![]() ![]() “I can cook and be part of the conversation,” she says. Davis, who likes to experiment with the bounty of gorgeous produce from the island’s local farms in the zippy green kitchen, welcomes the room’s open layout. It’s akin to being on the prow of a ship, a sensation Ambrose, an avid sailor who grew up on the water, very much appreciates. A band of windows wraps the house on three sides, presenting a 180-degree view of the bay. Once you move through the rabbit hole, the ceiling explodes in height and the view explodes in width. McBride explains, “You progress from the vast infinity of the outdoors to a compressed, cozy space where you do intimate things like take off your boots. That character reveals itself just a few feet beyond the front door. “The reclaimed beams and ceiling planks cost more but really add to the character,” Ambrose says. ![]() The white-washed tongue-and-groove boards that line the walls bring to mind a classic farmhouse. The reclaimed Douglas fir post-and-beam structure of the main house, which McBride jokes was erected like Tinker Toys, also invokes the feel of an old barn. The late-nineteenth-century shingle-style “cottages” built by the rusticators, now often owned by their descendants, inform the buildings’ green window frames and Alaskan yellow cedar shingle siding, while the utilitarian barns that dot the rural landscape inform the buildings’ uncomplicated, shedlike shape and inexpensive flat-tab asphalt shingle roofs. “Elements intentionally appear as if built, repaired, and added to over time,” says the architect, who applied the approach through the interiors too, particularly in the kitchen.Īs for materials and form, the structures are amalgamations of the island’s vernacular architecture. McBride points out that the way the compound is organized mirrors that, at least in looks. When a family needed a new barn, they built one another year a chicken coop might have gone up. The arrangement also reflects the manner in which old-timey homesteads evolve. “The landscape informs where each is located, rather than the hand of the designer,” McBride says. The structures nestle into the landscape, with the main house sitting on the summit and the cabins tumbling along the ridge. “Fragmenting the house into three pieces was the eureka moment.” “There’s a good dose of connectivity to nature with everyone walking outside to and from the common space for meals,” McBride says. It also provides a camplike experience, with the main house as the lodge. The setup affords privacy in the summer and saves on energy costs in the winter. McBride proposed a series of three structures: a winterized main house as a communal gathering place for living, cooking, and eating with a sleeping loft where Davis and Ambrose would stay in the off-season a rustic primary bedroom-suite cabin where they would sleep in the summertime and a rustic bunkhouse with two bedrooms that share a bath, for the kids’ summertime stays. “It would have illustrated man-over-nature instead of man living with nature.” ![]() “Building a big house would be antithetical to the spirit of the place,” McBride says, referring to the island that Boston Brahmin “rusticators” claimed as a summer colony in the 1880s. McBride, who doesn’t do overwrought splendor, was an obvious partner. In keeping with the island’s no-frills atmosphere, Davis and Ambrose didn’t want “a huge castle on the point,” but rather a rustic cabin that would blend into the landscape. The site? Six acres on Crabtree Point adjacent to the property where Davis and her sisters had enjoyed quintessential Maine childhood summers. The couple had hired McBride to design a getaway on North Haven, a 70-minute ferry ride from Rockland through Penobscot Bay. Ultimately, he persuaded them that the most obvious spot to build their home was also the best one. While homeowners Amy Davis and Bill Ambrose’s first inclination was to use restraint in every aspect of their project, including its siting, McBride challenged that perspective. Architect Nate McBride knows when to go all-in. ![]()
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