Merit Award, Historically Sensitive Renovation Over $300,000: Seaside Gem

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Seaside Gem

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Seaside Gem

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This former bed and breakfast gets a new lease on life as a single-family home.
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The original house was "underdesigned" says architect Anthony Barnes, and needed a new floorplan to open up ocean views.
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New, larger windows in the living room expand the water view, but instead of sheets of glass that would have looked too modern, Barnes used muntins and transoms to maintain the “human scale of the old cottage structure.”
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Barnes' design added arched openings in the two-foot thick stone walls to open the additions to the main house.
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The new family room has a better connection to the outdoors.
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The crew removed plaster to expose and highlight this stone wall near the kitchen.
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The master bedroom, stacked above the dining room, has a larger balcony

Priorities

Return a bed and breakfast to its original use as a single-family home
Enhance water views
Gut and rebuild damaged portions of the structure

Solutions

This 1880s summer cottage near Bar Harbor, Maine, had been used as a bed and breakfast for decades, until new owners asked architect Anthony Barnes to help transform it back into a single-family home. The home’s footprint could not be enlarged due to shoreline protection restrictions, but that footprint included additions made over the years that were now unsound, not easily accessible from the main house, and blocked sea views. Crews created larger arched openings to the kitchen and dining room by cutting through the 2-foot-thick stone walls. Second story additions provide a master suite.

Judges’ comments

The jury praised the architects’ strategy, which dramatically transformed the floor plan while remaining faithful to the intent of the home’s original design. “One of its strongest attributes is that it makes the most of its setting,” one judge said.