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in the landward volume overlooking the pool. By offsetting the volumes vertically and horizontally, the surface area of the compact design increases, allowing for more windows to admit light and westerly breezes. This slippage also creates intimate outdoor spaces for bathing, entertaining, and dining.

The views of Gardiner’s Bay that the family has enjoyed for the past 25 years are revisited. Frames create vignettes unique to each space. As a visitor, the sequence of views is choreographed to encourage exploration and further discovery. Snap shots of sky, sea and cliffs coordinate with different experiences throughout the house to create memories.

The deep frames in front of each volume provide privacy from neighboring properties while leaving the east and west facades open to views of the water. The frames create spaces that defy the conventional distinctions between indoors and outdoors. At the roof deck, portions of the ceiling and walls are omitted to create an “outdoor room” open to the sky and the landscape, yet more contiguous with the interior than a conventional deck or terrace. The screened porch is similarly open to the elements while remaining integrated with the sequence of interior rooms. The frames direct attention away from the house to the water views and surrounding landscape, further easing the boundaries between interior and exterior spaces.

By carefully intertwining spaces and materials with the landscape, the design creates an environment that the family will continue to enjoy for many years to come. The deliberate framing of the landscape has changed the perspective of the familiar view giving each family member his or her own unique experience.

vase holders, or flat surfaces for hot dishes. At other times, the tubes can be removed and the trough filled with ice for chilling drinks. For a change of pace, there is dining on the roof deck at sunset, barbequing on the terrace, lunch in the shade of the pool house canopy, or breakfast in the screened porch. Each space is unique, making each meal special.

Even the morning routine becomes an event. In the kids’ rooms, a ribbon of stone traces their morning ritual. Starting as a nightstand by the bed, it becomes a bench for their pile of clothes, a desk for checking their email, a sink in the bathroom, and, finally, the shower floor. In the parents’ master closet, hidden steel hooks pivot up from the mahogany bench to hang the day’s outfit choices.

The clients wanted this to be a gathering place for their family, full of memories for generations to come. Thus the materials were chosen not only for durability but also for their gradual changes over many years. The copper siding and roofing will slowly turn green as the weathering limestone becomes darker. However, the window system will stand the test of time unchanged. An English company has manufactured the same industrial steel windows for over 150 years and many early examples are still in tact. A geothermal heating and cooling system, green roofs, organic finishes, and triple glazed windows will minimize the structure’s environmental impact over the generations.

The clients look forward to many tranquil summers together with their family in the house.

Similarly, air conditioning, voice, data, and electrical systems are modified by lifting the modular panels of a proprietary raised floor set atop the subfloor. Each panel accepts a replaceable finish layer fitted for grip, reflectance, sound attenuation, and wear-resistance.

In addition to enhancing the building’s value, the qualities of durability and flexibility also lay the foundation for its LEED Certification. Unlike many “green” buildings, this project attends to basic construction elements instead of relying on auxiliary technologies to achieve LEED credits. For instance, while the precast concrete panels are essential to the structure and envelope, they also contain an integrated insulation layer to outperform cast-in-place concrete in energy efficiency. These panels are spaced apart and pierced to introduce light wells and clerestories that reduce reliance on mechanical ventilation and artificial lighting. The wooden siding panels, once weathered to obsolescence, comprise a completely biodegradable product free of synthetic adhesives, fasteners, chemical coatings, or finishes. On the roof an array of modular planting trays insulates the building and diverts roof run-off water from the storm drains. Similarly sized photovoltaic panels may later replace some or all of these planting tray modules.

By simplifying the structure’s configuration, minimizing building technologies, facilitating future adaptation and superceding current regulations with LEED Certification criteria, the project acquires the attributes of “timelessness”; it will outlast its contemporaries and extend our natural resources.

Similarly, air conditioning, voice, data, and electrical systems are modified by lifting the modular panels of a proprietary raised floor set atop the subfloor. Each panel accepts a replaceable finish layer fitted for grip, reflectance, sound attenuation, and wear-resistance.

In addition to enhancing the building’s value, the qualities of durability and flexibility also lay the foundation for its LEED Certification. Unlike many “green” buildings, this project attends to basic construction elements instead of relying on auxiliary technologies to achieve LEED credits. For instance, while the precast concrete panels are essential to the structure and envelope, they also contain an integrated insulation layer to outperform cast-in-place concrete in energy efficiency. These panels are spaced apart and pierced to introduce light wells and clerestories that reduce reliance on mechanical ventilation and artificial lighting. The wooden siding panels, once weathered to obsolescence, comprise a completely biodegradable product free of synthetic adhesives, fasteners, chemical coatings, or finishes. On the roof an array of modular planting trays insulates the building and diverts roof run-off water from the storm drains. Similarly sized photovoltaic panels may later replace some or all of these planting tray modules.

