“As landscape architects, we're always interested in that connection between interior space and exterior space,” says Wellessley, MA-based Member Dan Gordon. Perhaps no project is a better example of the success of this relationship than a modern estate by Patrick Ahearn on Martha’s Vineyard, where two DLN Members collaborated to create a rambling property that deftly accommodates natural landscape and local building restrictions.
As soon as Patrick saw his clients’ lot—a parcel of wooded oceanfront in Chilmark, on the southwestern part of the island—he knew he wanted to employ Dan; the two creatives have worked together often and have a deep mutual understanding of the symbiotic relationship between architecture and landscape. He also knew that Dan would understand how best to carve a livable property out of the acreage while respecting the character of the site.
To begin, the biggest hurdle was fitting the clients’ vision—expansive, modern retreat—within the Vineyard’s notoriously strict zoning guidelines, which prohibit gabled roofs over 24 feet and flat ones over 13 feet. The solution? Divide the living spaces across several structures, each built carefully into the surrounding landscape.
“I wanted it to feel like a cottage,” explains Patrick. Not only would this pass permit muster, it would lend instant character in the style of a more historic country house. “It’s very much in a European idiom,” says Patrick of the final arrangement, whose multiple structures around central courtyards were inspired by country homes in Belgium. “There’s an implied history; it looks like the different parts have been added on over time.”
This framework is supported—both literally and stylistically–by Dan’s thoughtful landscape. “I like to take a contextual approach and build a landscape that really supports the natural character and builds on that,” says Dan. In this case, his work began with an existing central meadow, which became the hub of the property, around which the main house, boathouse, and guest house were sited, with a space left for a future pool.
“We wanted to create this dialogue with the barn carriage house in the distance, knowing full well that in two years or so there would be this other third element,”says Patrick.
Of course, unlike Belgian country homes of yore, this estate boasts an ocean view—something the homeowners were keen to make the most of. Patrick’s team obliged with floor-to-ceiling windows, foldaway doors that open to multiple terraces, and a retracting window in the kitchen. To balance these expanses of glass, “we used a lot of timbers and post and beam and stone,” Patrick explains.
The result is a thoroughly modern family home that still manages to beckon to the warmth of the past: “The overall organization of the property builds on the character of that agrarian history,” says Dan. “There are fieldstone stepping stones, new walls that relate to the architecture, but feel like they've been there forever.”
Patrick Ahearn envisioned the great room as the central “cottage,” with transparent glass hallways serving as connectors to additional spaces, which read like “little houses.”
To contend with Martha’s Vineyard’s strict height laws—and allow for light into the lower levels of the house—Dan graded the surrounding landscape so the main house sits into it.
This story is from Issue 1 of The Quarterly. Click here to see the full issue.
