An ecologically diverse former plantation becomes an outdoor classroom. In 1962, John Henry Dick underwent what some call a hunter's conversion. That year, Dick'a product of New York high society, with a proclivity for ornithology, big game, and porkpie hats'found himself on a safari face-to-face with a Bengal tiger.

Architects don’t often get to design a new building for their alma mater. Yet Thomas Phifer, based in New York City, showed it’s possible to go home again—with success.

Down a long, U-shaped gravel drive and surrounded by palm trees and Spanish-moss-shrouded live oaks, the Low-Country Residence opens onto Shem Creek in the Charleston, South Carolina, suburb of Mount Pleasant.