Awards
Connecticut Cottages & Gardens | 2009
Innovation in Design Awardfor Architecture
Connecticut Cottages & Gardens | 2009
Innovation in Design Award for Kitchen Design
American Society of Landscape Architects
2007 Connecticut Merit Award
McNear Residence
Our work ventures back to the roots of American Architecture, and moves subtly between the historic and the modern, connecting the past to the present. It is architecture of distilled images that often embody a childlike simplicity, employing an informed and intuitive use of pattern that integrates the structure and fenestration. The images are intended to express a dreamlike, yet familiar, quality where objects and scale may be slightly skewed and suggestively distorted.
The Residence in Darien is an expression of these sensibilities, while having a more complex inner life. The house from the exterior seems a simple New England home with careful attention to detailing of windows, doors, rafters and shutters. The cedar roof with its central chimney, traditional wood siding and fieldstone base help create the impression the house has always been there. The public face features a regular rhythm of smaller windows while the rear façade is more expansive, with walls of glass that open up to a garden and pool.
The interior has a distinctly modern vocabulary hidden behind its façade, with exposed steel columns supporting the upper level above the primarily glass main living space. Modern sliding barn doors separate interior rooms. A subdued palette of white and grey wood creates a clean and soothing interior.
“A house in a garden” was a major concept of the clients. The resulting patio and pergola play a major role in the relationship of house to landscape. An outdoor shower features a backdrop of zinc panels arranged in a whimsical fish-scale pattern, while a traditional flagstone terrace and outdoor fireplace mass anchors the building to the site.