Northshore Home magazine highlights the best in architectural design, new construction and renovations, interiors, and landscape design.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1463863
78 hen a young family with four children bought a picturesque property in Ipswich, the setting stunned from all angles. Situated at the cusp of the Crane Estate's vast conservation acreage, the lot charms with rolling lawn meandering between stands of trees. Farther afield, marshland and sky dominate the horizon in painterly strokes of green and blue. The c. 1917 house, however, did not measure up to the land's aesthetic. It was sizable but awkwardly arranged inside and lacking discernible style outside. Its new owners wanted to improve the home's curb appeal, functionality, and marsh views—all while honoring its history and local vernacular architecture. They turned to Patrick Ahearn Architect, a firm specializing in classic architecture for contemporary living, to spearhead a transformative renovation. "It was like an elongated ranch—very horizontal in arrangement," says veteran architect Patrick Ahearn, FAIA, of his first impression. "It had been added on to over time without consideration for the whole. This resulted in a rabbit's warren of rooms and plenty of square footage but no strong connectivity between living spaces." To tell a new story for the house, one appropriate for a 100-year-old structure in a coveted coastal setting, Ahearn transformed the nondescript exterior into a Shingle-style gambrel. "We reinvented the roof with double gambrels, which add much-needed verticality," explains the architect. A new entrance portico topped with a Chippendale railing punctuates the symmetrical façade. Cladding the base of the home in a stone veneer anchored it into the landscape and broke up the elevation's wood shake cladding. "We didn't want it to read like a three-story white box," Ahearn reasons. The property's transformation included a refreshed W