By simplifying the structure’s configuration, minimizing building technologies, facilitating future adaptation and superceding current regulations with LEED Certification criteria, the project acquires the attributes of “timelessness”; it will outlast its contemporaries and extend our natural resources.

Similarly, air conditioning, voice, data, and electrical systems are modified by lifting the modular panels of a proprietary raised floor set atop the subfloor. Each panel accepts a replaceable finish layer fitted for grip, reflectance, sound attenuation, and wear-resistance.

In addition to enhancing the building’s value, the qualities of durability and flexibility also lay the foundation for its LEED Certification. Unlike many “green” buildings, this project attends to basic construction elements instead of relying on auxiliary technologies to achieve LEED credits. For instance, while the precast concrete panels are essential to the structure and envelope, they also contain an integrated insulation layer to outperform cast-in-place concrete in energy efficiency. These panels are spaced apart and pierced to introduce light wells and clerestories that reduce reliance on mechanical ventilation and artificial lighting. The wooden siding panels, once weathered to obsolescence, comprise a completely biodegradable product free of synthetic adhesives, fasteners, chemical coatings, or finishes. On the roof an array of modular planting trays insulates the building and diverts roof run-off water from the storm drains. Similarly sized photovoltaic panels may later replace some or all of these planting tray modules.

By simplifying the structure’s configuration, minimizing building technologies, facilitating future adaptation and superceding current regulations with LEED Certification criteria, the project acquires the attributes of “timelessness”; it will outlast its contemporaries and extend our natural resources.

house’s interior environmental quality and diminishing its impact on the local environment. The benefit is threefold: each opening draws light though the interior spaces to the carport below, conducts rainwater from the roof deck to a rainwater management system, and ventilates by siphoning air through the middle of the structure.

At the roof the projecting piles serve to divide the space between a deck directly coinciding with the living areas below and a modular planting system installed directly above each bedroom. This planting system further minimizes the structure’s footprint and environmental impact. At the ground level directly underneath the main living spaces, there is room for storing the cars, boats, and yard equipment usually found under houses raised on pilings.

By allowing these voids to permeate through the house, the owners have multiple visual connections to the landscape from below, within and above the house, encouraging a sense of place.

house’s interior environmental quality and diminishing its impact on the local environment. The benefit is threefold: each opening draws light though the interior spaces to the carport below, conducts rainwater from the roof deck to a rainwater management system, and ventilates by siphoning air through the middle of the structure.

At the roof the projecting piles serve to divide the space between a deck directly coinciding with the living areas below and a modular planting system installed directly above each bedroom. This planting system further minimizes the structure’s footprint and environmental impact. At the ground level directly underneath the main living spaces, there is room for storing the cars, boats, and yard equipment usually found under houses raised on pilings.

By allowing these voids to permeate through the house, the owners have multiple visual connections to the landscape from below, within and above the house, encouraging a sense of place.

house’s interior environmental quality and diminishing its impact on the local environment. The benefit is threefold: each opening draws light though the interior spaces to the carport below, conducts rainwater from the roof deck to a rainwater management system, and ventilates by siphoning air through the middle of the structure.

At the roof the projecting piles serve to divide the space between a deck directly coinciding with the living areas below and a modular planting system installed directly above each bedroom. This planting system further minimizes the structure’s footprint and environmental impact. At the ground level directly underneath the main living spaces, there is room for storing the cars, boats, and yard equipment usually found under houses raised on pilings.

By allowing these voids to permeate through the house, the owners have multiple visual connections to the landscape from below, within and above the house, encouraging a sense of place.

house’s interior environmental quality and diminishing its impact on the local environment. The benefit is threefold: each opening draws light though the interior spaces to the carport below, conducts rainwater from the roof deck to a rainwater management system, and ventilates by siphoning air through the middle of the structure.

At the roof the projecting piles serve to divide the space between a deck directly coinciding with the living areas below and a modular planting system installed directly above each bedroom. This planting system further minimizes the structure’s footprint and environmental impact. At the ground level directly underneath the main living spaces, there is room for storing the cars, boats, and yard equipment usually found under houses raised on pilings.

By allowing these voids to permeate through the house, the owners have multiple visual connections to the landscape from below, within and above the house, encouraging a sense of place.

By employing a system of deep timber beams spaced six feet apart, the floor framing no longer depends directly on the exterior walls for support. The solid floor and ceiling may be held-back at the edges to open an uninterrupted cavity from the first floor through the roof. This cavity is lined with white reflective metal road sign blanks and made translucent to the sky and interior spaces through a diffusive plane of clear corrugated polycarbonate. Light reflects off the roof deck’s metal planking, through the polycarbonate plane into the light cavity, off the road sign blanks, and into the house’s interior spaces.

