good architecture, annapolis, md.
Scientists Cliffs was established in 1935 as an exclusive summer colony for scientists. Over time, the Cliffs evolved into a year-round community with a more diverse range of interests. The original 600-square-foot log cabins have grown more diverse, too, but mostly through inappropriate additions and alterations. For this new 3,500-square-foot house in the Cliffs, architect Wayne L. Good sought to evoke the elemental, rustic spirit of those early summer homes.
The clients, a couple in their 70s, had simple programmatic requirements: one-floor living on the main level, and a family room, office, and crafts area on the lower level. The rest they left up to Good’s graces. “The couple spent most of their lives in Connecticut in a Modern house,” says the architect, “but they were thrilled that we were leading them toward a more contextual, less formal kind of house.”
He designed the Cliffs house as a series of four small, connected structures, each about the same size as the original cabins. He clad their exteriors in complementary log slab and vertical board-and-batten siding; the interiors, however, he skewed Modern. The result, the judges said, is a nicely detailed house that is very understated, and well presented.
project architect: Brian B. Bassindale, Good Architecture
general contractor: Howard Freeman, Freeman Builders, Shadyside, Md.
landscape architect: Stratton Semmes, Stratton Semmes Landscape Architecture, Annapolis
project size: 3,500 square feet
site size: 2 acres
construction cost: $110 per square foot
photographer: Celia Pearson
