Project Details
- Project Name
- The William Landsberg House
- Location
- NY
- Architect
- Stephen Moser Architect
- Project Types
- Single Family
- Project Scope
- Renovation/Remodel
- Size
- 3,200 sq. feet
- Year Completed
- 2016
- Project Status
- Built
Project Description
The architect’s challenge in renovating and restoring William Landsberg’s historic house in Port Washington, Long Island was to take a beautiful piece of mid-century modern architecture and to respectfully but creatively integrate the design elements of a contemporary Japanese-American lifestyle. The 1951 house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The architect and new owners entered the design process with deep admiration for the house’s Bauhaus-inspired style and hillside setting, while also wanting to make it comfortable for a young family used to living in a Japanese home. The “floating” rectangular-box structure and simple lines of the house were aesthetically suited to the clients’ design sensibilities and wish list, which included a teppanyaki-cooking island in a kitchen that opened to the living room; a narrow engawa-like deck along the back of the house; a master bathroom with a deep ofuro-type soaking tub; a tatami guest room; and a patio big enough to play ping pong. It was also important to make technological upgrades so the house could function sustainably in the 21st century, and, on a smaller scale, to fix those parts of the house that were worn out or not working. History: Landsberg, who built the house for his family and lived there until his death in 2013, was an accomplished architect, with a regional following. In the late 1930s, he studied with Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer at Harvard University, and later worked for Breuer in New York City, becoming his director of design. He helped Breuer execute his first “House in the Garden” project for the Museum of Modern Art. In 1956, he started his own practice. He bought the land for 5 Tianderah in Baxter Estates in Port Washington in the late 1940s for $2,500. The lot was thought to be unbuildable because it was on such a steep incline. (To this day, when it snows, the street is closed to cars and is used by children for sledding.) To build the house, Landsberg carved the first-floor masonry base into the hillside and extended retaining walls out from the north and south to create level surfaces for the front driveway and the rear yard. Landsberg’s Design: The 3,200 sf house is a deceptively simple structure: a long rectangular wood box that appears to float on top of its base. Landsberg accomplished this structural sleight of hand by cantilevering the second story several feet in three directions. The second story and garage doors are clad in vertical cypress siding. The custom-fabricated wood curtain wall with sliding windows and casement windows floods the upper floor with light. The ground level consists of a two-car garage, a small entry vestibule, a home office space, and mechanical equipment. A switch-back, open-tread stair (its exposed wood stud frame doubling as a guard rail) leads to the second-story stair hall, which provides access to the living room, kitchen, and bedrooms. The living room, with painted brick fireplace, and dining area occupy the entire north end of the house. Large windows on three sides overlook the brook and verdant hillside. In the original house, the kitchen and bedrooms were utilitarian spaces—and were, after sixty-five years, in sad repair. Renovation & Restoration: The clients bought the house in spring 2015. The couple had recently moved back to the United States after living in Japan for almost a decade. She had been born in Japan and he grew up in Nassau County, not far from the house. They were living in New York City with their young son, and were looking for a home outside the city that was within easy commuting distance. They had spotted the house online and loved the way that it was built into the hill, as well as its simple lines and flowing spaces. It reminded them of homes in Japan. She had studied architecture in college, and appreciated the house’s historic legacy. A Nassau County native, he thought it looked “cool” and appreciated that it wasn’t like most of the other homes in the area. The centerpiece of the renovation was the reconfiguration of the kitchen and laundry areas in the middle of the house. The kitchen was opened up to the living room by replacing a solid wall with a structural wood screen. The laundry room was incorporated into the master bath, and the washer and dryer moved next to the kitchen. Working with Henrybuilt, the Seattle-based kitchen manufacturer, the architect and clients developed a new kitchen in the spirit of Landsberg’s house. For example, the same bright mango-orange color was used for the cabinets and the abstract metal wall clock was restored. Henrybuilt even created a new cabinet pull based on the one used by Landsberg. At the same time, the kitchen was updated with the large island with teppanyaki cooking appliances to allow the clients to prepare and serve food Japanese-style to family and guests seated at stools around the island. Other Japanese-inspired design elements: a large closet in the entry vestibule for shoes since slippers are worn in the house; a narrow outdoor wood deck at the rear of the house that has the same depth, three and a half feet, as the overhanging roof, and is level with the interior floor, providing a dry place to put on and remove shoes, like an engawa in a Japanese house; cypress wood paneling in the master bedroom suite; and, in the master bathroom, a separate wet room with shower and large ofuro-style tub (a deep soaking tub, traditionally made out of wood; in this case, a modified fiberglass tub without an overflow). In the guest bedroom, the most consciously Japanese-styled space, thick tatami mats cover the floor, a small tokonoma niche displays art objects, the door slides like a shoji screen, shitake-colored, sand-texture paint covers the walls, and a low cabinet stores a futon and doubles as a kneeling desk. Technological upgrades include new high efficiency heating and cooling systems; new insulation and EPDM roof; replacement of glazing units in windows and sliding doors with high-performance, insulated glass units; house exterior restored (cypress wood siding power-washed to remove layers of stain, damaged wood boards replaced). A final note: A new concrete patio large enough to play ping pong was built in the back yard. The patio’s design, inspired by Landsberg, uses wood strips to form the concrete: the wood remains, creating with the concrete a subtle pattern of staggered rectangles. (Sadly, the architect hasn’t taken a single game from the client, but he’s still trying.)