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Home » House on Maine Coast
House of the MonthResidential Architecture

House on Maine Coast

The house is designed so that the living-dining area and the master bedroom overlook the water.

The house is designed so that the living-dining area and the master bedroom overlook the water.
House on Maine Coast
Toshiko Mori Architect
Camden, Maine
The house is designed so that the living-dining area and the master bedroom overlook the water.
Photo © Paul Warchol
A lap pool in the zigzag plan connects main house to the guest quarters at the top of the slope.
House on Maine Coast
Toshiko Mori Architect
Camden, Maine
A lap pool in the zigzag plan connects main house to the guest quarters at the top of the slope.
Photo © Paul Warchol
The architect's choice of Scandinavian furnishings appealed to the client and the new owners.
House on Maine Coast
Toshiko Mori Architect
Camden, Maine
The architect's choice of Scandinavian furnishings appealed to the client and the new owners.
Photo © Paul Warchol
View toward Penobscot Bay, Maine
House on Maine Coast
Toshiko Mori Architect
Camden, Maine
View toward Penobscot Bay, Maine
Photo © Paul Warchol
View along pool  showing the sedum roof.
House on Maine Coast
Toshiko Mori Architect
Camden, Maine
View along pool showing the sedum roof.
Photo © Paul Warchol
View from the guest house of sedum zigzag roof.
House on Maine Coast
Toshiko Mori Architect
Camden, Maine
View from the guest house of sedum zigzag roof.
Photo © Paul Warchol
Entrance to garage and guest accommodations at the top of the slope.
House on Maine Coast
Toshiko Mori Architect
Camden, Maine
Entrance to garage and guest accommodations at the top of the slope.
Photo © Paul Warchol
View from the indoor lap pool.
House on Maine Coast
Toshiko Mori Architect
Camden, Maine
View from the indoor lap pool.
Photo © Paul Warchol
House on Maine Coast
House on Maine Coast
Toshiko Mori Architect
Camden, Maine
Image courtesy Brillhart Architecture
House on Maine Coast
House on Maine Coast
Toshiko Mori Architect
Camden, Maine
Image courtesy Brillhart Architecture
The house is designed so that the living-dining area and the master bedroom overlook the water.
A lap pool in the zigzag plan connects main house to the guest quarters at the top of the slope.
The architect's choice of Scandinavian furnishings appealed to the client and the new owners.
View toward Penobscot Bay, Maine
View along pool  showing the sedum roof.
View from the guest house of sedum zigzag roof.
Entrance to garage and guest accommodations at the top of the slope.
View from the indoor lap pool.
House on Maine Coast
House on Maine Coast
October 16, 2015
Suzanne Stephens
KEYWORDS Maine
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Architects & Firms

Toshiko Mori Architect

Camden, Maine

People/Products

The client wanted a low-key, modern two-bedroom house with an indoor lap pool. True, his surname makes you think he might veer toward something grander and more traditional, but O. Stillman Rockefeller has an experimental streak and so spurned “the tyranny of the Shingle Style” prevalent in coastal Maine. His site of less than an acre, however, presented a challenge: a narrow, sloping parcel in Camden, overlooking West Penobscot Bay. But Rockefeller found New York–based architect Toshiko Mori to solve the problem. “We had to provide maximum views of the water without the owner being able to see neighboring houses,” she says. “It had to be strictly framed.”

Bringing in Michael Van Valken­burgh Associates to compose the landscaping artfully, the client and architect decided to place the guest quarters and garage at the top of the hill, on the foundations of a former house. Mori came up with a Z-shaped plan that descends the slope so that the main house is at the lower end. An enclosed 82-foot-long lap pool links the two volumes of the 5,400-square-foot complex.

Mori, who had worked for Edward Larrabee Barnes, particularly admired that architect’s strategy for the Haystack Mountain School in Deer Isle, Maine (1962), where a cluster of wood pavilions spills down a forested hillside to Jericho Bay. “Ed broke up the program into a series of volumes connected by a deck,” notes Mori. “Here, the pool is the connector.”

Her zigzag steel-and-wood frame building, with a sedum roof, is clad in white Atlantic cedar, alternating with large expanses of low-E glass. An overhang shades the living-dining area and the master bedroom on the east, and the house employs geothermal heat pumps and other features to lower energy use. But despite Rockefeller’s love for the house, he had a big problem with the outdoor lighting from a neighbor’s cottage and nearby lighthouse and so sold his only 1-year-old home last year. Still, he says, “I’m so proud of building this house. It’s Toshiko’s signature work.”


