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{joomplu:1419}Brian Shore on Changing with the Times

“You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead,” sang the Beatles and many people feel that way about their home. The kids grew up there. It was the site of so many experiences that no one will ever forget.

As the kids move on and start their own families, many people are thinking that rather than scaling down, they need to build out. The empty nest fills right back up a lot more often than you might think. “It’s really a misnomer, the idea of the empty nest,” said Locust Valley architect Brian Shore. “A lot of our clients are now ‘empty nesters’ and the assumption is that the family shrinks. But, in reality, if you’re lucky, in many cases your family actually expands. You’ve got spouses, grandchildren …”

Shore spoke with The Boulevard about one recent project in Sands Point that typifies a new trend he sees, where people are foregoing the condo and rethinking their existing home as a place where they can both accommodate a growing family and ease into the golden years in comfort. From installing home elevators to putting in guest suites to expanding kitchens for the larger crowd, Shore’s clients are finding it worth the effort to have their house evolve along with their lifestyle – making them more useable and even bringing more attention to original features.

 As in many homes, a relatively tiny kitchen had to be expanded into a family area. Shore’s homes always reflect modern lifestyles. “Clients don’t really have the uniformed staff anymore,” he said. “All the houses we do need the eat-in kitchen and bathrooms-within-suites and attached garages. We take all that for granted now but it wasn’t always the case.”

This new space was made to accommodate the growing family. A kitchen island was installed with seating around it. On the aesthetic end, the kitchen was never envisioned as a place to be enjoyed, so the original space did not take into account the wonderful view outside. “Now, it is very transparent,” said Shore. “This is a lovely property and you didn’t have any visual access to it. Now the windows come right down to the countertop. We love to do this when there are great vistas. In every season you can get the character of the backyard. The amount of light is just delightful as well.”

{joomplu:1416}In this case in Sands Point, a couple raised several children, who are now out on their own, living in Manhattan as is often the case. One of the new couples now has a young child and another one on the way. The family home is almost a century old and it sits on a beautiful property with a pool and pool house. “The kids come there for their retreat,” said Shore. “It’s a wonderful thing. They get out of the city, enjoy the family.”

The original house consisted of a master bedroom and four smaller bedrooms. This was not enough to accommodate a couple with kids and other guests. So, the work began to bring a house up to speed for this era. The project involved turning an existing cramped two-car garage into a home office with a new conveniently located laundry room and bathroom. A new three-car garage was built that was more suitable for modern needs, with much more space and a mudroom where kids can hang coats and take off shoes. Over the new garage, Shore added a suite that could accommodate a couple. It was basically a second master bedroom. In fact, the homeowners liked the new space so much, they did make it their master bedroom and turned their old room into the guest space.

As far as putting in an elevator, many people are finding this the way to go. “Getting an elevator is a theme for a number of my clients of a certain age,” Shore said. “These are healthy people in their late 60s, just planning for the future. Do they have an immediate need? No. Can they anticipate a need? Yes. They don’t want to move. They live close to everything they like and don’t want to lose that. They have an emotional attachment to the house where their children grew up. So, moving to a condo is not always a solution. This is a popular alternative.”

The construction is not extensive, only taking a month or two. In terms of design, if you are building a new home, the elevator shaft can be incorporated into the house or hidden completely. With an addition, Shore finds it best to express it. In this case, he has stone recessed on the bottom and then flat paneling and shingles to break up the mass of it. The paneling vocabulary is introduced under the garage window to carry the design across onto the main house. “On some extension projects you’ve seen, there’s a great old house with an addition that has no character or texture – just flat. We try to give attention to details and draw from different classic features. In this way you can add character to the home.”

{joomplu:1418}Along these lines, with the new garage, Shore again wanted to aesthetically make the most of the structure. “Garages are always ancillary,” he said. “They’re a necessary evil. But I just love developing a positive statement, instead of just thinking of it as something to hide. It is the largest single element a lot of the time in a house.” He used broad overhang brackets to create a kind of horse stable character as well as traditional cast iron door guards from an era long past. “There are certain things you can develop to recall those older details,” he said, “that contribute to the character of an older structure and maintain the original feel of a house.”