Burgard Residence
Monticello, Illinois

After returning from an extended period of living and working in Europe, the Burgard family was no longer satisfied with the level of construction of their rural Monticello home. The house was, however, located on very desirable acreage with many amenities and ample room for their proposed equestrian facilities.

Kennedy Hutson Associates was initially brought in to design a relatively modest remodeling of the existing house. When it became apparent that the house was not easily improved to the desired level, new construction was considered and a second design was developed. Ultimately, it was determined that the existing house was of too great a value to abandon and its location on the overall site was very desirable. A third design was then developed, taking a more aggressive approach to remodeling the existing house in order to achieve design, programmatic and site goals.

The newly remodeled house bears little resemblance to the original structure. Portions of the existing house were removed, spaces were relocated, extensions were added and the existing structure was reinforced to bring the entire house up to a high standard of new construction. Individual forms were created and assembled to evoke the additive quality of a farmstead and the house was opened both visually and functionally to take advantage of the surroundings. The resulting residence is a modern farmhouse which functions as the centerpiece of an extensive overall site development.