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 that felt at home in the Pacific Northwest while recalling classic beach houses of Cape Cod and Long Island.
The resulting design offers both “prospect” and “refuge” (as the architects put it), orienting outward toward the ocean with a sweeping front deck and expansive views across a meadow and pond, while forming a sheltered courtyard-like lawn to the rear in conjunction with a detached garage and a studio/guest house.
The exterior features a standing seam metal roof, a chimney of local fieldstone, and hand-split cedar shingles. The interior features painted, shiplap wood walls, engineered oak wide-plank floors, and custom concrete kitchen countertops.
PRESS:
In the vaulted ceiling of the great room, dormer windows, painted trusses, and steel cross ties generate a play of light and shadow.