Condominium Renovation Wellesley, MA

A former middle school converted to condominiums in the 1980s — beautiful bones, but this particular unit had been haphazardly designed around the lowest structural datum in the building. Every ceiling dropped to meet a single steel beam in the entry hall. Towering windows were buried behind narrow inverted areaways. The kitchen sat closed and square at the corner, cut off from the rest of the space despite sitting in what had been the principal's office — the best light in the building.

The entire layout was reconfigured within the unit envelope, taken back to the studs. Ceilings were restored to their proper height throughout. The windows opened fully, flooding the living space with light they had been holding back for decades. The kitchen was opened to the rest of the plan.

The millwork was designed around a life's worth of collected books and objects — shelving scaled to house them properly, a living room composed with the same attention to proportion that the building's original brick exterior demanded. Every inch considered. Nothing left to chance.