Hillside Home
Northampton, MA
Hillside Home
Newly married, each with a pre-teen son, our clients Elizabeth and Stephen wanted a home that would provide a semi-open living area for the blended family, with separate and private bedrooms for each boy that could be converted into other uses when the kids grew up and flew the nest. This unique home also needed to accommodate Elizabeth’s kitchen criteria and a studio for Stephen, a well known journalistic and art photographer. His studio had a unique requirement: a 12-foot ceiling where an overhead camera could be mounted to photograph his clients’ artwork set on a table below. He also needed a good-sized darkroom. The lot they had purchased was almost impossibly steep to build on, but it afforded beautiful long range views. Access to the house site came from even further down, requiring a steep driveway. The couple also had strong ties to Martha’s Vineyard and wanted to evoke a sense of connection to seaside cottages.
The challenges were many, but we recognized that we had a case where adversity was actually an advantage. Given the steep hillside, we perched this Neo-Arts & Crafts–style, 2,700-square-foot home on the slope to maximize dramatic views of Massachusetts’ Holyoke Range and the Pelham Hills across the Connecticut River Valley. We played against the verticality of the site with strong horizontal elements of the house, energizing the dramatic diagonal exterior stair that clearly marks the house entry. The stairs lead up from the driveway to the main level, where an open living area is wrapped by a three-season porch. Two bedrooms and a bathroom for the children are housed in a small wing, while a large master suite with its own porch is nestled into the roof. Throughout the house, softly white-washed wood paneling was selected to impart a calm Zen-like peacefulness.
Let’s get into the details. A small, level area halfway up the slope was large enough for a minimal parking area and a three-car garage in the basement. The slope continued up for another 14 or 15 feet to another level area that would provide an ample and private back yard. This meant that the main living area would be 14 feet above the lower level, just right to accommodate the necessary ceiling height for Stephen’s studio below. The darkroom ended up in an attached bunker extending into the hillside behind the house. The tall stairs connecting the lower and main levels promised plenty of daily exercise!
By any measure, Elizabeth is a zealous master chef. She didn’t require a large kitchen, but one fastidiously laid out. An enormous antique hutch that she brought with her provides most of the storage, with the appliances arranged tightly around the prep area. An exterior door leads to the three-season porch oriented towards the view, with the other side of the kitchen open to the ample dining area occupied by a large dining table for the many friends and family whom they regularly entertain. The living room beyond is the designated quiet space and opens to the private back yard. The sons’ bedrooms near the front door could later become a guest room and home office.
The next level up houses the master suite replete with an exercise room. The east-facing bedroom opens to a protected balcony with the best views anywhere in the house.
As for providing a coastal aesthetic: The arrangement of the garages below evoked turn-of-the century boathouses along our regional shorelines. We treated the white cedar shingle and white pine with bleaching oil (customary to seaside buildings) that is a light taupe but weathers to a uniform grey. The light taupe extended into the house where most of the walls and ceilings of white pine boards were treated with a light umber–tinted whitewash. The enveloping warm wood is soothing and imbues the house with a serene calm throughout.
Despite the challenges this project posed, it came in very close to the schedule and budget, mostly because the clients, builder, and architect formed a strong, affirming project team. Fifteen years later, the family couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. To this day, they still get compliments on their home on the hill, though it is now more tucked away by the young wood that has grown up in the intervening years.