East meets West in the Adirondacks
Hague, NY

Situated on the west side of Lake George, this design reimagines the footprint of an existing seasonal one story camp with influences from both Japanese and regional Adirondack styles.  Sensitive to fluctuations in use by season and as the young family of four grows and ages, the plan deployed a large screened porch and deck that allows the main living space to expand, increasing the usable floor plan by over 50% to host a gathering of twenty to thirty and providing attractive summer sleeping spaces.  With the porch closed, the home is the perfect size for the couple to retire to later in life.  The house is pursuing LEED Silver certification, and employs a geothermal heating and cooling system combined with a high performance thermal envelope, LED lighting, and highly insulated SIP panels and radiant barriers in the roof.

Local materials pervade the home, appearing as rustic white oak floors and stairs, live-edge walnut accents, white oak and painted poplar built-ins, cabinets, and trim, reclaimed barn beams, and barn siding wainscoting-clad surfaces.  Exterior siding too is a combination of locally milled douglas fir timbers, eastern white bark-on cedar planks, poplar bark shakes, and New Baltimore Stone quarried close to the project site.  This sustainable retreat demonstrates that ecological responsibility as a design motivation can actually enhance a project’s elegance, flexibility, and character.