St. louis sophisticate(7)

Because Watson understood what had attracted Joan to the St. Louis house, he was able to preserve those features while bolstering weaker areas and correcting the mistakes of previous decades.

Built in 1938 in a Normandy style, the house was an architectural beauty downstairs. Upstairs, not so much. “It was a disaster,” says Watson. “It was a rabbit warren of small rooms. Our challenge was to create more graciously scaled spaces in character with the rest of the house.”

Its Normandy style and large scale attracted the Komans to the house seen here.