Project: Island View Cottage
Architects: Whitten Architects
General Contractor: Warren Construction Group
Structural Engineer: Albert Putnam Associates, Structural Engineer
Landscape Design & Installation: Richardson Associates Landscape Architects
Location: Yarmouth, Maine
Project Completion Date: 2017
Photography: Rob Karosis
Twenty years ago, Whitten Architects designed a home for a family on a 100-acre coastal farm in the town of Yarmouth. In 2017, we returned to the site to design a cottage for the next generation of the same family. Our client sought a home she could enjoy and share with guests, her two adult children and their adult friends, and five black Labs.
Set on a coastal bluff, the cottage offers views of islands to the east and a well-developed canopy of red oaks and white pines above. The site is set back from the shore with a rocky outcrop to the north and west. We carefully sited the new cottage and existing family home around fields, walking trails, tennis courts, a large barn, and pool. At a few hundred feet apart, both homes are both private to one another, but easily accessible via paths.
Our client’s wish list included ample light, great views, an open plan, a well-organized mudroom, a private study, a work space in the kitchen/​family room, and an eat-at kitchen island. We designed open-plan living spaces featuring stone and brick fireplaces, antique beams, and wide-plank, salvaged wood floors. The Island View Cottage celebrates an inside-to-outside living experience with French doors, porches, generous eaves, and waterside terraces. Both interior and exterior feature low-maintenance, but high-quality materials.
The first-floor master suite is independent of the kitchen and family spaces and features a private study and terrace away from the daily activities. The second-floor bedroom suites have commanding views of the coast and islands, and open onto protected second-floor decks.
The arrival court and garage are tucked into the hillside and lead to a generous mudroom, sports gear closets, a laundry room, and a half bath. Above the cars is a bunk room with game spaces and direct access to the landscape.
The original home on the property was designed with shingles, weathering natural materials, fieldstone walls, wood roofs, and a maximum height of one-and-a-half stories with dormers and interesting roof lines all framed by informal cottage gardens and open meadows. The new home follows suit with low-maintenance, high-performance materials including low E clad windows and doors, water-based closed-cell spray foam, rain screen exterior wall design, Boral exterior trim, lifetime-treated white cedar shingles, copper flashing, and high-efficiency air source heat pumps.
Island View Cottage is a lifetime home that will stay in the family and serve many generations to come.