Traditionally development in Catskill Park has taken place adjacent to waterways and existing transportation corridors. Since this project sits inside a relatively undisturbed tract, special environmental care is taken. Moss-coated boulders strewn across the hillside are piled like riprap against the graded slopes to either side of the parking area to protect against erosion; hemlocks cleared for the road and building site are recycled into siding at a local mill; and the light cavities double for natural convective cooling in the summertime: cool air draws below, warms by solar radiation, rises to the top, and exhausts through manually-regulated louvers. Along with the “solar tube” daylighting, these systems unite harmoniously with the natural setting to satisfy the owners’ aspirations for “simplicity, functionality, warmth, and soul”.

By employing a system of deep timber beams spaced six feet apart, the floor framing no longer depends directly on the exterior walls for support. The solid floor and ceiling may be held-back at the edges to open an uninterrupted cavity from the first floor through the roof. This cavity is lined with white reflective metal road sign blanks and made translucent to the sky and interior spaces through a diffusive plane of clear corrugated polycarbonate. Light reflects off the roof deck’s metal planking, through the polycarbonate plane into the light cavity, off the road sign blanks, and into the house’s interior spaces.

Traditionally development in Catskill Park has taken place adjacent to waterways and existing transportation corridors. Since this project sits inside a relatively undisturbed tract, special environmental care is taken. Moss-coated boulders strewn across the hillside are piled like riprap against the graded slopes to either side of the parking area to protect against erosion; hemlocks cleared for the road and building site are recycled into siding at a local mill; and the light cavities double for natural convective cooling in the summertime: cool air draws below, warms by solar radiation, rises to the top, and exhausts through manually-regulated louvers. Along with the “solar tube” daylighting, these systems unite harmoniously with the natural setting to satisfy the owners’ aspirations for “simplicity, functionality, warmth, and soul”.

By employing a system of deep timber beams spaced six feet apart, the floor framing no longer depends directly on the exterior walls for support. The solid floor and ceiling may be held-back at the edges to open an uninterrupted cavity from the first floor through the roof. This cavity is lined with white reflective metal road sign blanks and made translucent to the sky and interior spaces through a diffusive plane of clear corrugated polycarbonate. Light reflects off the roof deck’s metal planking, through the polycarbonate plane into the light cavity, off the road sign blanks, and into the house’s interior spaces.

Traditionally development in Catskill Park has taken place adjacent to waterways and existing transportation corridors. Since this project sits inside a relatively undisturbed tract, special environmental care is taken. Moss-coated boulders strewn across the hillside are piled like riprap against the graded slopes to either side of the parking area to protect against erosion; hemlocks cleared for the road and building site are recycled into siding at a local mill; and the light cavities double for natural convective cooling in the summertime: cool air draws below, warms by solar radiation, rises to the top, and exhausts through manually-regulated louvers. Along with the “solar tube” daylighting, these systems unite harmoniously with the natural setting to satisfy the owners’ aspirations for “simplicity, functionality, warmth, and soul”.

By employing a system of deep timber beams spaced six feet apart, the floor framing no longer depends directly on the exterior walls for support. The solid floor and ceiling may be held-back at the edges to open an uninterrupted cavity from the first floor through the roof. This cavity is lined with white reflective metal road sign blanks and made translucent to the sky and interior spaces through a diffusive plane of clear corrugated polycarbonate. Light reflects off the roof deck’s metal planking, through the polycarbonate plane into the light cavity, off the road sign blanks, and into the house’s interior spaces.

Traditionally development in Catskill Park has taken place adjacent to waterways and existing transportation corridors. Since this project sits inside a relatively undisturbed tract, special environmental care is taken. Moss-coated boulders strewn across the hillside are piled like riprap against the graded slopes to either side of the parking area to protect against erosion; hemlocks cleared for the road and building site are recycled into siding at a local mill; and the light cavities double for natural convective cooling in the summertime: cool air draws below, warms by solar radiation, rises to the top, and exhausts through manually-regulated louvers. Along with the “solar tube” daylighting, these systems unite harmoniously with the natural setting to satisfy the owners’ aspirations for “simplicity, functionality, warmth, and soul”.

house’s interior environmental quality and diminishing its impact on the local environment. The benefit is threefold: each opening draws light though the interior spaces to the carport below, conducts rainwater from the roof deck to a rainwater management system, and ventilates by siphoning air through the middle of the structure.

At the roof the projecting piles serve to divide the space between a deck directly coinciding with the living areas below and a modular planting system installed directly above each bedroom. This planting system further minimizes the structure’s footprint and environmental impact. At the ground level directly underneath the main living spaces, there is room for storing the cars, boats, and yard equipment usually found under houses raised on pilings.

By allowing these voids to permeate through the house, the owners have multiple visual connections to the landscape from below, within and above the house, encouraging a sense of place.

Project Narrative Forthcoming

Project Narrative Forthcoming