My clients selected the Tower scheme. The roof deck was removed due to its cost.

I thought about how to shape the addition, and how it would fit in with the existing back of the house. The existing house’s design is modest, the front of the house is the only place with any detail. The rest of the house is plain stucco walls with vinyl windows. I felt the addition should be different from, and more interesting than, the current back of the house, but it needed to be economical and fit with the house.

The final design is shown in the top 4 images. It is based on, but a little different from, the current house. The main roof over the addition is a continuation of the roof over the main house. The resulting shed roof creates a tall space in the master bedroom that opens up to the back yard and its new landscaping.

The master should open up to the backyard, but it should also be a little separated from it. I created thick walls with recessed openings and a deep roof overhang to create a sense of separation and enclosure for the master bedroom patio. It was only later that I realized that my approach; thick walls, recessed openings and deep roof, was similar to the existing design of the front of the house (bottom 2 images). My recesses wrap around the corner where the existing recesses are in the middle of a wall, and my roof is a shed – half of the gable shape on the rest of the house.

The colors on the existing house are a little tame for me – beige on beige with white trim. After my clients rejected my initial purple addition, I settled on deep shades of brown.