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Residential renovation / Second-story addition / Permit design
Closter Residence · Closter, New Jersey / 2025
Add a floor.
Rework the whole house.
The existing home was only 720 square feet and one story. The permit design adds a full upper level while using the intervention to reorganize circulation, daily life, and the relationship to the rear yard.
BLAST portfolio
Designed by Brendan Leadbeater, AIAPractice at time of commission: BLD Design LLC- Existing home
- 720 sf
- Existing form
- One story
- New upper level
- Four bedrooms
- Design stage
- Permit / Aug. 2025
The brief
A small house needed a new order, not just more rooms.
The assignment begins with an unusually compact one-story structure. Adding a second floor creates the needed bedroom count, but it also changes how every part of the existing house has to work.
The permit design infills open areas to regularize the footprint, introduces a central stair, moves four bedrooms upstairs, and connects the reworked first floor to a new rear deck. The addition is treated as a whole-house problem rather than a vertical stack of extra area.
Design moves
Change the relationships, not only the area.
- 01
Square the inherited footprint
Targeted infill turns leftover exterior notches into useful interior area and gives the new upper story a clear base.
- 02
Put sleeping rooms above daily life
A primary bedroom and three additional bedrooms occupy the new second floor, with two bathrooms and laundry close at hand.
- 03
Make the stair the hinge
The central stair coordinates old and new construction while clarifying movement through both levels.
- 04
Extend circulation to the yard
The rear deck is part of the everyday sequence from living space to outdoors, not an isolated accessory.
Reading the proposal
The plan separates retreat from the activity of the house.
Four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and laundry are collected upstairs. Below, the living, dining, and kitchen spaces can work as a connected daily floor, with the new stair organizing the transition between them and the rear deck extending that sequence outside.
What this page represents
Design work, with its status stated plainly.
Permit design was issued in August 2025. Construction and completion have not been verified, so this page presents the proposal and its design documentation only.
BLAST portfolio — Designed by Brendan Leadbeater, AIA; practice at time of commission: BLD Design LLC