Completed 2000

Two professional women wanted to create a new swimming pool and pool house for entertaining family and friends on a hillside above a rural town. Thirty truck loads of soil and rocks were removed to create a large enough flat space to construct the pool and afford some privacy from the town below. The back of the pool house is actually buried into the ground so that the roof appears to rest on the soil. The required program for the pool house was to have a porch covered grilling area, rooms for storage and changing, a bathroom, an outdoor shower and an interior dining room with screened doors to escape the insects in the spring and summer. When the doors are closed, the building looks like an 19th century farm shed.

Completed 1996

Four middle aged siblings and their families wanted to build a shared summer home on an inherited piece of land with an outstanding view of the Atlantic Ocean near Buzzards Bay. With a limited budget the challenge was to design a home that fulfilled the two requests for a barn-like structure and a 19th century farmhouse. The 2400 sq. ft. house has 4 bedrooms, three full bathrooms, a laundry and one large living/dining and kitchen space. The one car garage in the lower level opens onto the driveway due to the steep slope of the land to the west. The house is heavily insulated with a southern exposure and many energy efficient windows on the south side. The house is passively heated in warmer seasons and in winter uses a forced hot air furnace and fireplace. The open floor plan on the first floor and open stairway in the center of the house create a chimney effect up through the second story skylights which ventilates the house during humid summer days by drawing air in across the lawns and porches.

Project construction ceased before completion due to banking crisis in late 2008

The developer client envisioned building two 30 unit housing projects for home ownership on two separate sites in Bozeman, Montana. His target market was the middle income bracket, including city employees, policemen, firemen and school teachers who could no longer afford to live in the city due to the increased valuation of the existing housing stock in the old Bozeman neighborhoods. His goal was to construct a variety of 800 to 1200 sq. ft., energy efficient, detached homes with two bedrooms, two full bathrooms, an office, and one car garage. Each site had a small park which many of the units looked or backed onto. I designed multiple one and two story u nits and the developer chose five to be built during the first phase of construction. Each unit has a porch and a trellised patio space with virtually no yard and they are zoned as free standing condominiums.

Front Elevation and Main Entry/Parking Area

Completed 2005

The client wished to build a multi-purpose wellness center to encourage the knowledge and use of yoga, meditation and alternate health modalities in her community. The 80 acre, wooded and wetland property was purchased from the town to prevent the development of an overly ambitious housing project. The design challenge was to create a quiet, intimate, residential atmosphere in a large “house” that would allow groups of people to participate in diverse activities, sometimes simultaneously. By using the traditional New England “Shingle Style” on the exterior with the typical roof overhangs along with the custom wood detailing on the interior of all the buildings, an atmosphere of restful retreat is created. The owner has also created an outdoor labyrinth and unique garden spaces and vistas to support the views from the buildings. In addition to the main building, there is a small office structure with a 4k photovoltaic roof in the field behind the house, and a renovated meditation hall with bathrooms, showers, a small caterers kitchen, and a handicapped ramp.

Completed Fall 2007

A retired couple from New York City wanted to create a new ranch home based on the traditional ranch style of 1930’s and 1940’s California architect Cliff May. The purpose of the house is for entertaining guests and to provide a place for their art collection and antiques. The design challenge was to create an intimate home in a vast sagebrush prairie environment with long vistas to mountain ranges. A u-shaped plan and an entry courtyard with an 8′-0″ concrete wall and multiple trellises helps to deflect the powerful wind and sun exposure and creates a sense of enclosure.

Completed Summer 2013

The owner requested a design for a new garage and a renovation to the exterior of her summer home in order to integrate the various existing window, door, and eave details into a single style that coordinated with the new garage. The new garage footprint was rotated 90 degrees to the house to create a partially enclosed, three sided courtyard and circular driveway, creating privacy from the busy street and allowing the relocated driveway to curve around a new required septic system.