Manor House

The Manor House is a renovation and restoration of a historic mansion located on Long Island near Oyster Bay. Designed by architects York and Sawyer in the early 1900’s, the challenge of renovating such a home was how to incorporate new, updated look and function, while maintaining the original charm of its Georgian architecture.

In doing so, the design team was tasked with redesigning both exterior and interior elements of the home in a classic manner, while also adapting to the client’s modern-day lifestyle and desires. Together, these elements connect to the original appeal of the home yet maintain a contemporary functionality and purpose.

Features such as a new driveway and north terrace have both been modified to enhance various experiences in and around the home. Although different from standard Georgian style houses and their axes of symmetry, the driveway entrance heightens both the user’s approach to the front of the house, accentuating the original architectural features and newly opened landscape.

The new private terrace and reflecting pool at the north does so as well as it frames both the view of the bay to the north and the home’s grand elevation to the south of classical columns and balconies. These interventions carefully play with the building’s balanced proportions and volumes, so as to not be disruptive or untrue to the powerful character which the house already contained.