From Bethesda Magazine: Expanding an angular 1970s home

This Silver Spring house received two more bedrooms and a large swimming pool

By Jennifer Barger

April 6, 2026 11:35 a.m.

Cohen home pool — The tiered outdoor space includes a hot tub and an infinity-edge pool. Photo credit: Anice Hoachlander

Living room — With entertaining in mind, the kitchen moved to the rear addition, allowing for more space, two refrigerators and two dishwashers. Photo credit: Anice Hoachlander

When they moved into their Silver Spring home in 2015, Rebecca and Bret Cohen (both now 42) were taken with the jumbo windows, gabled roofs and open floor plan of the two-story house built in the 1970s. But the couple (she’s an accountant, he’s an attorney) had four young children, and by 2022, the house was beginning to feel cramped.

“We love this house’s openness, but that also meant there wasn’t a lot of space for a home office or a mudroom,” Bret says. “Plus, two of our kids were bunking in one room.” Though they considered moving, the Cohens decided to stay put and expand their space. The couple hired GTM Architects to transform the existing four-bedroom, 5,000-square-foot structure into a six-bedroom, 4½-bathroom dream home with 8,430 square feet of space. The project was completed in May 2024.

Stairs — A floating staircase, one of two in the house, was refinished to match the white oak flooring throughout the project. Photo credit: Anice Hoachlander

The Cohens wanted more square footage, “but I didn’t want it to look like we’d had an addition,” Rebecca says. “I wanted the house to feel whole and to preserve that mid-century feel.” To keep the angular vibe, architect Mark Kaufman and senior project designer Stephen Santos, both with GTM, expanded the footprint with a pair of two-story additions. One at the front increased the square footage of a first-floor den and reconfigured the primary suite upstairs. A window-filled back addition expanded the existing great room and added a partial basement, a dramatic stair tower, a second-floor bedroom and a covered porch. The existing mid-century breezeway and carport were both enclosed to create an airy foyer, a mudroom and a two-car garage.

An earlier addition with a traditional gabled roof intersected awkwardly with the original home’s dramatic sloped roofline. GTM removed the addition and extended the main roofline to accommodate a rear stair tower. “It was the solution to interior spatial and circulation challenges,” Santos says. “And it restored architectural clarity to this mid-century home, which had been compromised by mismatched additions.”

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The exterior brick was painted in Sherwin-Williams’ “Cyberspace,” a rich charcoal gray, and embellished with vertical paneling in sapele mahogany that complements the stair treads on that dazzling new interior stair tower visible through the floor-to-ceiling window panels.

The kitchen, originally positioned at the front of the house, was shifted to the rear addition and connected to the vaulted great room. Wood-Mode Brookhaven cabinets in “Iron Gray” and Fantasy Lux white and gray quartzite countertops give the space a clean look. An L-shaped island, two refrigerators, two dishwashers and ample cabinet space were installed with entertaining in mind. “One of the reasons we did the renovations was that we wanted to host family gatherings,” Bret says. “That island is now a buffet at parties, and day to day the kids pull stools up and use it as a breakfast bar.”

A two-story addition added square footage to the front of the house. Photo credit: Anice Hoachlander
A covered porch holds an al fresco cooking and dining area. Photo credit: Anice Hoachlander
One of the two additions created a partial basement. Photo credit: Anice Hoachlander
Rebecca and Bret Cohen of Silver Spring added square footage while preserving their house’s mid-century feel. Photo credit: Anice Hoachlander

The Cohens worked with GTM to furnish the “new” old house. “We essentially got all new furniture, and Stephen helped us make it feel kind of transitional,” Rebecca says. “But we do have pieces that nod to the house’s history—an Eames chair, some tamboured wood furniture.” And in the great room, an Arhaus “Kalmar” coffee table made of pieced-together teak complements the trees outside the window.

The kitchen and great room afford expansive views of the backyard, another major aspect of the project. Washington, D.C., landscape architect Joseph Richardson collaborated with GTM to design a tiered outdoor space with an infinity-edge swimming pool, a raised hot tub, and multiple levels of entertaining spaces. A steel pergola next to the pool provides shade.

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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine