— Et Cetera
houses, in construction, waterfront

Gap Cove House Nearing Completion

Much has happened since we last wrote about a new house we designed on Gap Cove in Rockport, MA back in June. We’re happy to report that after a historically difficult 2015 winter the general contractor, Skinner and Watkins, recovered quickly and got back to transforming the little prefab ranch into a new, modern house. See below for a sequence of construction photos tracking the construction process, and we’ll look forward to sharing photos of the completed house in early 2016!

 

The existing house was lifted 12’ to allow for the new foundation that was designed to meet stringent new FEMA guidelines.
Our excavator was busy plowing the highways of Cape Ann much of the winter, so progress on the 13’x40’ addition slowed to a crawl.
As the weather thawed, the original house slowly disappeared and the new house grew on the inland side.
We designed the new coastal side of the house to be more in scale with its rugged site of house-sized boulders and the Atlantic. The original 3 small windows facing the water were replaced by a continuous wall of glass.
The attic level gained 1’ of headroom at the center and 4’ at the lower end thanks to a new shed roof. Zoning guidelines required that this roof be sloped in order to use the attic level as a “half-story”.
The new 16’ high coastal façade wraps around the northeast corner of the house, providing some additional protection for doors and windows facing into the eye of winter storms.
Just as the neighbors were adjusting to the bright blue Henry Blue-skin exterior membrane we began installing the flat seam copper shingles on the seaward façade.
Facing the street is a rain-screen façade of cedar slats of varying widths. This is a modern riff on a New England tradition to have the street façade stand in contrast to the sides and back.
The copper shingle joints are staggered 6” per row to appear to flow across the walls, and especially across the fold in the north side of the house where we wanted to create more space for the neighboring house.
It only took a week or two for the bright copper shingles to patina to a reddish brown. Over the next few years the copper will patina to a soft green very similar to the color of the lichen on the adjacent boulders.
We selected copper for the house not only for its beauty as it patinas over time, but also for its durability, long life and minimal maintenance. Some neighbors were shocked while it was in its shiny raw state, but that shock dissipated as the patina set in.
The original house was crammed awkwardly into its site, appearing to face the street rather than the ocean. We designed the coastal façade to open out and inflect towards the sea, even though its footprint did not change.