To construct this new house in the San Juan Islands, one of two houses we built on the same property, a Schultz Miller crew of 16 lived on island for two years.
The clients asked architects Margaret Menter and Patrick Byrne for a house with a modern look and feel, but still in keeping with its island setting. The house has the same cedar shingles and standing-seam metal roofing as the more traditional houses on the property, but it has a paired down aesthetic and is composed of simple house forms with minimal roof overhangs – Shaker meets Pacific Northwest.
The prominent chimney and low parapet walls were constructed by a local mason of San Juan fieldstone. Tall window walls give the house a crisp, modern feel, while blackened steel mullions maintain human scale. Moving from inside to outside, the polished concrete floors flow naturally into stone terraces that surround the house.
The otherwise spare main space is animated by an elegant system of reclaimed wood beams and slender steel tie rods. A Schultz Miller crew worked with a crane to lift the beams into place in connected pairs, then installed the steel tie rods that give the truss system its structural integrity.
More New Homes
