Water Views

We’ve been frantically busy developing the design of our Griffin Island House, but Sandra, Nerijus, and I were able to take a short break and drive out to Wellfleet the other day. While we continue to fine tune the design and detailing in collaboration with our landscape architect, Kris Horiuchi and several potential general contractors, there is a lot of pressure to lock in the exact house location in order to begin the Conservation Commission review process. So we had our civil / environmental engineer, John O’Reilly, stake the main corners of the house on the site for us to review. The house will be built mid-slope on the site’s huge coastal bank, so checking on views and house orientation required a substantial ladder and a healthy dose of imagination. After some additional studio design time, we determined that the house should be rotated slightly so that the master bedroom would be slightly closer to the water with views of the Bay between two stands of pines, and so the living / dining room – which hovers twelve feet above the sandy ground – would have a little more space between its wall of glass and an oak grove. Next up will be a meeting on site with Kris and the owners.

- Will Ruhl