Checkerboard House

The plan is largely one room deep to encourage cross ventilation and to take advantage of water views to the north, while admitting sunlight from the south. The flavor is influenced by an informal rustic camp next door.

The first floor functions as a living room in the summer with French doors that open to the view. At the end of the season, the furniture is moved aside to make room for the pick-up truck. Lanterns suspended from the points of the roof are standard mooring balls fitted with light bulbs inside.

The house responds to the Greek Revival traditions of the neighborhood on the exterior with a wholly unexpected interior.  The house is organized around two courts:  first, an arrival court on the public side, and second, a garden court on the quiet private side.

This compound of new buildings adopts a vernacular rural style, reinforcing the culture of the place by using simple barn forms. The composition is unified by painting all the buildings the traditional ferrous oxide red.