2003 Custom Home Design Awards

Custom Home, Sept-Oct, 2003 by Meghan Drueding, Shelley D. Hutchins, Bruce D. Snider

A granite outcrop on the site provided inspiration for the building's ragged, monolithic forms. A shallow "V" roof form echoes a saddle between two distant hills that the house looks out on. Our judges admired the house's bold shapes, which are rendered in stone and concrete--"basic building materials used in a very straightforward way," one noted--and the application of cherry millwork and steel roof framing, "to relieve the brutalism of the concrete."

Because this is a vacation home, Archer says, the owners were more open than most residential clients to an approach that draws somewhat outside the lines. But the house was designed also to be utterly practical. The pavilion-based plan allows the house to expand and contract according to the number of guests on hand. The main lakeside patio--or "beach" as Archer calls it--is an all-purpose launching platform for water sports. Despite its high-style character, one judge noted, "This house is zero-maintenance." --B.D.S.

Entrant/Architect: Overland Partners, San Antonio, Texas; Builder: Duecker Construction, Fredericksburg, Texas; Landscape architect: Bud Twilley Landscape & Courtyard Gardens, Austin, Texas; Interior designer: Emily Summers Design, Dallas; Living space: 4,300 square feet; Site: .5 acre; Construction cost:Withheld; Photographer: Paul Bardagjy. * For product information see page 118.

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Merit Award

Custom Home Under 3,000 Square Feet Door County, Wis., Residence

In a simple house, a single gesture can make all the difference. In this year-round second home on the shore of Lake Michigan, the inspired gesture is right overhead: a sweeping reverse-arch roof', surrounded by clerestory windows, that tops the main living space. The clerestory openings "throw light up against the ceiling and kind of bounce it around," explains architect Jim Nagle, who designed the house for a long-time friend. The roof is supported by four laminated beams, which were fabricated locally at a very reasonable cost. "It was a very simple way to get a big bang," Nagle says. "It's like having a sail up over your head."

Nagle's program called for "a modest house, but something that fit in with the environment." And at only 2,000 square feet, his straight-ahead Modernist plan is the very soul of modesty. Fitting in with the environment provides the entertainment here. "It's in the woods and it's right on Lake Michigan, sand beach out front," says Nagle, who located the house to take advantage of the views without stepping all over the shorefront scenery. "We tried to nestle it back in the woods, so it doesn't expose itself to the beach." The building's primary materials--fieldstone for the chimney, cedar siding, maple flooring, laminated pine roof beams--were all sourced locally.

Our judges gave the project high marks for the clarity of its plan and its appropriateness to the setting. They noted approvingly the building's openness to the lake, and the discreet outside entrances to the two baths, which allow swimmers to clean off before entering the rest of the house. But they agreed that the sweeping roof and the quality of light it creates inside the building were the crowning touches. "Putting that roof on it takes it to another level," said one. "I wouldn't mind spending a weekend in that house." --B.D.S.