2023 - Yale Urban Design Workshop
Matthew Rosen, pm
w/ Julie Chan & Cindy Duan
A mixed-use adaptive reuse development for a vacant mansion in Edgewood, New Haven. The existing house will be adapted to accommodate a Montessori school designed in conjunction with the Greater Dwight Development Corporation, as well as two apartments for teachers on the second floor and a market-rate unit on the third floor. The barn breezeway will be repurposed into an anchor between the two spaces as well as an entry to the daycare. The proposal repurposes a 1980s addition to add classroom programs within. A millwork system creates divisions between rooms as well as public spaces at the rear yard and inside the breezeway. In the classrooms, these pieces mediate between areas accessible to students and areas only accessible to teachers while creating safe nooks and crannies for play. The millwork stair at the breezeway serves as the new public entrance to the school and conceals both stairs to the basement and an ADA-compliant chair lift.
The new partitions and millwork in the classrooms take advantage of the large openings and pitched roof at the extension to create a well lit space, accentuated by new skylights and a dramatic light shelf. The upper floors of the house received a lighter level of intervention than the first floor, and have been converted into three apartments with their own kitchens and living rooms. A roof deck over the breezeway serves as the primary gathering space for the residential spaces.