Claverach Park is a designated historic neighborhood adjacent to the downtown area of Clayton, Missouri. Our client's century-old brick home on Crestwood Drive was designed by Gerhard Becker, a local Saint Louis architect practicing in the early decades of the 20th century and known for his Romanesque-style brick buildings throughout the area.

The client's program for the project was to replace the outdated and isolated kitchen with a new, modern kitchen to accommodate heavy, everyday use for a family of four and to better connect this space with the rest of the main floor. Despite the client's early assumptions that an addition would be required to accommodate an expanded kitchen, the design team determined that new work could be contained within the existing floor plan.

The primary challenge was to combine three smaller existing rooms (the original service kitchen, food pantry, and service pantry) into one cohesive, rectangular space that matched the formal architectural geometry of the existing entry hall, dining, and living rooms.

Early in the design process, options were explored that provided two different pathways for the project. One strategy utilized a modern architectural language to create intentional but balanced contrasts between old and new. A second strategy, drawing from the original architectural detailing of the house's interiors, was ultimately chosen through discussions with the client and provided a framework for developing a new kitchen that incorporates refined, period details while utilizing a modern spatial layout. The result is a hybrid open plan that maintains the historic formality of individual “rooms” while also providing a continuity of spatial flow and view throughout the main floor of the house.

Locally-built custom cabinetry was incorporated throughout the space to maximize the efficiency of storage and to reflect the existing historical details. Using original sections of plaster crown molding found in the basement, artisans created molds for casting new sections of crown molding, thus unifying the architectural formality of the new kitchen with the entire main floor.