Growing up gracefully - home additions

Sunset, July, 1999 by Peter O. Whiteley, Daniel Gregory

Five examples from across the West show how to add a second story without overwhelming the house

When you can't expand your home horizontally because of lot limitations, community regulations, or setback requirements, the only way to go is up. Since this remodeling strategy is potentially disruptive both aesthetically and structurally, the trick is to make it pay extra dividends in the way it improves the look and function of the entire house.

Aesthetically, the challenge of adding a second floor is to avoid the oversize-shoebox-on-top-of-the-one-story-house syndrome. A successful addition skillfully integrates new and old into a unified whole and achieves your space objectives without burdening the neighbors. In some communities, building officials regulate the placement of windows (to ensure privacy in adjacent houses) and even the shadow cast by the house (called the daylight plane).

Second-floor additions are structurally complex. Many older foundations are not adequate to bear the load of a new floor and roof. They must be modified with deeper, broader perimeter foundations or new footings or piers to carry "point loads" introduced by supporting posts added within the shell of the house. Bearing walls also must be engineered to withstand horizontal forces, and in most second-floor additions some interior walls must be clad in plywood to add shear strength.

The examples on these pages provide a broad range of approaches to the graceful second-story addition.

Shingle style

This remodel in Pacific Palisades, California, shows an upper-floor master suite grafted onto a one-story house with particular finesse. You can't tell where the old structure ends and the addition begins; it's a completely integrated design. A sense of history helped: The owners admired shingle-style architecture - the late-19th-century building tradition known for its multiple porches and dormers that has been revived in places like the Hamptons on New York's Long Island - and they felt it would be appropriate on a site where the upper floor would have an ocean view.

The architects took their cues from the house's original hipped roof (shown in the before photograph on page 112), preserving its general outline while treating the addition of a bedroom, his-and-her bathrooms, a study, and a home gym as an elongated shingle-style dormer. This new dormer includes two balconies - one off the bedroom and one off the gym - and deftly captures a view of the ocean from each interior and exterior space. A new ground-floor veranda continues the shingled theme. The summer-house aesthetic prevails inside the addition as well, with white-painted beadboard wainscoting and built-in cabinetry and an airy yellow and green palette.

Architect: BAK Architects, Santa Monica (310/315-9595)

Interiors: Hank Morgan, Designer, Newport Beach, CA (949/644-8952)

Contractor: M.S. Nolan & Associates, Los Angeles (310/471-9453)

Glass atrium

In rainy, often overcast Seattle, daylight is dear. The challenge for the owners of this house was to add a master suite and study to their low-slung 1940s ranch house while infusing the interior with as much natural light as possible. They achieved that goal by turning their living room into a large light catcher: A soaring two-story, glass-walled atrium offers views to distant hills. The living room doubles as a stair hall leading to the master suite; glass-filled railings and interior windows along the balcony bring natural light deep into the house.

The lower floor plan remains essentially the same, but feels more spacious and contemporary thanks to the tall, open living room, which functions as the hub of the house.

Architect: Soldano/Luth Architects, Seattle (206/525-5060 or www.soldanoluth.com)

Contractor: P & M Construction, Seattle (206/935-8910)

The house the jacks built

Kathy Farley and Michael Shemchuk started small but thought big: Their 750-square-foot house had one bedroom and bath, a small living room, an eating area, and a kitchen at the back. Although they wanted to add a second floor, the foundation wasn't adequate to carry additional weight. So, instead of trying to build on top of the existing structure, they jacked it up and built their new rooms under it!

This inventive, practical solution proved less costly than a conventional second-floor addition would have been, in part because no roof work was required. Using the technology of house movers, they elevated the small structure on jacks and cribbing. With the house perched above, they built a new foundation with earthquake hold-downs, upgraded the plumbing and electrical circuits, and added new walls.

The remodeled house reflects the adventurous talents of its owners, who are design consultants. Large windows have replaced small ones, a new entry graces the upstairs living quarters, and the downstairs addition, which doubles as a home office, has an entry patio with a set of French doors. The lapped siding of the original house has been retained, and a harlequin pattern of stucco added. The exterior boasts strong colors: Doors are rich burgundy, window trim is dark green, siding is dark butterscotch, and stucco is sage green and ocher.