Extending a Romance – Walkerville by Williams Burton Leopardi
A classic tale of extending a home’s romantic past, Walkerville results from an embracing of a past elegance and an anchoring of its current relevance in place. Williams Burton Leopardi interweaves carefully considered contemporary insertions into the historic beauty to expand and open the home while engaging with the landscaped setting.
In its same-named locale, Walkerville is aptly surrounded by similarly scaled and refined peers, where large and grand homes remain in place, stately and firmly planted on their generous allotments. The story of Walkerville tells of the apprehensive acquisition of a property with its unknown foibles and the partnership with Williams Burton Leopardi uncover the potential of the home and re-sculpt its parts to serve as a modern, connected family home. Key to the new works is the stitching of the old and new and the creation of seamless transitions. Williams Burton Leopardi proposes a voluminous extension to match the original home in scale and grandeur, curating a series of moments to ponder, reflect and relish in the storied home.
Surrounded by pockets of dedicated plantings and then culminating at the rear yard and pool space, the large and generous proportioned openings allow a clear visual relationship to unfold between the inside and out.
Built by Ikon Projects, with landscapes by Distinctive Gardens, Walkerville opens as much as possible to its green and natural elements. Surrounded by pockets of dedicated plantings and then culminating at the rear yard and pool space, the generously proportioned openings allow a clear visual relationship to unfold between the inside and out. Drapery softens the edges of the extended volume, dappling light and aiding in maintaining warmth internally. Elongating the height of the home and expressing the formality of the original, the extension is defined by a thinly sculpted colonnade of sorts that surrounds the form. Thin steel supporting members hold up an equally slight roof plane and reinforce a similar sense of scale and fragility in detail, while the rhythm created is a nod to the original home.
Through an extensive replanning of the original home, the addition becomes a natural extension to the existing rooms. Carrying through the whimsy of its predecessor, the new sees natural stone, brass and textural finishes adorn the introduced joinery, as the welcoming and congregating heart of the home. The new elements sit as part of an evolved design language from the original, tying in a muted palette and similar hues, while refinement and crafted details are expressed throughout, in a contemporary way. A deliberate selection of finishes and attended details ensure the home feels connected and conceived as one, while the embedding of elegance is achieved through a continued translation of stateliness.
