Addition to a Historical Cape

Marshfield, Massachusetts
Client: Dr. Thomas and Katherine Thomas

This project is an addition to the original cape style colonial house located in Marshfield, distingished by the hand blown glass in the windows or doors, called Bulls Eye Glass. We like the look of these small windows to emulate this, we put small transum over the windows and doors.

Our goal is not to over power the existing main house. We angled the addition at 45 degrees, which also creates more private out door niche in the back of the house.

  1. North and East elevations.
  2. First floor plan.
  3. South elevation.
  4. Completed project.

Morrison Street Extension

Designed 1st floor extension and second floor porch for the back side of period house in Somerville. Made plans for period (Second Empire Victorian) restoration of front elevation, plans implemented in 2017.

Somerville, Massachusetts
Client: Celia Halstead & Bonnie Walz

  1. North Elevation and deck.
  2. View of the second floor.
  3. Porch at the West elevation.
  4. South Elevation (front of the house

Sunroom Addition

Newton Center, Massachusetts
Client: Ken Holston & Susan Farrell

Architectural Designer: Charles DuMond

Momentum was asked to design and build this sunroom as an addition to the pre-existing Federal-style house, constructed in the mid-1800s. The clients were a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, and his wife, an MD in toxicology. Design highlights include the bell-shaped knee walls beneath the ample window space, cherry moulding specifically fitted to the pre-existing interior pine woodwork, and a gas log for cold weather.

Transforming an Attic into a Master Bedroom and Bath

Newton, Massachusetts
Client: Dr. Collon Seif

Architect: Paul Lukez

Consulting Design Detail: Charles Du Mond

This one-hundred-fifty-year-old structure in Newton was originally a farmhouse. Momentum worked with the architect Paul Lukez, to transform a seven-hundred-square-foot attic into a living space with a unique design, including maple flooring, exposed trusses, and a sculptural fire surround.

  1. Interior bedroom view.
  2. Front Dormer detail.
  3. Closet inside dormer.
  4. Exterior front corner view.
  5. Interior bathroom.

Residential Addition

Winchester, Massachusetts
Client: Peter & Betsy Wilde

This addition for an arborist and family in Winchester doubled the living space of their home. The design requirements were to maintain the modesty, integrity, and compatibility of the original structure, while adding sixteen hundred square feet of interior living space. Momentum renovated and expanded the kitchen, added two bedrooms, a living room, a basement recreation room, and a large deck with a redwood hot tub.

  1. Addition on back side of house.
  2. Pre-existing.
  3. Interior View.
  4. View of the skylights in the ceiling
  5. Wood siding and copper roofing on front side of house

Retail Store

Cambridge, Massachusetts
Client: Pearl Art & Craft Supply
Designer: Charles Du Mond

Pearl was a national chain of arts-and-crafts superstores with twenty-one locations in ten states. In 1992, Momentum was contracted to develop their Cambridge retail space layout, designing, constructing, and installing display units, as well as two interior offices. Until the national chain’s bankruptcy in 2010, the Cambridge store anchored the Central Square arts scene.

  • Front elevation.
  • Interior view.

Restoration and Artist’s Studio

Newton, Massachusetts
Client: Steve Blossom

This historic New England Cape was built in 1820 from old barn timbers to accommodate laborers working in the mills of Newton Upper Falls. As such, it is a prototype of low-income housing and an early example of recycling in construction. Momentum’s renovation protected the history and integrity of the structure. The design exposed parts of the hand-hewn timber-framing, and kept the thirty-inch-wide, old-growth sheathing beneath the clapboards. We preserved the original dimensions of the interior, and also retained the original brick in visible areas of the stack in the new state-of-the art heating and cooling system. Even historic newspapers, used as vapor protection beneath the original siding, were recovered intact and returned to the owner.

  • Building.
  • Fence detail
  • Dormer detail.
  • Fieldstone detail.
  • Artist’s studio view.

Colonial Saltbox

Bethany, Connecticut
Client: James Xavier
Designer: Charles Du Mond

The style of this house, located north of New Haven, is a salt-box design that relates and blends with the surrounding, sloping landscape. It was built in ten weeks on spec, and appreciated two-and-one-half times in value by the time of its sale. The interior encompasses two thousand square feet, including three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a two-car garage, a deck, and a basement recreation room and laundry. The siding is naturally-stained cedar.

  1. Corner view.
  2. Front Elevation.
  3. Bathroom view.
  4. Site Plan.

Home Expansion

Lexington, Massachusetts
Client: John & Christine Cowan Sym

Architect: Christina Sym

Architectural Consulting Designer: Charles Du Mond

This address is home to an extended family of three generations. The grandfather is originally from the American South and the grandmother from Germany. Momentum worked with their daughter, an architect, to design and build a separate addition for the grandparents and to bridge the three generations with a communal kitchen. European tradition prevailed during construction: after completing the roof framing a tree was mounted on the ridge, and a feast prepared for the family and workers.


Clockwise, from top left:

  • Rear photo.
  • Elevations, showing addition in relation to existing structure.
  • Rear elevation.
  • Bathroom sink photo.
  • First- and second-floor plans.