Before-and-after photos are a key component of any remodeling story, offering a side-by-side comparison between the home as it was and the home as it looks now.
A massive overhaul of a historic Victorian Village home offers a new twist on the before-and-after concept. A trip through it means seeing the before and the after side by side – late 19th century heritage alongside meticulously designed contemporary aesthetic.
The project, located on Highland Street, was designed by Rogers Krajnak Architects and executed by NJW Construction Inc. It won a local merit award for Rogers Krajnak in the small projects category of American Institute of Architects for 2020.
The house, which now clocks in at 3,970 square feet, was built in the 1880s. It’s designed in the Vernacular Victorian style, with Queen Anne influences.
A Two-Pronged Plan
To refer to the renovation as major may very well be an understatement. Rogers Krajnak and NJW created a two-and-a-half story addition, as well as a detached garage.
Visible all throughout the main structure is evidence of the house’s rich history, and even the garage – which is 100 percent new construction – is designed to thematically resemble pre-existing elements.
“We were interested in having a historic house in the Short North/Victorian Village neighborhood, but we were also very intrigued with the concept of doing a modern addition to a historic house,” says Darryl Rogers, principal at Rogers Krajnak. “In our eyes, it was respecting the history of the house while doing something difference – being compatible by being modern at the same time.”
Another word that may join “major” in the understatement category: ambitious. Rogers – architect for the project and the new homeowner – wanted to expand the living space, modernizing it while simultaneously restoring its historic character.
“They were trying to create more functional space and bring back some of the original home elements that had been lost over the years,” says Joel Walter, president and founder of NJW.
Just finding a house for this type of project was a challenge in and of itself, says Rogers. But this particular house is on a corner lot and had a great deal of space to expand.
Additions in the Addition
Inside the house, it’s plain as day where the original home ends and the new build begins. The original is defined by faithfully restored brick walls, the new by exposed steel and minimalist detailing.
“What we ended up with is … a tale of two houses,” Rogers says. “There’s this historic house that we’ve restored and renovated, and there’s this modern addition.”
The addition brings a new chef’s kitchen, a family room, a covered porch, two bedrooms and a shared bathroom to the home.
The kitchen, as it often is in whole-house renovations, was a major focal point. Rogers’ wife, Kim, is a fantastic cook, and she wanted a kitchen that would give her room to explore, he says. The open family room off the kitchen is also uncommon for the house’s era, Rogers says, as is the exterior covered porch.
“Most Victorian houses have very small original kitchens … so the addition allowed us to do the kind of kitchen that we wanted to do,” he says.
The new master suite was redesigned with detailed custom built-ins, and sizable closet and bath spaces.
An Eye on History
Rogers wanted the house to be architecturally accurate for its era, and so focused closely on such elements as its interior and exterior brick work. That reach of that focus was substantial, Walter says, all the way down to grout colors and metal ridge roll capping.
The original house sported some attention-grabbing stained glass windows on the third floor, and it was important to Rogers that they remain, so Rogers Krajnak and NJW worked to retain them by rebuilding the window frames. Much of the original flooring was saved, too, as were the fireplaces with their original tile work.
Window design and recessed elements help soften the impact of adding onto a historic house, Rogers says. Even the brand new gable and shed roof forms of the addition are evocative of the house’s 1880s splendor.
Previously, the only way up to the third floor was a spiral staircase that – despite its distinctive appearance – presented some substantial logistical problems. The previous homeowners took a MacGyver approach to those problems, filling the third-floor space exclusively with furniture of the inflatable variety, but Rogers had other ideas.
NJW removed the old staircase and replaced it with a modern-looking steel stair, which made it far easier to furnish the studio space on the house’s top level.
The extra space afforded by the removal of the staircase allowed Rogers Krajnak to completely redesign the master suite closet space.
“I enjoyed the quality of the staircase and what it created in there, but also, Darryl picked out some solid two-inch treads that we built out of white oak,” Walter says.
Garth Bishop is a contributing editor. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenecolumbus.com.
