This staircase serves as the centerpiece of an extensive renovation of a John Calvin Stevens home located on the Western Promenade in historic Portland Maine. The original staircase had been removed as the home was subjected to numerous modifications unfriendly to its turn of the century design. Major renovation of the home was a yearlong project with the intent of restoring the architectural details as nearly as possible to the original.

This former police and fireman's badge factory and limousine garage in Brooklyn's Cobble Hill neighborhood underwent a gut renovation.  Cabinets by CabFab.

Purchased with the intent to create a restful place for weekend cooking and entertaining, this year long project was capped with a bold change to the exterior face. Originally, the owners were only able to enjoy the beautiful natural landscape of hardwood trees, a meandering stream, and four season beauty through a single window in the dining area. Red Hook Design transformed the country home with french doors, poured concrete countertops, and new siding.

This landmark home was conceived as an Arts & Crafts style bungalow. While having a very traditional and classic appearance, it incorporates many features that make it unusually high tech and energy efficient. Beginning with a monolithic concrete Frost Protected Shallow Foundation (FPSF) perched on a 300 ton crushed stone heat sink with in-floor heat, to the R-60 plus roof insulation and Marvin Integrity windows, all details of the home are intent on saving energy. True to its aesthetic lineage, all components of the house, including the formal oak entry door set, the oak kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities, the exterior timber frame, and the acid stained and urethaned concrete floors, were designed and created by Wayne Valzania.

This project involved the replacement of an existing lakeside camp with a year round energy efficient home. The finished residence provides 4500 square feet of living space on three levels.

The first level provides lakefront amenities including a full bath, laundry, and kitchenette. A bunkhouse area provides accommodations for the numerous weekend guests who follow “the kids” home.

The second level includes a gourmet kitchen, which extends seamlessly into the family and dining areas. Also found on the second level is a study, bedroom, and full bath. A sheltered, second-level, lakeside deck serves as the hot tub area.

The third level is the master bedroom. A full bath with Jacuzzi, an expansive walk-in closet for two, and sitting area with a panoramic elevated view of the lake complete the upstairs suite.

A particularly beautiful example of utilizing reclaimed wood, the exterior siding and trim is from aged redwood wine casks salvaged from a western New York winery. Based on a floor plan purchased from a magazine, a number of design modifications were made to increase the interior area of the home. The changes included lengthening the living room and adding a walk out bay window. The upstairs of the garage was continued to the rear of the house, providing a master bath, walk in closet, and physical fitness room. The residence boasts approximately 3,000 square feet of living space, while the barn and walk-up loft provide an additional 1,800 square feet of storage.

Constructed of carefully dried native hemlock and pine, this home features a hand planed and finished timber frame. The greenhouse is the core of the passive solar heating system. It not only provides heat for the home but also supplements the domestic hot water system. Two special solar gain coated water tanks are mounted in the upper greenhouse section surrounded by sun reflective material that concentrates solar energy on them, substantially raising the water temperature. The interior finish features numerous sections of raised paneling and handcrafted wood detail. The garage has a fully functional mechanics pit for a mechanically inclined homeowner. Heating costs for this home are minimal and garden vegetables and flowers are grown year round.

This addition to a single story ranch was designed as a studio for a professional artist. A number of interesting details were implemented to enhance the workspace and facilitate the creation of large sculpture and canvas artwork. The main studio area is two stories with a glass wall measuring twelve feet by thirty-two feet. There is an eight foot high by twelve foot long sliding door, which expands the studio into the garage area for exceptionally large art projects. A mahogany and lexan pyramid engineered and constructed on-site caps a ten by ten-foot, two-story entry area. Exterior siding is cedar clapboard with cedar trim. The three by three foot insulated glass window units used to form the two-story studio wall were also fabricated on-site.

This Michael Greene Design was constructed as a 1400 square foot addition to three concentric yurts on a mountainside location in NH. The collaborative engineering between Wayne and the designer resulted in seven future buildings.

The first stage of this project was the construction of a timber frame bridge (not shown) over the ravine, which separated the buildings from the main access road. The capacity of the bridge was engineered to allow site access to heavy construction vehicles and residential traffic. The addition was built in three sections that followed the hillside contour, each section being farther down the hillside than the previous. A very unique radial designed timber frame was implemented in the front section to replicate the shape of the yurts to which the additions are attached. The extensive door and window millwork was fabricated on-site. The second level master bedroom suite provides breathtaking panoramic views of the surrounding landscape. Super insulated walls, roof, poured concrete floor slabs with tremendous southern exposure provide solar gain adequate to make this home almost thermally self sufficient.

