Le Château de Famille
A prominent in-town site that used to contain a motel was vacant when this project began. Its iconic location, across from a popular inn and restaurant, called for an iconic house, and that is essentially what the owners requested—a house that made passersby see it as something special, that made them “turn their heads.” Fitting into the regulated historic district of the eclectic village was also critical. An early 20th Century farmhouse style home nearby was identified by the client as appealing and made it a good model for the more public, Main Street façade of their new home.
| Project Category | Neighborhood |
|---|---|
| Scope of Work | Architecture, Construction |
| Finished Space Above Grade | 4,341 |
| Photography | Brian Vanden Brink |
A large, vertical projecting bay is balanced by a horizontal porch spanning much of the façade, and by large roof overhangs.
The porch is interrupted by a slightly projecting pedimented bay and abstracted fan light that announce entry. Unlike the historic model, the details here are bold and flat—based more on emphatically projecting image and character than on being primarily the result of a particular era’s construction methods.
The site is on a highly visible corner that renders the side street approach almost as important as the front.
The character of the architecture on the side changes to a less formal Shingle Style. The side façade includes garage doors, a secondary entry, and a dining room bay window. A lion and family crest custom weathervane, requested by the client as desired symbols, sits above the side façade, and playfully beckons visitors. A portion of the yard is graded and covered with a rock garden to allow walk out for a lower level that helps accommodate the square footage needs of a large extended family on a restricted site. A pergola attached to the back of the house and projecting into the yard provides sun shading for socializing. A pickleball court is at the far end of the newly landscaped yard.
The porch columns are friendly sentinels between public and private realms. The banisters are flat abstractions of traditional urn shapes.
With a regulatory restriction on footprint size, the front porch is just big enough to be functional, and plenty big to be symbolic. The kitchen and dining space is central to the plan. Cased openings and transom windows connect it to the family room beyond.
