Located near the eastern end of Long Island’s north fork, on a waterside bluff of the largest glacial moraine in the world, this house is a refuge for an artist/writer who escapes here from Manhattan, making plans for the house to become a permanent home.
Surrounded by hedgerows and overlooking Bellême Forest, in the cultivated countryside of Normandy’s Perche region, this cube-like house is set on one-third of a 492-foot-long plot of land—standing in an isolated residential area.
The house began its life in 1949 as a modest four-room row house on one of the steepest streets in San Francisco’s Noe Valley. Dramatically expanded with two new floor levels, the building is now home to an active family of five with ample space for guests, parties, and projects.
Located in the upscale village known as Barvikha, this estate contains three buildings in a line on the site: a garage, clad in black slate, a 15,048-square-foot house, finished with white glass panels, and a wood-clad 1,219-square-foot guest house and pool.
Architect Robert Gurney and his client, a young entrepreneur with a large family, shocked the residents of the Edgemoor section of Bethesda, Maryland, with the house they created. It was not because of the design's Modernist roots, although the house is decidedly unlike the Colonial- and Craftsman-style ones nearby. The surprise comes from its size.
Opening seamlessly to the tree of a former estate, this 5,300-square-food country home in a New York settlement reflects a family's desire for a luxurious—yet unpretentious—raw and comfortable retreat.