• A 4,000+ SF house, designed for a family with 3 young girls and lots of visiting cousins. Four large bedrooms including a large bunk room for the girls, three bathrooms and powder room. Wrap-around porches, and a screened porch.
  • From the main entry hall, the entire 76 foot length of the ground floor is visible, with dining area in the distance.
  • Focused on a 10 foot wide natural stone fireplace, the 20’ by 22’ living room is open all around, to the entry hall and main stairway at far left, to the open front porch and water view through French doors at right, to the dining and screened porch in the right foreground of this view.
  • The west end of the house terminates the long view from the entry hall with a projecting bay window, where a built-in desk is just a step from the kitchen.
  • A 16’ by 24’ screened porch is large enough for group dining and indoor game-playing
  • A portion of the screened porch with views and access to the dining and kitchen at far left, living room at center, and outdoor porch at right.
  • This open stair hall is the focal point of the second floor, with access to all bedrooms and plenty of open storage. At far left, operable clerestory windows facing north provide a draft to carry warm air rising from the first floor, completing the natural chimney effect.
  • At the far west end, remote from the parents master bedroom, a large bunk room accommodates three young sisters and frequently visiting cousins and friends. (Each bunk gets its own porthole into the woods.) Large enough to sleep six, the space also has room for desks, play space for indoor days, and lots of storage in the low eave areas.

Coastal Maine Vacation Residence

A 4,000+ SF new house, designed for a family with 3 young girls, dogs, and many visiting cousins. This house was designed to fit a challenging, triangular property parcel with many building constraints, including waterfront setbacks, wetlands as well as building height and footprint limits. This building solution added significant value to a property parcel previously thought unbuildable.

All major first floor rooms and wrap-around porches (both open and screened) were organized to face the water and southern exposure. These main spaces were juxtaposed against a bank of closets, utility and storage rooms, which are accessed from a large service hall along the north driveway side. While keeping vehicles and service needs away from the water side, this floor plan also allows active, sometimes messy, family use with plenty “away” space to stash and organize the needs of a large family. South-facing operating transoms and French doors, opening toward the water, allow whole-house natural ventilation via the central open stairway to north-facing dormer windows along the second floor stair hall. This keeps the house so comfortable in a typically humid creekside, wooded setting, that many visitors assume the house is air-conditioned until they are reminded how open it is to the site’s natural features.

On the second floor all four large bedrooms have water views. With three bathrooms and a first floor powder room, the house can easily accommodate a range of visitors and occasional renters. At the east end a large master bedroom with integral dressing closets and bath is a private and quiet zone for parents.

 

Awards

Best of Houzz 2015 – Portland, Maine

 

 

  • Project Type Architectural Services for New Construction
  • Location Kennebunkport, ME