Architecture Wednesday: Retreat on a Pond's Edge

It takes a lot of walking to get to this place, and it took a lot of walking through the property’s dense forest and around massive boulders to the pond’s edge on the remote ten-acre plot  before owners, Stephen Peck and his husband, John Messer, decided where they wanted to build their home.

For visitors to get to the home, you first drive down a long winding gravel road, through dense forest, until you arrive at a small parking area, and then you take a narrow boardwalk slipping between trees and enormous boulders until you reach the house that Peck and Messer sited the home on the edge of a secluded pond in Maine.

The main living space features walls on each side of the open-concept living area framed in floor-to-ceiling windows to balance the couple’s desire for a modern home with the durability required for Maine’s extreme weather variations. The concrete fireplace hearth extends to form a seating area in the corner with views into the dense woods and down to the waterfront.

Also on this floor is the primary bedroom, hovering above the forest floor, with its own wall of glass to frame the views into the surrounding woods and the pond’s edge. There is an en suite bathroom is clad in Brazilian marble and a sunken tub with its own amazing forest views.

On the lower level, a small study takes in the mossy foreground while a guest suite and a second study are connected by a covered boardwalk and a cantilevered screen porch. A large deck lines one side of the home, which is mostly built on piers, and was created to make the house feel lifted above the ground.

Peck designed the home, and its pathways through the woods and boulders to make guests, and the owners,  feel like they are truly leaving the world behind as they wander up to the house.

 Dwell   Elliott Architects