A tower in the trees

Sunset, Oct, 1995 by Peter O. Whiteley

Have you ever dreamed of sleeping high in a leaf-shrouded tree fort? The 737-square-foot Whidbey Island cabin that Michelle Pailthorp and Joel Connelly built comes close to making that childhood fantasy come true. "Any way you look there's glass and there's green," says Connelly of the view from the sleeping loft over the main floor. The angled glass you look through is actually part of the roof. The cabin's novel "open yet snug" feeling won jurors' respect.

Architect Arne Bystrom's design gradually peels away the layers that separate inside from outside. Each higher level puts you closer to trees and water views. An outermost skin of red cedar shingles and glass doors and windows surrounds the split-level ground floor containing the main living area and kitchen. Rising out of this level is an exposed trestlelike framework of fir timbers that reinforces the outer walls and supports both the sleeping, loft and the angled roof joists. From the bottom floor you can see past the loft and through the glass part of the roof. Directly above the loft is a rooftop pergola. or widow's walk.

The mantle of leaves limits summer-time time gain. In winter. when the house is exposed, it is heated by solar energy -- with a woodstove as backup. In winter, too. the owners say. "the views are even more spectacular, and you get some of the world's great moonrises on the bay."