Northwest Woods

East Hampton, NY
5,450 sq ft
4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms
Screened Porch, Outdoor Shower
New Construction

drawing from childhood memories of the clients, This home evokes the playfulness of camping in the forests of upstate New York.

Maintaining the beauty of East Hampton’s Northwest Woods became the main consideration for this new construction. The design, inspired by two nineteenth century resort styles- the Adirondack camp and the elegant, yet casual shingled cottage- results in a modernized version of these traditional forms.

Exterior & Grounds

The natural White Pine and Red Oak wooded two-acre lot surrounded by wetlands required very careful extraction of the trees. We marked and presented to the Town’s Environmental Department for removal approval to create usable outdoor living areas and room for the house, along with the driveway, space for parking, an outdoor pool and stone patios. To maintain the “upstate” woods feel, the clearing was selective, balancing the home’s main structures with the natural environment.

Interior

For the guests’ wing, I designed a structure that appears to be one story by bringing the roof-line eaves low. The two bedrooms, which have their windows set in roof dormers, benefited by having an “attic-like” feeling with the exposure of the interior roof angles.

The story-and-a-half living room is grounded with a large, stone-faced fireplace and antique wood ceiling truss. The master bath has a private outdoor shower and its own small stone patio away from guests.

The wife’s passion for cooking guided the floor plan’s configuration, making the kitchen the central meeting point in the house. The design features an efficient eat-in kitchen as a result, with easy access to the two-car garage, a large pantry, screened porch, formal dining room, and stone terraces.