David is an exec in finance. Maura manages clients’ art collections. When I first met them they were living in a small -nearly tiny- apartment in the city, having moved from their 100 year old “dark but lovely” brownstone in Brooklyn. Recent empty nesters, they were ready for something else, but I could not tell what at first.
Having purchased a few acres on the south shore of Long Island, they were ready for a new lifestyle, relaxed and connected to nature, The site is wooded with a 700 foot drive through the semi darkness to a clearing about 150 feet from the water’s edge.
They’d purchased their building site without fully understanding that the site was going to control the house design and require a house that was not at all what they first described to me when we stood in that clearing.
We quickly got into some serious site analysis- we first learned that the site was in a flood plain and that the first living level had to be at least 4 feet above natural grade. They had wanted to live on the ground. Between the house site and the Atlantic, a berm of sand, washed ashore during a hurricane of recent memory- about 12 feet high, acted both as a wind barrier and view obstructor at ground level. We then learned that the berm could not be removed or reduced. David and Maura were crushed.
My job is to collaborate with clients to design homes that celebrate their sites, inspire their lifestyles, and that their budget will allow. I’m a good listener, a creative designer, and a collaborative problem solver.
We resigned ourselves to the living space being 4 feet off the ground. Then we asked ourselves” Why not 10 feet? Raising the main living to 10 feet above grade would allow us to tuck the garage and the entry hall (allowed) under the house (much more efficient than a stand- alone garage) Done!
Maura was not happy with living space all being more than 10’ off the ground. Ok, what about having the first living level at 4’, the next at 10” (over the garage and entry), and the highest level at 14’ above grade. It was coming together.
The first living level would be their children’s or guest bedrooms with an open sitting area. Up another half level, the great room and kitchen, with the berm now at our feet, enjoying a sweeping view of the water, Up another half level to the highest living level, the secluded owners’ suite and shared office with an awesome view.
The concept still lacked an outdoor living space on the great room level. Walking down 15 steps to turn over the turkey burgers was not a satisfying idea. No problem. A screened porch accessed through a sliding glass door in the dining room with a set of stairs down to the ground would give David and Maura direct access to the planned pool deck. With fully renewed enthusiasm, Maura suggested a fireplace on the porch to take the edge off the cold winter air.
Ah, but the space under the porch, full height, presented a bonus opportunity. Enclosed on three sides by climbing greenery on cedar lattice work, a shaded pool-side cabana with changing room and refreshment bar. Perfect!
It has long been my experience that setbacks in the design process, when handled optimistically, lead to a design that is an improvement over the prior concept. I think the creative “adrenalin” somehow energizes us and encourages us to think more expansively to overcome the disappointment of losing some feature. This experience confirms that.
The house was planned with one sweeping monopitch roof, the low end being over the porch and rising to accommodate the highest floor level in the house, the owners’ suite.
On a site visit during the preliminary design phase on a gusty afternoon, we marveled at how the earth berm shielded the entire pool area from wind. But overhead, the leafy tree branches were bending toward the house.
What if we reversed the pitch of the roof over the screened porch, would the roof become a wind scoop and catch those summer breezes? If we enlarged the dining room slider to twelve feet wide, would the prevailing blow into the great room, and if we provided a path for the convection current to rise as the roof rises, breezing through the owners’ suite, the house would exhale warm air at windows just under the roof at the highest (and warmest) point in the house.
These and many other details came together in a wonderful Lindal whose compact footprint minimized disturbance to the site; a house that is cooled by summer breezes and provides wonderful opportunities for outdoor living. Photovoltaics on the roof provide most of the electricity to power the house and heat the pool.
Maura had been concerned that the traditional furniture in their Brooklyn brownstone would look out of place in their new Lindal. Not to worry: the warm and relaxed Lindal post and beam system provides a wonderful background for their furnishings, complemented at every turn with artwork created by their artist friends.
So in what passions do David and Maura now indulge? How have the ex-urbanites spread their wings.? Maura is a talented and inventive cook. I enjoyed every evening appointment at their apartment. Maura always prepared something unusual and delicious in the 6x6 foot kitchen. She now has exactly the kitchen she wanted. Lots of storage, lots of sunlight, and a large pantry in which she can store all the small appliances she never wanted out on the kitchen counters.
Maura has become a true outdoors person. She swims laps at least once a day, reads historical novels and does work for her clients on the pool deck or the screened porch, and she walks miles on the country roads in her village.
David has always enjoyed wood carving but lacked a space for carving as well as a reliable supply of wood. Their homesite, roughly 3 acres, is entirely wooded with native hardwoods. The residential design criteria for wind on the south shore of Long Island is 130 miles per hour, and any rainstorm leaves limbs large and small needing to be cleared and hauled- except those which David reserves for his stunning work, pieces as small as earrings and as large as dining tables. He is currently working on a full-scale totem pole from a tree still standing in their front yard.
New Yorkers frequently comment that they cannot imagine living anywhere else than their vibrant hometown. But here are two avowed urban dwellers who literally built a new life shaped by and intimately connected to nature. David and Maura transplanted their lives only 70 miles from New York but a whole world away. I bet they tell family and friends that they cannot imagine living anywhere else.
Note: Warfmmodern Living creates one-of-a-kind homes for our clients. Over twenty of our designs have been so enthusiastically received that Lindal has, with our permission, included them in the Modern Elements portfolio of designs. This is onre of those designs. It’s Lindal name is Haven, and you can review the design on Lindal.com.