The Digest | New Jersey Magazine
Issue link: https://magazines.vuenj.com/i/1216617
an D'Agostino, founder of Plan Architecture in Little Falls, has been working in the architectural world since the age of 16. He was taking draing classes in high school when a local firm put a call out for interns. D'Agostino went to the interview in his baseball uniform since he didn't have time to change. "My mother yelled at me for stealing second because I got dirty," he said. Despite the dirt, D'Agostino was hired and spent eight years with the firm, crediting that experience for making him the architect he is today—one capable of turning a run-down ranch home into a modern farmhouse that catches the eye of all who drive by it. A residence on Winding Way in Woodcliff Lake is one of Plan Architecture's latest projects to highlight the design skill and forethought that comes from D'Agostino and his team. e homeowners bought the 1960s-era house several years ago and made enough changes so the home was comfortable, but they knew, someday, they would need to do something significant with the property. e ranch house was 1,400 square feet, had a traditional floor plan with divided rooms and a lackluster exterior painted out-of-date green. Plan Architecture was hired to undertake a complete renovation. To help determine if a home is one that Plan Architecture wants to renovate, the team looks predominantly at how the property receives natural light and if the current foundation can support and balance out any additions. Winding Way met the criteria for D'Agostino and his team to put pencil to paper. "When analyzing the house, we found the garages on the south side were blocking the light so we flipped the house moving the garages and driveway which made a huge difference. Now there's an inside room with windows on three sides and an abundance of natural light," D'Agostino said. Changing the location of the garage was not the only challenge. Overall, the architects had to make the home bigger, expanding it across the land while being careful not to overbuild. An added complication to the expansion was that while most projects add structure to the back of the house, in this case the backyard was a feature that neither the owners nor the architects wanted to disturb. V U E N J . C O M 63