A shingle-style home in Greenwich, designed by Mackin Architects PLLC. Photograph by Scott Frances.
It’s the kind of question that Mackin and his colleagues encounter in their Zoom meetings and masked, socially distanced on-site visits. Another client has moved into a house that Mackin created for the previous owner and wants an upgrade. Other potential clients may be looking to capitalize on the hot suburban residential real estate market by selling now and are wondering how far they should go in renovating to do so. Mackin advises talking with Realtors and design professionals before making any moves, as there are two schools of thought — take less money and let the next owner make the place his/her own or upgrade the kitchen and bathrooms at the very least to attract a buyer with bigger bucks who’s looking for a turnkey property. Whether you’re building a home or expanding and refreshing it, you would do well to consider Mackin and company. They are expert in what he calls today’s “hybrid” — modern flow and amenities paired with classic detailing, as seen in one project, a Dutch colonial on the Long Island Sound in Rye that makes superb use of molding, wainscoting, trim, recessed areas, diamond shaped windows, stone married to wood, cabinetry above fireplaces and covered and screened-in wraparound porches while losing nothing of modern spaciousness. Mackin’s love of architecture was born
in North Salem, where he attended public schools and deeply observed the structures in his raised ranch-house community and beyond. “As a kid, I was exposed to different styles — Bronxville and New Rochelle Tudors, colonial beach houses and city brownstones …. There was farmland around us with old barns and old buildings and as kids we’d play in them. In the summer, we’d go to the Adirondacks and visit the old camps …. When we create something as architecture, we trigger memories, but we also invite modern elements.” Mackin loved the feel of old buildings. At the same time, he says, “we live in today.” He took that philosophy with him to Catholic University in Washington, D.C., where he studied with Peter Blake — the late architect, critic and editor in chief of the now-defunct Architectural Forum magazine — who served as the university’s chairman of architecture and planning from 1979 to ’86. Mackin credits him with developing the school’s “very good architecture program.” “You learn a lot at school, but you also learn a lot in life,” Mackin says. Returning to New York in 1985, he worked locally for a number of architects before branching out with his own firm in 1992. “I was really lucky,” he says. “I knew what I wanted to do and was able to do it.” For more, visit mackinarchitects.com.
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