Second sites: three vacation homes explore place, space, and leisure time

Residential Architect, July, 2005 by Nigel F. Maynard, Meghan Drueding, Shelley D. Hutchins

escape from bellevue

Vacation homes appeal to us on an almost primal level because they hold a promise of freedom--from formality, self-consciousness, fussy posturing. It's no accident this full-time home also sheds those shackles. It was originally conceived as a second home--until the owners decided they couldn't put the chains back on come Monday.

It all began when the retired couple bought a small cabin along Sequim Bay in Washington State and tapped Seattle-based Vandeventer + Carlander Architects to execute a modest renovation and addition. "Their [primary] house was more formal, and the rooms were more compartmentalized," principal Tim Carlander explains. "They wanted an open plan." After he proposed numerous remodeling schemes, the clients opted to abandon the original plan in favor of an entirely new structure, and then decided midstream they would give up their Bellevue, Wash., home to live full-time in Sequim.

The clients' wish list was simple: a compact home with built-in flexibility to accommodate guests. Once that was established, Carlander let the site--an almost 2-acre sloping parcel--dictate the design. He nestled the house among the mature fir trees and oriented it along a north-south axis to maximize the water views. The plan permits cross-ventilation and takes advantage of the light, Carlander says. Large overhangs mitigate the intense late-afternoon sun.

"Because of the site and to keep the footprint small, I proposed a two-level plan," he says. He also tucked the structure into the hill and limited its width to one room so all rooms open to a landscaped terrace and capture views. The original vacation-home program called for main living areas on the upper level and the master suite downstairs, but Carlander inverted the arrangement to facilitate one-level living for his clients. The master is now upstairs and guest quarters are below.

The primary-home program also brought freedom to pursue a richer palette of materials. So the architect and clients rejected the masonry block base in favor of Pennsylvania stone. Alaskan yellow cedar siding and windows and a metal roof provide a hardy exterior, while cherry and cedar upgrade the quality of the interior. Despite the seemingly delicate materials, the house is designed to weather gracefully inside and out. And an outdoor shower evokes a summer idyll.

The entire project took two years, but Carlander says the results were well worth the time and effort--a credit to the contractor, Formost Construction. The clients now have a modest-sized house that makes retirement feel like the best vacation ever.--n.f.m.

project: Sequim Bay Cabin, Sequim, Wash.

architect: Vandeventer + Carlander Architects, Seattle

general contractor: Formost Construction. Sequim

project size: 2,500 square feet

site size: 1.75 acres

construction cost: Withheld

photography: Steve Keating

divide and conquer

The owners of this summer house in East Hampton, N.Y., weren't looking to impress their neighbors. "They didn't want a typical East Hampton mega mansion," says architect Bill Grover, FAIA, of Centerbrook Architects and Planners. "They were looking for a property where the house wouldn't be visible from the street." Once they found it, an idyllic, forested site dotted with wetlands, Grover and project manager Ed Keagle, AIA. set to work designing the outdoors-oriented getaway the clients requested.

Breaking larger buildings up into smaller pieces has become something of a Centerbrook signature, and this strategy suited the clients' taste and program. Not only did they like the imagery of old barns, which often coexist with other agricultural buildings, but they also wanted to give the master suite and guest room privacy from the main living areas and kids' rooms. The divide-and-conquer concept suited Grover, too. "I like the idea of villages, where the spaces in between the buildings are as important as the buildings are," he says. "Also, my predilection is toward gable-roofed houses. They're relatively narrow, so you can get light through them more easily than a big deep box."

So he and Keagle topped the master suite with guest quarters, pulled that structure away from the main house, and connected the two buildings with a one-story, roofed hallway. They did the same for the garage, which contains a game room upstairs. The architects then grouped the three gabled structures around a 2,230-square-foot deck with a swimming pool, spa, and grill. Generous, wisteria-covered trellises provide the deck with shaded spaces, especially in the warmer months, when the vines blossom.

Natural heating and cooling methods apply indoors, too. Most of the house's glass is located on its south side to bring in warmth and light during the day. Substantive stone pillars absorb that heat, radiating it out throughout the night. "The stone walls give the house a feeling of solidity and permanence," says Grover. And the subterranean wine cellar buried several steps down from the basement requires no mechanical temperature regulation. Built as a simple concrete box, the cellar relies on the earth's natural temperature to maintain the air inside it at a steady 55 degrees. The water-permeable concrete allows in just enough humidity to keep the wine at its best.