Welcome!
We are Taylor and Josh; This blog is where we will be documenting our renovation of a 170+ year old single room schoolhouse into a weekend cottage. Our goal is to have one location where we keep a record of all our progress, discoveries, and challenges throughout this process. If historic buildings, home renovations, or tiny homes are of interest, then we invite you to follow along with us on this journey!
As architectural professionals, we are excited to use our education and professional experience for this project.. Taylor has a background of designing contemporary schools as well as other municipal buildings in the greater Boston area. He also has experience in designing historic house renovations in and around Cohasset, MA. Josh has experience designing manufacturing facilities and converting existing commercial buildings to lab spaces. Despite the differences in work experience, we both agree that historical buildings deserve an appreciation for their former value and a respect to their construction. Our goal is to share our progress and all the history we find!
Beyond our professional lives, we have been together since the spring of 2016. We met while studying abroad in Berlin during the spring semester of 2016. Taylor attended college in Vermont and Josh in Boston, so distance wasn’t a huge obstacle to overcome. After completing our undergraduate studies, we each completed our graduate programs, earning a Masters of Architecture (M.Arch) in the spring of 2017.
Taylor grew up in the town of Granville, NY, and spent a lot of his time on his family’s farm which surrounds the schoolhouse. Researching something’s past and discovering its importance has always been a meaningful part of any restoration project Taylor has completed. He only ever knew the Lee Schoolhouse as a storage building for a local apiary. He grew up playing with friends in the shadow of the schoolhouse, sledding on the hill below the schoolyard, and finding young robins hatching in their nests on top of the old electrical box. The schoolhouse was always present, but unchanging in a childhood filled with curiosity and exploration.
Josh had a much more nomadic childhood due to being part of a military family that moved every few years. During his high school years, Josh lived in New Hampshire and would frequently venture into Boston to explore the city. After falling in love with Boston, he decided to attend architecture school in the city and has been there ever since. Josh’s interests are in the earlier phases of design and the planning process. In his eyes, everything should have a dedicated purpose in order to not impede the function of a space. His practicality creates the best version of our designs by making sure each idea is fulfilling its proper intent resulting in a cohesive final project. When Josh first stepped inside the schoolhouse, he immediately took the lead to begin measuring and documenting the building to understand its potential.
One of the most exciting aspects of this process comes from the differences in the way we approach the design process. Our design aesthetics are similar enough to we keep each other balanced yet different which will help us focus on creating the best outcome that we can.
Feel free to follow along to see what we discover and create!
Lee Schoolhouse 