A steep escarpment and a wooded site shaped Frank Harmon’s design for the Strickland-Ferris Residence in Raleigh, North Carolina. Built for Lynda Strickland, a North Carolina native who returned home after a couple of decades of living in Washington, D.C., and other places, the 1,800-square-foot house perches above the ground, supported by nine wood trusses sitting on concrete columns. “We knew we had to raise the house off the ground and let the water flow under it,” says Harmon. The strategy not only preserved the site’s hydrological patterns but allowed the architect to build without cutting down any major trees in the 150-year-old beech-and-oak forest.

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