An Investment in Quality of Life

The need for affordable living space and the desire to physically manifest modern architectural ideas are what propelled us to create the Elevator Bay House in Kingston. A home should be an investment in a quality of life, concern itself with the history of a place, cultivate a site and ultimately speak to the community at large. Our house speaks directly to the recent changes from heavy/medium industrial land use along the Great Lakes Shore to residential infill.

Within 1,300sf, the house develops a quality and diversity of spaces through the creation of a clear spatial sequence. With extended glazing oriented South-West toward the lake and adjacent lands, the living area opens to the site and the sky. Large sliding panels from the main room allow for an effective separation of more intimate areas such as the kitchen and bedroom.

The house experiments with materials that relate it to the history and physicality of the site while also defining its two main volumes. Steel cladding on the west [windward] side alludes to the industrial/agrarian landscape beyond, while richer wood cottage detailing on the east [leeward] side faces a wooded area.

Plywood panels and horizontal Douglas fir slats on battens wrap the “cottage” within the house including the kitchen, main bedroom and screened porch. The loft area, clad with galvanized sheet steel, encloses the main living area and studio. The wood claddings, which wrap from the inside to the outside of the house, sharply contrast with the galvanized steel and allow for a transition of the building scale from the open Federally owned fields of the west side to the more intimate wooded area toward the east [this is all situated within the City of Kingston limits].