Context
If there is home, there must also be away, distinguishing spaces for living from places to work and play. But with retirement on the horizon, our clients dreamt of consolidating where they recreate with where they reside.
For decades the couple and their children had rented a house in Acadia National Park to occasionally slip away for hiking, mountain biking, sailing, and sea kayaking. In 2021 they purchased fifteen acres on Mount Desert Island to facilitate longer and more frequent visits that would eventually transition to a permanent stay.
The forested property is a long, narrow sash tying off one of the Island’s many micro capes. A series of preexisting trails weave through the site to connect a sheltered cove on the east with an open bay to the west. Setbacks from both shorelines and the parcel’s many wetlands – as well as a conservation easement protecting a significant vernal pool – limit buildable areas on the expansive parcel to just a few waterfront locations.
Response
With two coastlines to consider for homesites, the owners chose to embrace both. Cove-side, tucked just out of reach of a sandy beach and calm waters, a boat house offers respite from mosquitoes on its screened porch and stores a small sailboat between daytrips. The off-grid retreat hovers just above the ground on a series of piers, maintaining the natural drainage patterns of the sloped landscape.
To the west, a new residence unfolds along the bay’s craggy edge. The wind and waves play harder here, adding drama to sunsets over open water and distant islands. A stand of spruce shelters the building from the deepwater shorefront, filtering 180-degree views through its trunks.
The building mirrors this phenomenon and presents as a series of solids and voids alternately opening to the environment and shielding more intimate spaces. Primary living areas cluster within two gabled masses bridged by a glassy connector. A continuous clear ribbon of floor-to-ceiling windows and 20-foot sliding door system wraps the lower level of the water-facing façade and defies the weight of the peaks above.
Initial iterations of the home’s design organized the footprint along a linear axis running parallel to the water’s edge. As the footprint was staked on-site, a less obvious sightline – following the coastline as opposed to facing the bay – revealed itself to the project’s landscape architect. One of the massings was subsequently skewed to the northwest to capture this moment and afford each gabled wing its own unique visual focal.
The change in orientation staggers the interior’s open floorplan, granting rooms with no doors between them a sense of privacy and seclusion. Traveling through the home evokes a sense of exploration as one finds places to hide in plain sight or discovers new spaces around each corner. Reaching the respite of second-story sleeping accommodations – the primary suite in one gable and a series of guest rooms in the other – requires journeying across a buoyant catwalk spanning the double-height central connector. During the day, triple-glazed skylights bathe the elevated walkway and den below in southern sun; at night, the bridge becomes a trail through the stars.
The owners’ love of adventure and deep connection to the outdoors is reflected less literally in Squid Cove’s material composition. From framing to finishes the project prioritizes use of regional renewable resources. Cavities within the wood framing are insulated with carbon-negative TimberHP dense-pack and batts. The largest interior wall and ceiling surfaces forgo carbon-intensive drywall in favor of locally milled Douglas fir to match the millwork; Vermont white oak blankets the floors. At the heart of the home, boulders harvested from the island – and a few sentimental pebbles plucked from the beach – are assembled into a flameless hearth on which the catwalk’s steel support seemingly rests.
They also provided us with a photograph of the Mount Desert Narrows they had taken on an early visit to their property; our interior designers reproduced the image in the primary suite’s shower, where the conifers and coastline come to life as a micro-mosaic of glass tiles.
With the site providing natural awe, the project’s exterior remains intentionally understated with a palette of regional and vernacular materials. As the thermally modified wood siding and eastern white cedar shingles weather in the bayside brine, the structure will silver and become barely discernible to boats passing by.
Preserving the property’s sensitive ecology was both a regulatory mandate and owner imperative. The new home carefully threads through moss-covered ledges and tangles of ferns to minimize disturbance to existing topography and flora. Installed landscaping is limited to a stone garden with native plantings at the approach and a sliver of permeable hardscaping along the back elevation.
Squid Cove is outfit with a 10kW photovoltaic array that powers the home’s all-electric mechanical systems and appliances. The primary residence operates without combustion or fossil fuels. In the event of power outages, a 37kW lithium battery backup meets operational demands.
Prior to completion of the project, the electric utility serving the rural location advised that its grid could not support solar energy input. The owners partnered with neighbors to petition the utility company for better infrastructure so homes in the sparsely populated area could install renewable energy systems and collectively operate with less impact.
