This Shaker house is located in a historic district of Harvard, Mass. The new owners relished its architectural features but disliked the peculiar floor plan. The kitchen faced the driveway to the north, making it a dark space. Given the bucolic fields and natural light to the south, the orientation made little sense. The dining area felt more like a hallway and could seat only four-an unfortunate arrangement for entertaining. The biggest move was to bring a portion of the screened porch into the conditioned space. In the kitchen, avoiding the need for posts and soffits was key to creating a clean, open plane. "We didn't want it to feel like a room that used to be cut up-with all the memories of it in the ceiling," says architect Katie Hutchison, noting that the solution required complex steel-beam resolutions and shear reinforcement.
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