Presented as an opportunity to design an accessible addition for a married couple in their 90s, Scrim was commissioned as a pro-bono-based project in support of the client’s wish to age in place. The owner’s beloved home became unoccupiable due to the constraints of their decreased mobility in entering their house. The addition provides an elevator with exterior access at ground level (wheelchair-accessible from the driveway) and interior stops on the first and second floors.

The project was an opportunity to champion the role architects can play in providing pro-bono professional services to help community members in need of our unique capabilities. The architect’s role was stretched into organizing a team of consultants and builders in short order to accelerate the design and building process to facilitate access back into the home.

Scrim reflects the design guidelines for building an addition on historic homes. The addition connects to the existing 1910 structure without modifying the second-floor bedroom dormer or first-floor form. The singular aesthetic expression of clear, unfinished vertical Alaskan yellow cedar differentiates the painted clapboards of the existing home. The orthogonal massing of the addition’s design remains subordinate and compatible to the existing, street-facing home. Clad in a vertical board and batten composition, the lay-up transitions from solid wall to open guardrail structure and to privacy scrims over windows facing neighboring homes.

The addition is designed with large, western-facing windows and porches to provide unencumbered views to Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains.