On the estate of artist Willem de Kooning, we built an addition to his daughter’s house. Formerly at the center of the site, the existing house was moved to the north and rotated to define a new L-shaped entry court. The dimensions of the original house established a module for the new construction—three squares in plan, three cubes in section. Two of the cubes frame a central exterior room consisting of an open porch atop the family room on the ground floor. Holding a hot tub and covered in wood decking, the porch is open to the sky and offers views of the garden. On one side of the exterior room is a double-height living room. A theatrical indoor balcony opens off the adjacent second-floor porch into the upper volume of the living room. On the other side of the central porch is the master bedroom with a large window that highlights its location on the façade.
Outside, facing the rear lawn, a row of columns supports a wood pergola running parallel to the house. The vine-covered pergola creates a garden room that seems to fuse exterior and interior spaces. The curved, lead-coated copper roofs of the two new pavilions complement the gambrel roof of the original structure.