Food and Shelter

How many residential renovations get to revisit cold-war hostilities? Before Messana O'Rorke Architects could add a 500- square-foot kitchen to a house in Short Hills, New Jersey, the firm had to remove a 1950's fallout shelter from the site, since codes prohibited construction on top of the concrete bunker.

That wasn't the only best-forgotten period that the architects had to deal with. Clad in white stucco and roofed with cedar shingles, the house had the high gables and leaded windows of a gingerbread cottage directly out of the Brothers Grimm. Not to mention that the kitchen was dark and small, with cracked terra-cotta floor tile and a sadly antiquated range dating back to the age of Elvis.

The family that had recently bought the house was hungry for sunlight, space, and the culinary amenities necessary for frequent entertaining. Having previously used Messana O'Rorke for a successful kitchen revamp in Jersey City, the clients were willing to go along when design principals Brian Messana and Toby O'Rorke nixed the initial suggestion of adding a sunporch. (The only possible location was too shady and across from a construction site right next door.) Instead, the architects—accomplished chefs both—cooked up a plan that involved turning the old kitchen into a den and the proposed addition into a kitchen.

The kitchen structure's exterior materials complement rather than duplicate those of the original house. Each has a cedar-shingled roof, but the addition is clad in crisp cedar siding, not white stucco. A custom skylight and full-height glazing let in welcome light, while the high placement of the single north-facing window avoids a straight-on view of the neighboring house yet frames a leafy maple.

The interior's neutral palette—white paint, ash-veneered cabinets, marble counters and wall tiles, a Portuguese limestone floor—sets off the gleaming stainless steel of the range, hood, and island. The custom cabinetry, finished with clear lacquer, conceals a coffeemaker, flat-screen TV, microwave, and dishwasher. A matching ash-paneled door camouflages the refrigerator.

Attention to detail, materials, and scale defeats the "big-white-box syndrome," says Messana, "and maintains the intimacy of the house." An internal gable and contrasting stone and wood break up sight lines, and the irregularly placed windows ensure varying light patterns through the day.

Floor-to-ceiling bands of frosted and clear glass enclose the copper-roofed corridor that Messana O'Rorke built to connect the kitchen to the den in the original house. Along the corridor, white-painted doors hide a coat closet, a washing machine, and a drier. Radiant underfloor heating, also installed in the kitchen, maintains a moderate temperature that's easy on bare feet—a creature comfort that banishes any lingering memories of Eisenhower-era bunkers or fairy-tale cottages.

Custom windows and an interior gable and skylight define a 500-square-foot kitchen addition in Short Hills, New Jersey.

Above: Messana O'Rorke chose stainless steel for the range, hood, and island, contrasting with the kitchen's otherwise neutral palette.

Opposite, clockwise from top left: Custom lacquer-finished ash-veneered cabinets hold dishware and appliances. Cedar siding defines the volume of the addition. Frosted and transparent glazing encloses the hallway connecting the addition to the existing house. The kitchen opens onto a bluestone patio used for cookouts.

CUSTOM WINDOWS, SKYLIGHT (EXTERIOR): LYNBROOK GLASS ARCHITECTURAL METAL CORP. RECESSED DOWN-LIGHTS (KITCHEN): COOPER INDUSTRIES. RECESSED CEILING FIXTURES: LUCEPLAN. MARBLE WALL TILES: WATERWORKS. SINKS: VILLEROY BOCH THROUGH AF NEW YORK. COUNTER MARBLE: TILLARY GRANITE MARBLE. RANGE, HOOD: WOLF APPLIANCE COMPANY. FITTINGS: WATERWORKS THROUGH AF NEW YORK. CUSTOM MILLWORK, CABINETRY: ECONOMY SUPPLY CO. FLOORING: INNOVATIVE STONE. APPLIANCE SUPPLIER: A GRINGER SONS. STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: DUNNE MARKIS CONSULTING STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS. GENERAL CONTRACTOR: QUALITY GENERAL CONSTRUCTION.