Page 17 - The Hunt - Spring 2024

Large windows and French and sliding doors essentially create a wall of glass along the back
of the house.
wanted the renovated home to accommodate
a large number of guests for social functions,
yet still provide spaces that feel intimate and comfortable for just the two of them,” says Archer & Buchanan’s Alex Rice, the project architect.
Okie’s clients included a Supreme Court justice, a U.S. attorney general and a governor of Delaware. He restored the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia, his own home in Devon, and scores of houses and churches around the region. Celebrated writer Joseph Hergesheimer was so obsessed with Okie’s 1925 renovation of his West Chester home
Fitted raised-panel cabinets in the butler’s pantry are accented with hammered wrought-iron knobs and pulls, an Okie signature.
that he wrote a book about it called From an Old House. Archer & Buchanan approached the project with its typical
philosophy of stewardship, focusing on quality craftsmanship and a design that respects the home’s architectural roots. The plan called for taking down a dysfunctional addition, making modest revisions of the original space, and creating an ambitious new space to give the owners the natural light, easy flow and unobstructed views they lacked.
Though the clients were focused on the first floor, a one-story fix wasn’t esthetically compatible with the rest of the farmhouse. Rice’s elegant solution involved a space with a soaring ceiling that has the look
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