Seriously damaged by fire, with projects too numerous to list, two full time master carpenters spent a total of 15 months renovating this creek side home. Projects included refitting the stone foundation of a 400 square foot chicken coop as a creek-side deck area (not shown), installation of numerous steel I-beams in the barn and house to support sagging structures, installation and finishing of locally harvested and milled hardwood for flooring, an oak staircase, and many built in cabinets. A stone fireplace was also built in the family room. Exterior details such as the nineteen-inch by sixty-inch vent detail, a two-story rear deck, a spring fed pond in the back yard, and a new formal entrance were also constructed. Finally, the rear of the building was refitted with a formal portico entrance with fluted columns.

This project required renovating the current structure and building a second story addition. Of concern to the homeowners was a downward sloping kitchen and deteriorating bath area along with a cramped laundry-room and pantry. The second story addition was to be placed above the kitchen area with a lookout deck viewing the back lawn area.

Additional tasks included burial of 150ft. of conduit and cable for an exterior lamppost and a future waterpower generation device. It was also decided the entire roof would be replaced with metal roofing to help correct leaks throughout the home. A new 200 amp electric service was installed.

This project is a typical example of the broad range of tasks undertaken by Red Hook Design Alliance, LLC. From excavation to framing and mechanicals, all phases are being handled in-house by qualified members of our skilled team.

This brownstone in Park Slope was retrofitted with some beautiful architectural details. A built in bookcase fabricated from reclaimed timber, a steel banister cut with a map of Venice, and bathroom lighting fixtures were just a few of the beautiful design elements installed by Red Hook Design.

In typical Brooklyn style, a little creativity, a visit to the architectural salvage yard under the MTA bridge in Brooklyn, and old growth pine from upstate New York, turned dead space into a cozy sleeping loft over a photographer's editing room.

A Christmas day fire resulted in extensive fire, smoke, and water damage throughout this Cazenovia home. Proceeds from the insurance settlement funded an extensive repair and renovation project. Repairs were made to the interior and exterior walls with numerous additional windows and doors being added to the rear, resulting in thirty-four linear feet of floor to ceiling glass. This included two sliding patio doors and a set of French doors. In all, almost 2500 square feet of cherry flooring was repaired and refinished to better than new condition. The project was finished with a 600 square foot multilevel deck and screened in porch.

The initial 6250 square foot facility was erected in New York in 1981 for the purpose of boarding and raising horses. The radial brick extension is a later addition. Construction of the barn is standard pole construction with a roof system based on sixty-two foot engineered clear span trusses. At the time these were the longest trusses erected in the state.The stable area provides housing for eight horses.

This project required dismantling three barns for their timber frames for a 2000 square foot addition to an existing small cabin located on a mountaintop. With additional materials including freshly felled, fifty-foot tall tamarack trees, this residence is located in Strong, Maine. Design and construction of this home was done on an improvisational basis as it was being built. It features timber frame and log construction, extensive passive solar technology, a “Russian” fireplace as a central heating system, numerous built in cabinets and bookcases, and hand crafted maple and Philippine mahogany kitchen cabinetry. The third floor observatory provides a commanding view of the surrounding landscape. Due to the unusual nature of this project and the painstaking craftsmanship, two years were required for its construction.

Conceived as a pole barn, the foundation of this building is pressure treated posts. On reaching grade, a wooden beam sill system was devised to support a standard wood frame constructed building. This provides the basis for the house like architectural detail. Steel I-beams were used to provide clear span support for the loft area and roof. The rear section of the building includes a dog kennel with chain link enclosed dog runs for a professional dog breeding operation.

Located on the lot adjoining a prior project, this 3,000 square foot home features natural stonework and a parged masonry finish on the front exterior surfaces. A large living room fireplace, also built from natural stone, completes a room with breathtaking panoramic views of the surrounding hillsides. Interior finishes include hardwood and slate floors and a formal oak staircase to the second floor.

The existing porch had deteriorated to the point of being physically unsafe and on the verge of collapse. The rotted posts were replaced with pressure treated material. The old decayed decking was replaced with matched, western fir decking, and the perimeter, circular, inch-thick, lattice was hand crafted. Extensive repairs were done to the matched ceiling boards and all existing trim. Finally, the concrete steps, which had been removed prior to the beginning of repairs, were re-installed.

The barn is a 3800 square foot, old tradition timber frame barn constructed as barns were in the “Old Days”. The frame sections were assembled on the ground and a barn raising was held as a public event that was widely televised in Central New York. Sided with rough sawn board and batten siding, the barn is used to house draft horses and associated implements.

Details do matter, and often a fresh approach to a requirement yields strikingly different results. In these two installations that required railings, re-thinking the traditional rail and baluster resulted in a much more pleasing space.