Editor's Picks: 10 Coolest Houses of 2009
Looking for a terrific house?
BUILDER design editor Jenny Sullivan shares her favorites from the past year.
By: Jenny Sullivan
Credit: Jeff Herbert
Lake House
Carmel, N.Y.
What’s to love: A design that’s quirky, site-specific, and original.
This lakeside cottage has such a casual, homespun air about it, you’d hardly suspect the intense discipline that was necessary to pull it off. The hitch was that several of its aesthetic priorities were at odds with each other.
For starters, it was unclear which side of the house was meant to be the front. The southeast arrival sequence from the main road and driveway had to be striking, explains architect Donald Powers, but then again so did the west elevation facing the water. The compromise? A residence with two faces that are complementary and yet distinct.
Engineering the perfect plan also required a balancing act between daylight and scenery. To make the most of pristine lake views, Powers strung most of the rooms together in an enfilade pattern facing west, with large picture windows overlooking the water. But the massing and window placement made necessary because of this decision came with a trade-off: a comparatively small south elevation with minimal solar exposure.
Channeling natural light inside thus required some ingenuity to keep the home’s interiors from feeling too dark. One clever remedy is a light box that captures midday sun from a bank of south-facing shed dormer windows and then redirects those rays into the living room through a clerestory valance above the fireplace. Dramatic millwork in the ceiling, painted a gloss white, amplifies the ethereal effect of that diffused light.
Architect: Donald Powers Architects, Providence, R.I.
Builder: Aphrodite Construction, Putnam Valley, N.Y.
Interior designer: Patricia Stadel Design, Lancaster, Pa.
From the February 2009 feature, “Little Gems.”