Loren Hazard Howard

Turn a seasonal cape into a year round home, capable of hosting large gatherings. The initial objectives were a large, central kitchen and dining room, an isolated guest bedroom and bathroom, and a two-car garage. The property is 200 yards from a west-facing beach on Buzzard’s Bay. While making measured drawings, I noticed a clear line of sight to the ocean from a roof that was not visible from the ground. To incorporate this view into the project, I designed a loft above the dining area. This presented an additional context in which to inhabit the central space, and provided a continuous link between the existing and the new second floor spaces.

A split-level ranch on a generous lot. Most comparable homes around it had been purchased, razed and rebuilt thrice the size by developers. This renovation of the foyer, living and dining rooms was conceived as a counter point to that model. The house felt dated and dark, but at the same time, it had an efficient plan, untapped volume in the attic, and most importantly, it held significant embodied energy in labor and materials. I believed that through thoughtful design and precise craft, enough existing value could be revealed and new value contributed to make the project financially advantageous and a beautiful space to inhabit.

I took the walls and ceilings down to the framing, removed the threshold between the foyer and the living room, removed and re-framed the ceilings to expand the rooms and allow more natural light into the bedroom hallway. I installed new windows, skylights, added pocket doors in place of a smaller, louvered door to increase sound isolation between the kitchen and dining room, added insulation to the entire space, and replaced all fixtures, finishes and hardware.

A 64,000 square foot disused paper mill in Holyoke was to become a lab-grade hydroponic facility, to grow, harvest and process recreational marijuana. Thoughtful space planning was required for security, biological contamination, environmental conditions, mechanical processes and work flow. The project is at the end of design development while capital is raised, but architectural design, MEP, fire, site, and environmental consulting work was completed and multiple presentations were made to the city with positive reception.

A fort for four young boys to play, explore and grow. Sited on the edge of a wood, facing a meadow. A roll-up glass door to let stars in, and snowballs out. 

A collection of works exploring material and the body’s engagement with it. Toolmaking is as much a part of the human experience as language. Often the first step in a craft person’s education is the making of their own tools. They are extensions of the hands, the body; focused levers to extend one’s ability and specific agency. I have experienced no act that empowers and penetrates the opacity of what is possible like the building of a tool.

A collection of works exploring material and the body’s engagement with it. I treat these objects as essays, to tease out a question or intuition. Each work contributes to a knowledge base of material interaction: gestures, forces, resistances and limits, what will the material agree to do? Each work also contributes to knowledge of material phenomena: texture, light, geometry, tactility and harmonics, what will the material express? This knowledge crosses disciplines, and forms linkages that can open staid projects into transformative ones.