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Bathroom.

less than the first floor was, it now cantilevers six feet and heavier materials to lighter and more open ones as
over the first floor, looking like an addition rather than it proceeds up through the house.
a subtraction. (And since the back of the house faces “This staircase is one of my favorites that we’ve
southwest, the overhang provides welcome shade from ever designed,” Bloomberg said. “I love the balance of
the afternoon sun in the summer.) light and dark, and how it transforms from first floor
The basement was finished out as the couple’s to third—it’s always changing, reflecting the spatial
bicycle workout and storage space, with a bonus media transformation of the house sectionally.”
room in the rear. “We spent a lot of time discussing [the As Bloomberg’s comment suggests, the project’s
owners’ arrival] sequence from bikes and rear yard into concept of balance doesn’t refer only to the owners’
the house and up to living space,” Bloomberg said. “We interest in bicycling and yoga.
created a rear entry from the rear yard, a mud room The project “studies the concept of heavy and
area with a bench to take off gear, a door directly into light in balance with each other,” the firm said. “The
the basement bathroom which has a shower to clean house transforms from heavy to light, as one moves
up, and then a door to the hallway and stairs up to the from basement to third floor studio. Within that
main house. This route was discussed extensively with transformation, dark and light elements interlock
the clients, as they bike every day, so it’s an important spatially and materially. The balance concept is carried
part of their day.” through in each space slightly differently, from overall
Consistent with the house’s location in a historic design to detailed elements.”
district, the project did not alter the house’s front The notion of balance, Bloomberg said, “inevitably
façade. The added third-floor office/studio, which brings up the idea of yin-yang. So dark and light
measures 385 square feet, is set back from the street started to make sense, and it went very well with the
and hidden behind the house’s sloped attic roof. overall goal of the clients for the house to be minimal.
On the inside, whitewashed brick party walls We always like using elemental materials, so we
provide reminders of the house’s original 1912 introduced steel for the fireplace and stair, wood for the
construction while contributing to a modernist design floors and stair treads, and glass for the stair wall as it
built around clean lines, simple rectangular volumes, gets lighter. The dark and light colors carry through the
and contrasting neutral colors. The house’s floors are house, inside and out, reinforcing our concept.”
tied together by a stairway that transitions from darker

STRIKING THE RIGHT BALANCE 45