- Project Facts
- Client: Brimmer and May School
- Square Feet: 2000
A deteriorating 1890's carriage house was reconstructed as a new visual arts center for this N-12 independent day school. The design takes advantage of the corner location to provide abundant north light to the studios, while preserving the historic character of the building. On the three sides facing the campus and neighbors, the building retains the fabric of the original barn in massing, materials, and detailing - a critical concern of the town and residential neighbors. By contrast, the two-story glass wall inserted in the north face of the building washes the studios with glare-free light, and provides views across the T tracks to the landscaped hillside beyond.
The small floor area and restrictive roof line of the barn challenged IKM to use each square foot to the limit. The spaces under both stairs were used to secure the kiln and its supplies in the ceramics studio, and coats, backpacks and display materials at the entry. A deep arts storage zone abuts the kiln, providing adjustable shelving for all manner and shapes of art supplies. All three are covered with custom sliding door panels on "barn door" hardware, clad with tack-able surfacing so that each storage zone doubles as a display surface.
To maximize useable area at the upper level, the dormer shape was altered from the original mansard to a "carpenters" stick style, sympathetic to the simple vocabulary of the old building. The new front dormer was then balanced by a similar, but much longer dormer, along the north side. Together, these changes added significant usable area, and provided a natural shading devise on the south side, to limit direct southern light.
