A two-story rear addition on a Webster Groves colonial

The brief

Four people, three bedrooms and one and a half bathrooms in a 1938 colonial they did not want to leave. The plan added a family room and mudroom below, a primary suite above, and moved the stair so the second floor hall worked.

What made it difficult

The rear setback allowed 14 feet of depth, not the 18 the first design wanted. The existing rear wall was a load-bearing double brick wythe, and the second floor had no structural path to carry a new bearing wall above.

Matching 1938 common brick is close to impossible with current product, and the historic character of the block mattered to the owners.

What we did

We redesigned at 14 feet deep and recovered the lost area by pushing 6 feet wider toward the driveway side, which stayed inside the side setback. A steel beam and two columns carried the new second floor load down through the existing wall into new footings.

Rather than fake the brick, we sourced salvaged common brick from a demolition in north city for the visible returns and clad the rest in painted lap siding, which reads as a deliberate later addition rather than a bad match.