Field Notes: Normandie Terrace | Pool Formwork, New Steel, and a Program Starting to Take Shape

This is a smaller update from Normandie Terrace, but there’s a lot to read in it for anyone following the project’s arc.

At the rear of the house, the elevation is open and unwrapped for the first time in a while, a useful view of where things stand structurally. Excavation for the new pool is complete, and formwork is underway. The hole is visible, the formwork is in place around it, and the scale of what’s going in is clear: a well-sized pool in a tight space, which says a lot about the precision this project has required at every stage.

Inside the main house, the structural picture has changed significantly. New steel is in place, and the structure is now stabilized, a critical milestone that unlocks everything that follows. The original ground floor is gone, and excavation of the lower level is extending beyond its original footprint to create square footage that simply didn’t exist in the previous configuration. It still looks rough, as below-grade work at this stage always does. But the months of careful sequencing and foundation work are what make this phase possible, and that context matters when reading these images.

Project Team
Architecture: Butler Armsden Architects
Built by FORMA
Photography: Saul Estrada