Downsizing a Stone Cottage in Hudson Valley

Hudson Valley, a preferred getaway for city dwellers, is home to a plethora of beautifully designed houses, from large estates to cozy log cabins. When a nature-loving couple came to architectural firm Takatina to re-do their woodsy stone house, Takatina wanted to make sure the structure retained its Hudson-ness, if you will, and so the Putnam Valley-based firm gathered inspiration from the region's common barn structures. Tasked with keeping the stone wall intact, the team created an exterior that incorporates an array of new and old materials. The new exterior combines a custom-color stained cedar siding with a metal roof and anodized metal plates on the facade to separate the new and existing stone wall.

"We came up with the concept of 'new' to wrap around the existing [structure], as if hands were holding something precious. With that concept, we developed the shape and the transition details of how new meets old," Christina Kawabata, partner at Takatina, said. The end result is a smaller, 1,000-square-foot, single-story structure with a 300-square-foot basement that more efficiently uses the interior space.