Project Description
2016 Residential Architect Design Awards
Renovation/Adaptive Reuse: Award
The TP-H Residence is a 1,152-square-foot addition to a 1948 adobe-brick house in Palo Alto, Calif., that provides a fully accessible dining room, two bedroom suites, and a reading room for a couple who expect to spend their retirement years there. Alexander Jermyn Architecture reprised the materials and formal language of a 2011 addition, balancing the earlier wing with four new volumes—three white solids with sharply defined fenestration, and a glazed link. “In plan, it relates to the existing house, but still does its own thing,” juror Kevin Kudo-King said.
The minimalist palette extends to every detail, including the custom aluminum windows with frameless edges. Mature American elm and plum trees were preserved on the site, and the new addition engages the garden with windows and glass doors that are positioned to control views into the landscape. “It has a great relationship between inside and outside which was executed in a playful and abstract way,” Kudo-King said.