Project Description
Category: Live
Honorable Mention
This one-bedroom main house and adjacent guest house are located on a steep, densely wooded, 16-acre site in the Berkshires. To navigate the difficult topography, the Cambridge, Mass.–based architects designed a 200-foot-long retaining wall, made out of board-formed concrete, to help create a level field for a garden and the two structures. The wood-clad, steel-framed, 6,400-square-foot main house sports a cantilevered deck that projects into the treetops to maximize views?but the exposed steel beams felt heavy and unresolved to the jury. Milled aluminum L-sections are used as detailing on the façade, and serve both as sunshades, and a means of framing the entry. Overall, the choice of materials, the program, and the level of craft suggested to juror Sheila Kennedy that “there’s a talented team there.” —Katie Gerfen