the main living spaces of the residence.  This is due to the construction of opaque partitions when the loft was converted to residential in the 1980′s blocking out direct sun from the south end of the residence.  The response from Blair+Method focused on the removal of the partitions to be replaced with 10′ tall all glass wall which flood the interior with light.   Within the general renovation of the rest of the apartment bathrooms were reorganized and expanded and the previously roomed in kitchen was designed into an open plan with the walls removed.  The material palate of the space mixes crisp contemporary materials and finishes fluidly with colorful details.

Builder: Steve Caputo

In Enrique Norton’s (TEN Arquitectos) newly completed 1 York residential project in New York City, Method Design was charged with re-programming a partially finished unit.  By using a single integrated piece of infrastructure, the space was capable of being transformed based on the client’s daily use.

A media wall, which acts as a spatial object offset in the center of the space and houses necessary infrastructure and storage, allows the apartment to be divided or joined together into continuous space through the operation of two oversized sliding partitions hidden within.  The media wall includes power, data, and A/V hookups on both spaces (public living room and private bedroom) for flush mounted televisions and a recessed niche on the main space side to set back the screen from protruding.  All data and A/V equipment is hidden away in a separate area of the apartment so not to be prominent on minimal aesthetic of the media wall.

Treating the noisy and obtrusive mechanical units in the space, Method Design used the same ideas of integrated infrastructure to develop a sophisticated cover that acts as a peeled-away extension of the wall surface to encapsulate the heat pumps.  Whereas mechanical units are normally left exposed in spaces, by treating them with a perforated cover which helps baffle noise while allowing for ample air flow, the units bleed away almost seamlessly into the wall.

Method Design Team: Reese J Campbell, Demetrios A Comodromos, Rachele Louis, Angela Pasquale

Method Design was initially retained for this AIA Citation winning project by the executive architect Amanda Martocchio Architecture and Design, LLC to act as building science and architectural consultants for a new single family residential project.  Due to the client’s wish that the project be developed around green and sustainable strategies, Method Design developed the initial dynamic massing and design concepts by integrating the site’s legal zoning constraints and programming requirements, with the necessary solar geometries for both passive and active systems.  Rather than treating sustainability as only an applied armature or product, the entire house operates passively through appropriate massing, orientation, and exposure to both sun and prevailing winds.  To further refine the passive process of the building, strategic shading systems were developed to block out harsh summer sun exposure while allowing for the benefits of passive heating through the lower winter sun angles.  Active sustainable systems, such as the use of the photovoltaic cells, were utilized on the roof of the solar wing of the house to further enhance to overall performance and reduce its reliance on energy.

The AIA Connecticut Awards Committee noted: “The jury liked the mastery of exterior details; in every corner, the building is pristine. The subtle use of two textures, the small scale details, and massing of the building are very strong. The central glazed wall between the two wings of the building is very successful. The jury liked the simplicity of the house best of all, it’s simple forms that relate well to each other. Its volumes and play with asymmetry work well, as does the eccentric roof on the tall pavilion that successfully shades the bedroom. It is a tidy, well thought-out project.”

Consultants: David Kufferman, PE (Structural Engineering), CODE LLC (Expediting)

The Vorkas Residence is an existing Row House Typology common in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, where each house shares a common demising wall with the adjacent property.  In this situation, an adjacent neighbor built out the entire bulk mass allowed by the NYC Zoning code, which broke historic cadence with the existing block and context.

To mitigate the recently created problem, the proposed design tries to respond to the pressing concern of the existing condition and resolve the lack of parity with the massing of the adjacent lots by developing a ‘projected mass’ which caps the existing volume on all sides and expands the floor area and perceived mass of the residence.  This is achieved by treating the new project as “two shifting bars” that carve away at the mass to create new outdoor balconies and interstitial spaces that mitigate the masses of both neighbors while also creating new ‘found’ space for the owners.  Materially the newly projected facades utilize the contextual brick in minimal way with clean detailing that overtly minimizes the mimicry of traditional details to create a contemporary response to a historic typology in New York City.