Jellicoe House

The brief

Not just a bigger garage.

This is an addition to our Hamptons-styled renovation completed in 2015. The property was later sold and the new owner asked us to design a 4-car garage in the front yard. We said, OK.

Front-of-property additions are rare approvals — but we were lucky with the shape of the land and a design approach that treated the new garage as part of the house, not an afterthought. Built almost to the front boundary, behind a reinstated stone wall, the new double garage door is styled in keeping with the original house, with a level driveway and internal access.

The engineering challenge — excavating the front yard while the house remained occupied — was solved with a large steel transfer beam that temporarily carried the house loads while the new structure was built beneath.

A huge beam will support the house while they excavate the front yard.

Bruce Lewis, Engineer · 2018

The design thinking

Approval by design.

Front-of-property garage additions are notoriously difficult to get through council. Our approach was to design something that looked deliberate and permanent from day one — not an afterthought bolted to a house.

Using the existing sandstone language of the house, reinstating the front boundary wall, and keeping the garage door proportional to the facade resulted in an approval that came through in weeks. The council's concern — that the addition would dominate the street — was addressed in the design itself, not in a planning argument.