Irving Street, Cambridge, MA (formerly Julia and Paul Child's house)

The irrepressible energy that Julia Child brought to her life and her cooking was the guiding spirit for the renovations and additions made to the property. Our concept for the entire house was to create a coherent design style, palette, and approach, with subtle motif and theme variation and development, from room to room, and from floor to floor.

Our first challenge was the installation of a new kitchen. Julia Child donated her renowned kitchen to the Smithsonian upon bequeathing the house to Smith College. The original kitchen was comprised of four cut up rooms and an elevator. Our goal was to open up the spaces and integrate the new kitchen space with the beautiful garden and terrace.

We accomplished this blurred connection by introducing floor to ceiling natural light - producing an indoor/outdoor transparency, as if kitchen and terrace were a single shared space. By liberating the previously confined and constrained entrance foyer, and opening the kitchen to the garden an inviting, a dynamic circulation flow was created.