This is a true beach house. It is separated from the ocean only by beach and beach-grass covered dune. It is sited parallel to Nantucket Sound, and is the last house in the neighborhood before a huge expanse of open beach and dunes. At the far end of the beach is a decommissioned light house that, along with the house, “book-ends” the popular Harding’s beach.

This is a small house with big scale; monumental enough to not be overwhelmed by its dramatic context, but not so monumental as to be serious and un-friendly. It is an object in the vast land- and seascape but also a sympathetic neighbor to the vernacular shingled houses that are near-by. The “temple-front” entry façade closes off the view down a long straight street that runs along the shore. The big sheltering roof, however, domesticates the temple and provides shade from the summer sun.

The almost top-heavy nature of this umbrella-gambrel (a gambrel roof that flares out toward the eaves) gives the front façade a slightly whimsical feeling. The gambrel disappears, however, at the rear façade where the dormers transform into a full second floor, necessary to fit the master bedroom suite into the portion of the house with dramatic views both to the ocean and along the beach to the light house.

Also contributing to the playful nature and unexpected scale of the front façade are the wide but flat columns that support the roof form. The extent of the footprint, including porches and deck, was pre-determined by a previous non-conforming house on the site. A minimum depth was all that could be allotted to the mostly representational or symbolic front porch so as to not deny foot print to other areas. The flat columns allow the elevational scale necessary without using up as much of the limited footprint as would columns with a depth equal to their width.