First Additions: Strategies for Adding On

Like many small residential practices Cohen & Hacker Architects have made a career of doing house additions.

In a practice spanning almost forty years they have evolved strategies for making additions that represent both a theoretical and philosophical position about altering older buildings. They believe that recycling existing houses, retrofitting them to meet new energy standards, preserving their embodied energy as well as their cultural significance is the most sustainable way to practice architecture.

The projects included in this book seamlessly and often invisibly extend the fabric of an existing house. Cohen & Hacker’s remodeled architectural interiors while respectful of the character and scale of the existing house, transform these spaces with ideas taken from modern design, creating spatially open floor plans with traditional details based on the existing architecture. To help illustrate what Cohen & Hacker describe as transformation, this book contains before and after floor plans and often exterior elevation drawings for every project. Almost every residential addition project and remodeling includes photos of new kitchens and bathrooms, a staple typical of small residential practices. From the largest to the smallest project the same care and attention to detail characterizes their work.

Stuart Cohen is professor of architecture emeritus at the University of Illinois, Chicago and his writing on history and theory received an Arthur Ross Award from the Institute for Classical Architecture and Art (ICAA) in 2018. He is the author of four books on the history of Chicago’s residential architecture and in 2019 he and Julie edited an issue of the Classicist on Chicago architecture for the ICAA. In 2021 he received a lifetime achievement award from the Chicago Chapter of the AIA.

Julie Hacker currently serves on the board of directors of the Chicago chapter of the AIA and on the national steering committee for AIA CRAN (Custom Residential Architects Network). She has been responsible for programming for AIA CRAN National and organized their 2022 national symposium held in Chicago. Julie served for six years on the Evanston, Illinois Preservation Commission and was instrumental in the rewriting of their preservation and solar guidelines.