Location Description:
The project is located on a stunning, but cringingly
restricted site overlooking Griffin Bay on San Juan Island. The most practical
area to build was exactly where three beautiful old growth trees had already
chosen to live. A prior architect, in a prior design, had proposed chopping
them down and building right in the middle of the site. From our perspective,
the trees were an important essence of the site and respectfully had to be
preserved. As a result we squeezed the programmatic requirements, kept the
clients on a square foot restriction and pressed tight against property
setbacks. A further issue was that the
site backed up against the county road therefore establishing visual and audio
privacy was a significant concern. These became the primary initiators of the
parti.
Purpose Description:
The clients desired an intimate, yet dynamic family
residence that reflected the beauty of the site and the lifestyle of the San
Juan Islands. The house was built to be both a place to gather for large
dinners with friends and family as well as a cozy home for the couple when they
are there alone.
Design Approach:
The delineate concept is a stone wall that sweeps from the
parking to the entry, through the house and out the other side,
terminating in a hook that nestles the master shower. This is the symbolic
and functional shield between the public road and the private living spaces of
the home owners. All the primary living spaces and the master suite are on the
water side, the remaining rooms are tucked into the hill on the road side of
the wall.
Off-setting
the solid massing of the stone walls is a pavilion which grabs the views and
the light to the south, east and west. Built in a position to be hammered by
the winter storms the pavilion, while light and airy in appearance and feeling,
is constructed of glass, steel, stout wood timbers and doors with a stone roof
and a slate floor. The glass pavilion is anchored by two concrete panel
chimneys; the windows are steel framed and the exterior skin is of powder
coated steel sheathing.
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