Projects

Suburban Home Renovation

Vaulted House is an extensive renovation to an existing single-story suburban single-family residence.

The existing home was a suburban single-story home that was large but felt confined due to low ceilings and multiple enclosed rooms with undefined purposes.  The original house was constructed in the early 60’s in a style would likely have been labeled “ranch” because it was too low and horizontally proportioned be Classical, but too timid to be Modernist with elements of classical ornamentation.  The design reimagined the home to lean into some of its existing modern patterns with additional complimentary contemporary components and elimination some of the unneeded ornamentation felt gratuitous.
The renovated home provides a dramatic change from the original common/communal spaces (Kitchen, Living, Dining, sitting rooms) with a raised ceiling throughout and a vaulted ceiling over the central Living Room spaces that are visible through most of the house. It takes a very-confined Kitchen, expands it and visually integrates the space with the other (communal) spaces.  The garage is converted to an attached pool cabana, that faces a new pool that is raised (3’) to that same level as the home.  A new attached garage is provided.  The design largely retains the location of the original 4 bedrooms with a full renovation to the primary closet, bathroom and closet and cosmetic renovation to the other spaces.

Vaulted House Renovation

Bienville House

Lakeshore Renovation

The Renovation is a complete exterior & interior renovation of a 1970’s residence of a home originally designed by Leonard R. Spangenberg, Jr. & Associates, (Architects of Plaza Tower in New Orleans) located in the lakeview area of New Orleans. 

When the owners purchased the house (prior to the renovation) it hadn’t been updated at all.  There was plush carpet in almost every room, including the kitchen.  There was a sun-bleached pattern on the carpet of the folds in the curtains covering the glass sliders to the back yard.  It needed a refresh, but the proportions of the exterior and the “bones” of much of main lofted space of the interior were still great and worth preserving.

The home faces a raised levee by the lake, and one of the goals of the exterior renovation was to have a roof deck that took advantage of this view.  The levee is just (slightly) too tall to see from the second floor, so the goal was for the level of the roof deck to be 3’-4’ above the 2nd floor.  This way it was too high to make it difficult to walk up to from the ground level and not too low to not take advantage of the sweeping views of lake Pontchartrain.  NFA took advantage of an existing stucco band wrapping the upper portion of the 2nd floor to extend a deck to the left side (from the front) of the home (over the existing garage).  The stucco had to be replaced regardless, due to water intrusion issues, so it was replaced with vertically oriented, Ash Vision Wood (that has been steam treated to be resistant to rot & termite) to extend and wrap the new balcony with a raised planter that would double as a guardrail.  The goal was for this to blend with the original band of the building.  To do this and create the floating effect (with a void between it and the garage) there is an exposed steel beam that both visually and structurally supports the deck.

The deck is accessed via two staircases in the rear yard.  One that extends down to an existing balcony off the Primary Bedroom Suite and another that extends down to the rear yards and is wrapped by a new brick screen wall that (also) visually supports the steel beam to the rear.  The brick screen wall is designed using a Flemish bond which protrudes the rotated brick and removes every other brick.  A brick wall typically connotes a sense of compressive structural strength, but he wall was intentionally designed to transparently reveal the steel structural components that are used to as supportive material showcasing the intention of brick here as a thermal mass shade wall for the exterior stair.  This same Flemish brick pattern is used as it wraps to enclose the garage along the side.

Other exterior renovations are the new solar roof, new replacement windows and glass sliders, an a new folding glass wall to provide greater access to and from the newly renovated kitchen.

As for the existing interior aside from the beautiful, lofted space in the living room (and 2nd floor balcony facing it), it was very closed off with separate rooms (including two dining areas).  The goal was to create a sense of expansiveness/openness where possible.  The transformational interior element that changed the circulation of the first floor was to replace the existing (wall) enclosed stair with an exposed circular wooden stair that made the circulation of the space more fluid.  The stair designed and detailed by NFA was a tricky detail because the floor-to-floor height was more limited than most circular stair designs.  This one had some very tight clearances and had to be supported by a steel frame that was flatted in a detailed drawing to make it easier for the contractor to price, fabricate and visualize.  The stairs are circular stairs. As opposed to a spiral stair, a circular stair has minimum interior stair widths, depths and is compliant as a primary stair.  Attention was taken to make the stairs the visual centerpiece of the floor plan, so it is visible from all the other open spaces.

The Kitchen was relocated so it could be larger and more open. The renovated kitchen includes a wet bar and informal dining space.  Flooring throughout the 1st floor is a Natural Crazy Stone pattern that is intendent to extend outward to the rear yard toward the existing (refinished) pool.  This flooring, which was very common during the time-period of the original design, is used to reinforce the visually connection to the exterior.

Camel Back Addition and Renovation

Camelback in Black is a contemporary two-story addition to the rear of a preserved early 20th-century New Orleans Shotgun Duplex Home (a two-story mass to the rear is referred to as "Camelbacks" in New Orleans).  The difference in material aesthetic between the historic and new was done intentionally to give a clear reading of the massing that was true to the original.  Because the lot and original building are particularly short (the lot is only 60 feet deep) a blended approach to the rear and 2nd story addition would not only create a false sense of history (about the massing) but would have looked mis-proportioned for a traditional Camelback.

