A Chicago painter had made her makeshift studio within an old masonry garage, reached across a garden; a drawing room was requested. A most modest addition was made, opening a sidewall and relocating a window, brick masonry. Sensitive to the beauty of the existing shell, we feathered in the new to the old, ever conscious of subtle cues of coursing, exposing/expressing thresholds, lintels with glazed materials. A quartered oak floor was laid, to articulate the new function. The painting studio was subsequently adjusted, tuned with finishes clearly inserted and revealed within the shell. Mechanical systems and lighting were upgraded to both serve and recede.

The sum of parts feels like it always was meant to be, the painter returns with added focus to her craft.

Photography: Tom Rossiter