A couple’s desire for a working farm that would complement their extensive formal gardens led them to purchase an adjacent property to their brick Georgian estate in Greenwich, Connecticut. The new property included three buildings and room to establish their farm, which now features a large formal vegetable garden with orchards and bee hives that produce a variety of organic fruits, vegetables and honey. The first buildings to be renovated were the 80-year-old Cottage and Studio. They function as the service buildings for the operation of the farm. Although clad in well-worn cedar shingles, the original architect’s affinity for the “French Farmhouse Style” was evident in the buildings’ forms and in a variety of French-inspired interior details. Design research culminated with a visit to Marie Antoinette’s Petit Hamlet on the grounds of Versailles, which served as design inspiration for the resulting project. The structures were significantly upgraded, enhanced and transformed to achieve a French country aesthetic. New stone walls were constructed to match existing ones on the site and are complemented with hand-finished stucco and half-timbering, complete with adze markings. The addition of a new greenhouse allows for nearly year-round gardening, and functions as a site design element which helps buffer the vegetable garden from the drive court. Interiors follow the same aesthetic, featuring French plastered walls, flush board-beamed ceilings and first floor stone floors. The Caretaker’s Cottage houses an office for the garden’s caretaker, related potting and storage rooms, the greenhouse and garages, with the caretaker’s apartment on the second level. The adjacent Studio building serves as a site office for the owner of the property.
