The formal elements of the house are organized as a cluster of interconnected parts whose overlapping fragments evoke images of a dense rural village that has been built up over time. The “Z” shaped plan creates two outdoor spaces: a main terrace and a roof terrace. The main terrace accommodates a lap pool, a grass sculpture court, and a gravel sitting area, and acts as the referential outdoor room to all the public spaces, much like a village square. The roof terrace, comprising three levels, accommodates a garden as well as sitting and circulation areas and is accessed from the autocourt, service court and upper hall.The concrete base, white stucco walls, green limestone accent walls, stainless steel handrails and standing seam, terne coated stainless steel roofs articulate the various levels of the house as it climbs the hill. The reiteration of these materials inside reinforces the memory of the landscape and creates a sense of continuity between indoor and outdoor spaces.The owners are patrons and collectors who required a separate art gallery, generous areas for public entertaining, and privacy for their family of four boys and two girls ranging in age from one year to 16. The interior of the house is organized by a north-south circulation spine on two levels, defined by a line of concrete columns that articulates the edge of the art gallery below and the dining room above. The other main public spaces are grouped on two levels at either end of the spine. The master bedroom is set in the cylinder above the library, with a 180-degree view of the Alps across the roof garden. The uppermost element is the “children’s house,” set behind the living room, with bedrooms at the half landings above and below the parents’ bedroom, and a double height playroom. The hierarchical spatial organization of the house fosters a sense of privacy and independence for both children and adults, while integrating common spaces for family interactions. Associate Architect: Pfister & Scheiss

The ground level houses a four car garage, mud room and entry gallery; all accessed from an autocourt, which also engages an exterior stair, connecting to the courtyard on the first level. From the entry gallery there is direct access vertically to the first level, as well as to an underground screening room, game room, wine cellar, spa and exercise space.

The first level houses the family room, kitchen, chef’s kitchen pavilion; the living and dining rooms, guest bedroom, three children’s bedrooms and a playroom. The second level houses two studies, a guest bedroom and the master bedroom suite, which accesses a terrace overviewing and connecting to the courtyard and pool, one level below.

On approach one reads the frontality of the entry façade as a single element, presenting a frame. The resulting plan configuration is an assemblage of elements, creating a series of volumes and courtyard spaces. This is a three-dimensional object/frame on the landscape. It is the first time that the plan/frame and the volumetric frame are simultaneous. The building and site overlay sequence begins with entry/auto court, which is defined by a retaining wall and integral greenhouse structure on the north, an arbor on the east, and the entry façade on the south. An opening in the planar entry façade functions as a gateway through which one reads the volume of the building and the depth of the front element as a thick wall. The adjacent courtyard engages the pool house/ guest house as a separate element, and is extended by a covered arcade, which connects to the main entrance.

The pool house/guest house, or “children’s house,” is a two-story element that accommodates living, dining and kitchen on the ground level and two bedrooms on the second level. The garage element, with two guest rooms on the second level, is located opposite, forming the gateway from the entry court to the main house.

The sequence of arrival is a series of open and covered exterior spaces that unfolds and ultimately brings you to the main house, a single structure that, on the ground level, contains living, dining, kitchen and breakfast room, and on the second level a master bedroom, study and balcony/sitting area that opens to a screened porch, which is also an extension of the master bedroom. On the third level is a roof deck, another major outdoor space that overviews the entire composition. This was the “small house” the Taft’s had requested.

On the second level, over the outdoor entry arcade, a linear gallery connects the main house to the two guest bedrooms in the “children’s house” and to the two guest rooms above the garage. This sense of separation and connection on the family level allows everyone to feel that they have their own private domain while simultaneously being part of a whole. The one-and-a-half-story gallery features a curved glass block wall and, as a space, is transitional, connective, and primary.

The driveway is flanked by a double hedge that forms the eastern boundary of the site and by a row of cypress trees that screens the caretaker’s house and tennis court to the west. The approach leads south toward a grove of pear trees, through which a glimpse of the ocean is visible, and ends in an autocourt that accesses the garage and service areas located on the ocean and dividing the house into two zones. To the east are the public areas: the double height living room, dining room, kitchen, and breakfast room. To the west is a guest bedroom with a sitting room that opens onto the swimming pool terrace. The stair continues up to a balcony on the second floor which overlooks both the living room and the panorama of the dunes and the ocean, and forms a bridge between the master bedroom and the children’s wing.

A series of indoor and outdoor circulation layers wraps the principal living spaces. On the main floor, the northern circulation zone continues along the edge of the living room and ends in a second stair that leads down to the service entrance, up to the master dressing room and then up again to a widow’s walk overlooking the ocean. The southern circulation zone opens out under the brise-soleil that frames the south façade of the house, creating a transition between the living room and the lawn. The brise-soleil forms an arcade that leads to the pool terrace to the west and to an outdoor stair that circles back down to the pear tree courtyard to the east.

The eighteenth century Pennsylvania Dutch barn that forms the underlying structure of the house provided an unorthodox solution to the dilemma, and led to a building that is unique in the firm’s oeuvre. Dismantled and moved from a site that was slated to become an office park, the barn was approached not as a historical type to be preserved—that is, restored to its original condition—but as a “found object” to be transformed. The exterior becomes an abstract volume, punctured by deep-set wood frame windows and clad in cedar shingles that recall the vernacular architecture of the area without distorting the barn’s iconic shape. The 52 foot by 52 foot frame and original oak siding are revealed inside, preserving two centuries of weathering in the ceiling and perimeter walls. Partitions between rooms are finished in a smooth plaster that creates an inverted half-timbered appearance while emphasizing the distinction between the original structure and the interventions.

Both architecture and landscape are revealed as a series of fragments, beginning with arrival in the autocourt, which affords a glimpse of the pond, and culminating in expansive views of the dunes and the ocean from the upstairs windows. A carriage house screens the main building from the autocourt and forms the gate to a pear-tree courtyard whose dimensions echo the footprint of the barn. The main axis of arrival leads to a shingled entrance porch; a cross-axial path leads west to the swimming pool terrace overlooking the pond.

The development of the house as a “village street” creates a series of private retreats among generous spaces for family gatherings. From the autocourt, in a grove of maples at the southern end of the house, a covered arcade leads past the bunkhouse stairs and a poolside terrace. As it continues along the closed wall of the guesthouses and their terraces, the arcade opens up to the woods and tennis court to the east, generating a sense of anticipation as the view of the lake is first denied and then revealed again upon entering each of the houses.

A fireplace in a glass wall is the interior focus of the two and a half story vaulted living room in the main house. Sliding glass doors extend the living space onto a large terrace overlooking the lake. The breakfast room flows out from the kitchen, forming the southern “wall” of this outdoor room and providing a private deck for the master bedroom above. From the entrance hall, stairs lead up a half-level to a skylit painter’s studio in the east wing, and then up again to the master bedroom that looks out towards the lake, and in across the living room to a round window on the north wall, high under the curve of the vault.

The two smaller guesthouses are identical and are variations on the formal strategies of the main house. The vaulted, double height living spaces each include a sitting area by the fireplace and a small dining area. Sleeping lofts above the kitchens extend back to create the roof over the arcade. Windows high on the south walls bring light into the living rooms; glazed doors in the north walls lead to recessed terraces, giving each house a private outdoor space with views of the lake.