Compressed zones, like the kitchen, are treated with dark materials. Photo © Doublespace Photography

To help accomplish this, the design team loaded the bulk of the cabinetry, stairwells, bathrooms, and the kitchen into distinct volumes on the opposite side of the house’s first and second floors. Those constricted zones stand in contrast to the more open living and dining rooms. This duality is further expressed through several material choices: tighter spaces are treated with dark, textured lime-wash walls and stained walnut wall panels, while open spaces feature wide-cut white oak and beige travertine on the floors and walls. “While we came to the clients with a project massing and orientation, they brought forward a particular materiality,” notes Jodi Batay-Csorba. “You can see the dichotomy between her mark, on the bright and open spaces, and his, in the darker, more compressed zones.”

The primary bathroom and bedroom are amply daylit. Photo © Doublespace Photography

A U-shaped stairwell in the center of the plan leads to the second level. There, the absence of an attic allowed the architects to take full advantage of the steeply pitched roof to position numerous skylights high above the second-floor hallways, bedrooms, and bathrooms. The cathedral-like effect of the double-height spaces culminates within the primary bedroom. There, the 20-foot-tall dormer and its window suffuse the room with light, even with the brise soleil over the balcony outside. The effect is enhanced by the contrast with the en suite bathroom’s starkly different dark travertine flooring and wall panels. Below grade, the basement level comprises a guest bedroom with an adjoining light well, a gym, and a recreation room, which can also be accessed by a courtyard stairwell, planted with ivy, adjacent to the ground-floor entry.

The exterior landscaping and hardscaping are currently under way, and, once complete in spring, will include a low-maintenance blend of sedum (a perennial plant with seasonal green foliage) and a series of canopy trees to provide additional privacy around the eastern courtyard. In the meantime, the Westminster Residence both blends into, and questions, its context, while housing a dynamic interplay of contrasts within.

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