The Landgrafs, a couple from Staten Island, had a small house for weekends and summer vacations. It was a nineteen-fifties structure and didn't take full advantage of the view down into the valley. The addition we designed was only eight hundred square feet, an extension to the master bedroom and a new family room, but it opened the side of the house that faced this spectacular view.

We also entirely changed the demeanor of the home by adding a porch to the front and connecting the addition to the new porch with a common ridge. When we first arrived on the site the house had tiny windows and looked almost like a mobile home. When we left, it was a grand structure with a dramatic interior which surprised visitors with a view of the valley below.

The stair from the upper story to the lower was a series of plain 2x10 planks, suspended by steel rods.

(This project contained two of our favorite details. There was a deck support which we rested on a stone. For it to sit properly on the stone we needed to chisel a flat spot into the natural stone, which was part of the site. The other detail was at the very top of the pyramidal, cathedral ceiling, which was cedar. At the very apex a lattice of small pieces of cedar made a hollow, reverse pyramid which descended back down.)

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