Location: Prospect, Kentucky
Project size: 7,040 square feet

Program: Rivercrest Residence is the primary home for a couple and their Australian Shepherd show dogs. Located on a 14-acre site of rolling pasture and woodland on a bluff above the Ohio River, the house combines a single-family residence with a kennel suite. The program includes formal living and sitting rooms, a kitchen, dining room, primary and guest bedroom suites, a gym, sauna, indoor therapy pool, grooming suite, indoor and outdoor kennels, and dedicated indoor and outdoor canine exercise areas.

Design Solution: The house reinterprets the region’s agrarian vernacular horse barns and tobacco structures through reduction and abstraction, composing a loose cluster of simple gabled volumes. Rather than separating domestic life from professional canine care, the design unites the two programs within a single, integrated structure.

The project negotiates this hybrid condition through a sequence of layered thresholds rather than fixed boundaries. Brass-mesh partitions, wood-slat screens, and operable enclosures create degrees of openness that allow for varying levels of daylight, ventilation, and visual continuity. Interwoven circulation paths support both owners and dogs without compromising the distinct needs of either program, and a heated saltwater pool serves as both a residential amenity and a canine therapy environment. Expansive southwest glazing frames views across the Ohio River valley, moderated by vertical wood louvers that temper daylight and seasonal solar gain.

The site and landscape strategies reinforce the architectural approach. An orchard of flowering Yoshino cherry trees marks the arrival sequence, acknowledging the site’s agrarian heritage, while native plantings dissolve the boundary between cultivated and wild. A large, enclosed courtyard extends the kennel areas into the landscape, creating a protected outdoor room shared by the residence and the dogs, blurring the distinction between landscape and living space.

Structure and Materials: A restrained material palette reinforces the project's integration of domestic and canine environments. Preweathered cypress siding and matching standing-seam metal unify the clustered gabled forms, while unsealed brass mesh defines thresholds, enclosures, and zones of exchange between interior and exterior. Inside, painted and Venetian plaster walls, stained cypress, wide-plank white oak flooring, and high-gloss lacquered cabinets create bright, durable spaces that emphasize light and material contrast. A high-performance envelope, geothermal heating and cooling with radiant floors, and heat recovery from the indoor saltwater pool all minimize operational energy while supporting year-round comfort.

Additional Information
Completion date: September 2025
Site size: 14 acre
Total construction cost: Withheld
Client/Owner: Withheld