Peabody and Stearns Condominium Conversion

Boston, Massachusetts
Completion date: 2018
Construction cost: $7 million
Size: 14,000 square feet


A pre-eminent late 19th century architectural firm of Peabody and Stearns created the townhouse on the grand boulevard, Commonwealth Avenue, in Boston. Our task was to renovate this largely intact original home to create 3 fine condominium units and indoor parking, for sale by our developer client. This task took on a complicated ethical role, as the incredibly fine woodwork and over-scaled room sizes made for difficulty in laying out the units that would satisfy the needs of our client. Our solution was to use the first and second floors for one large unit, inserting a new elaborately detailed kitchen within the old beautifully paneled dining room, creating matching woodwork and carved trims via scanning technology and CNC routers to match the original for the new demising wall at the grand foyer, along with other architectural sleight of hand. The Master bedroom was formed out of a paneled study to a sleeping room and study, using a delicate lattice work arch as part of an intricate partition. We were able to raise the roof, and lower the ceiling below, to make the old attic into a large living space, adding a substantial skylight to mitigate the low ceiling, and expand it to a sunken terrace with a wall of glass. The parking was made to work by inserting a turn table for the cars.

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