This Big Island Home Was Once Three Houses in One—Now It’s a Study in Restraint
Photo by: Douglas Friedman
When architect Brandon Jorgensen of Atelier Jorgensen and his family moved to Hawaii’s Big Island in 2020, they were looking for the equivalent of a cool breeze—a lighter rhythm for family life, without abandoning its familiar structure. Jorgensen and his wife, Kathryn, wanted to preserve a sense of routine for their two teenage children—one not unlike the life they had left behind on the mainland, shaped by schoolwork, sports, and community.
Jorgensen had his eye on a property just outside town: a midcentury house built by three brothers, now owned by an elderly woman who was unable to carry out the improvements she had envisioned. “We wrote her a letter asking to buy it, saying that we would stay for a long time,” Jorgensen remembers. The owner agreed, and they got the keys in the summer of 2024.