The project offered the unique opportunity to design a home for the owner who grew up there as a child and inherited the property as the third generation.  They held many fond memories of the existing home, but their need for the property to be useful as a primary residence with a long-term residential unit as supplemental income meant the home needed updating and expansion.  

Camelback Addition and Renovation

Front Porch Addition

Some of the basic project goals were to create a large private deck connected to the 2nd floor unit and a separate enclosed outdoor space below linked to the 1st floor unit suitable for large gatherings and a secure parking space when needed. The addition needed to also include an external stair so that a stair inside the existing duplex could be removed. Removing this (internal) stair would free up a lot of valuable space allowing for the improved reconfiguration of both the 1st and 2nd floors.

Rather than seeing the project as several tacked-on elements working in disharmony with the existing façade, NFA sought to unify them with cohesive, organizing elements that could serve as a new front façade re-defining the street presence of the building as a whole. The idea was for the porch to appear as a balloon framed exoskeleton that surrounded the addition with a consistent veil, creating privacy and a dynamic visual experience that varies from opaque at acute angles to more transparent at perpendicular ones. It allows for both privacy and public (longer distance) views from the interior, shifting your range of focus based on need (or desire) from privacy. For the project to remain on budget, most of the material was dimension lumber with painted (black) #1 grade used as the perimeter framing and key elements highlighted in clear stained cedar behind at the floor perimeter, the stairs and framed openings.

Saturated Backyard Renovation

The backyard of this home was in rough shape. There was a neglected kidney shape pool, a small storage shed, inconsistent ground cover and a collection of 4 different fences wrapping the perimeter. Broadly speaking, the goal of the homeowners was to transform the space from one that repelled them to one that drew them to being outside for improved metal and physical wellness. The specific uses they wanted to achieve this goal were a new cabana with multiple functions (including a home gym, shaded lounge space, dining space, and a small outdoor kitchen), a renovated pool and consistent landscaping with a more cohesive design. 

Backyard Renovation

The owners knew they wanted to create spaces in their backyard that be useful and encourage them to be outside more often, but because their backyard space is so massive the scope and size of the project was initially difficult to define. After a few initial rounds of design, the project ended up creating a series of spaces near their house and pool rather than try to utilize the entirety of their yard. 
The existing pool was situated in proximity (and almost entirely aligned) to a detached garage. The garage was perfectly useful for parking cars, but nothing special Architecturally and certainly not functionally associated with the pool. The cabana would have been too far away from the main home if it were located on the opposite side of pool and would have been too large and visually obtrusive if arrange to the side of the pool. The design of the cabana was conceived as an addition to the garage that more appropriately capped the end of the pool with an openable space that could be used for cooking, lounging in the shade poolside, or playing games in with the space itself. There wasn’t enough space between the garage and pool to contain all the uses they wanted, so an additional shade structure with a dining space and a fire pit with build-in benches was included to the project, located near their existing living room.
Board formed concrete walls were used as a common element between the shade structure and the cabana. The base used as a planter wall and back to the bench in the shade structure is maintained in the base of cabana to develop aesthetic cohesion between the two spaces. The cabana engages a build in bar to a series of folding glass walls for compact efficient use. The interior of the cabana had to maintain the existing garage roofline for structural stability, but the interior is vaulted to the highest extent possible. The interior of the vault is lined with wood to frame the space for visual clarity enhancing transparency.
A goal of the project was to make a vast backyard more useful at a walkable scale by creating outdoor spaces close to each other and the existing living areas in and around the home. Rather than attempt to encapsulate the entire backyard it creates density around the edges that look onto the backyard. Because the spaces engage with the existing conditions the space has become a much-used outdoor living space.
(Photos of After Construction Conditions by Sara Essex Bradley)

Illinois Street Renovation

This renovation of a single family home in Kenner opens up a previously enclosed kitchen and dining room to create a functional living space, improve circulation, and bring in natural light throughout the space. The project also converts the existing garage into a new primary suite.

Cypress Home

New construction of a single family home. 

Vertical Veil

The client sought an exterior renovation that would both enhance the functionality of outdoor spaces and bring greater compositional order to the home’s appearance. The existing facade, particularly at the front, was visually disjointed.

NFA, in collaboration with the client, designed a new vertical screen wrapping the first-floor front porch and extending upward to form the railing for a new balcony off the primary bedroom. This unified element creates a coherent front elevation while improving privacy and outdoor use.

An existing cantilevered second-floor volume, retained for structural reasons, was visually simplified by aligning it with the left edge of the new screen. The screen includes a framed view aligned with the Living Room’s existing opening, while otherwise shielding the porch from the street.

At the ground level, the original CMU base was infilled with rotated CMU blocks, providing privacy and security beneath the house without impeding airflow or views. This treatment gives the base greater visual weight, grounding the raised structure and creating a more private, functional outdoor area below.

Side Courtyard Cabana

Photos of NFA’s recently completed project, Side Courtyard Cabana.  The project transformed a half-lot to the side of an existing house by wrapping a wall that creates a front carport and an intimate courtyard enclosure around the pool and cabana. A simple design that maximizes privacy, flow, and outdoor living.

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