Waterman Residence
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Chestnut Hill vernacular home with a modern spin
Three big ideas:
Modern-Vernacular,
Indoor-Outdoor,
Age-In-Place
Having raised their children in a historic Chestnut Hill Estate, the empty-nester clients for the Waterman Residence were aiming for a modern and sustainable home to gracefully age-in-place.
The house is approached through a concrete plank driveway which flows through a breezeway to a peaceful garden terrace to the south. The two volumes of the house are diagrammatic of their functions: the 2-story volume housing bedrooms including a ground floor master suite and the single story split-gable wing housing open plan living spaces.
Fast Facts
Designed with locally quarried stone inside and out
Solar PV panels sized to provide 100% of the building's annual energy consumption
Living-dining-kitchen floor designed to collect heat from the winter sun and radiate it back at night
100% on-site stormwater management to minimize impact on sensitive Wissahickon Watershed
Site-specific design
At the outset of the project, a detailed site factors analysis was performed evaluating such conditions as existing specimen trees, solar exposure for PV generation and shading, visual privacy, and acoustic barriers. These informed the building’s placement on site and massing.
Project Gallery