People

Owner: Private

Architect:
Toshiko Mori Architect, PLLC
199 Lafayette St. Suite 5a
New York, New York
T: 212.337.9644
F: 212.3373.9647

Personnel in architect's firm who should receive special credit:
Toshiko Mori, FAIA – Principal
Justin Sumner Brown, AIA – Project Architect

Engineer(s):
Structural Engineer: Rod Gibble Consulting Engineers
Civil Engineer: Mohr & Seredin
MEP Engineer: Innovative Construction and Design Solutions
Geotechnical Engineer: S.W.Cole Engineering
Consultant(s):
Landscape:  
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc

General contractor:
Cold Mountain Builders

Photographer(s):
Paul Warchol

Renderer(s):
© Toshiko Mori Architect

CAD system, project management, or other software used:

Rhino, AutoCAD

Gross square footage:

5,400 Sq.ft.

Total construction cost:

Withheld at owner's request

Completion date:

August 2013

 

Products

Structural system
Guest House: Wood framing on existing concrete foundation.
Main House + Pool: Hybrid Steel and wood framing on new concrete foundation.

Manufacturer of any structural components unique to this project:
Rockport Steel Inc.

Exterior cladding
Masonry: North Jay Granite

Metal/glass curtain wall: YKK YCW 750. Installation by Oakes & Parkhurst.

Rainscreen : Atlantic White Cedar

Roofing
Carlisle EPDM with 4” shallow green roof assembly

Windows
Metal frame: YKK YCW 750. Installation by Oakes & Parkhurst.

Glazing
Glass: Guardian SunGuard 1” IGU, Clear Glass, Low-E coating

Skylights: Wasco Products

Doors
Entrances: YKK 350T glass balcony swing doors and 600T sliding glass doors

Wood doors: CUSTOM

Sliding doors: CUSTOM

Hardware
Locksets: d line

Pulls: d line

Interior finishes
Cabinetwork and custom woodwork:
Prime: Bench Dogs
Kitchen: Jesse Brown-Collins

Floor and wall tile:
Pool Deck: 8”x16” North Jay Granite
Pool Walls: 1”x1” ceramic, American Olean

Wood Floor: 4” solid White Birchby A.E. Sampson & Son Ltd.

Carpet: Woodnotes, Paper Yarn

Furnishings
Living Room:
Wilhelm Lauritzen, Radiohus Sofa with Fanny Aaronson 717 upholstery
Finn Juhl, Cocktail Table with white laminate top and oak frame
Finn Juhl, Pelican Chair with oak base and Outback 111 upholstery
Hans Wegner, Papa Bear Arm chair with oak base and Divina Melange 120 upholstery
Hans Wegner, Fruit Bowl in Ash
Arne Jacobsen, AJ floor lamp in white
Isamu Noguchi, Akari 10A lamp

Dining Room:
Arne Jacobsen, Series 7 bar stools in white lacquer
Arne Jacobsen, Series 7 dining chairs in Beech
Arne Jacobsen, B614 dining table in Beech
Poul Henningsen, Large Artichoke Glass Chandelier

Office:
Arne Jacobsen, Egg Chair with SS base and Divina Melange 120 upholstery

Exterior Deck:
Richard Schultz, 1966 End Table in White Porcelain
Richard Schultz, 1966 Dining Chair with arms in White Porcelain

Supplier: Furniture from Scandinavia by Annette Rachlin

Lighting
Interior ambient lighting: Bartco linear T5 fluorescent cove uplights

Downlights: USAI Recessed Halogen

Task lighting: Boca Flasher Linear LED

Exterior: Lucifer Recessed Halogen

Dimming System or other lighting controls: Lutron Maestro

Energy
Energy management or building automation system:
Master Controls system: Innovative Construction & Design Solutions, LLC
Geothermal: Envision
Solar Hot Water: American Solar Works
Radiant Floor Heating: QuikTrak
Window Actuator: Clearline Sleekline

 

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Stephens

Suzanne Stephens, a deputy editor of Architectural Record, has been a writer, editor, and critic in the field of architecture for several decades. She has a Ph.D. in architectural history from Cornell University, and teaches a seminar in the history of architectural criticism in the architecture program of Barnard and Columbia colleges.

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