South Pasadena

A single-family home in Pasadena was remodeled and expanded when the owners needed more room—and a clearer relationship between old fabric and new work. Medium Plenty updated the existing house, added living space, and converted a detached garage into a stand-alone ADU, using careful orientation and shading devices to temper harsh summers while keeping daylight generous year-round.

Angled cedar cladding and consistent architectural shapes and lines bring the historic house and modern interventions into visual conversation. Unifying materials stitch the ensemble together so the addition and ADU read as part of one compositional family rather than disconnected appendages. The design treats climate response as architectural form: shading, orientation, and cladding work together instead of relying on mechanical comfort alone.

Completed in 2022 under a Residential architecture scope, the project is photographed by Mariko Reed. As a remodel-plus-ADU strategy in Pasadena, South Pasadena demonstrates how Medium Plenty reconciles historic domestic fabric with contemporary living needs—more space, better light, and a coherent dialogue between eras rather than a hard stylistic break. The project is sited in Pasadena, California. Medium Plenty records the project year as 2022.