with the clerestory was much like piercing a roof with a chimney,” says Corey Papadopoli, a Bar Harbor–based architect who, at the time, worked with Peter Forbes. “The clerestory is lined with aluminum frame windows; they open to draw hot air up and out of the house. The design posed the same issues as a chimney: the challenge of keeping water out, which called for flashing.” The long, narrow clerestory features fold-down seats built into the beadboard walls. “This is where the homeowner likes to go bird watching, or to look at the night sky,” Papadopoli explains. Forbes describes the Boston-based homeowner as the ideal client, though not for the usual reasons. “He applied his scientific method to the design process; he takes nothing for granted. When an idea is proposed, he begins testing.” Forbes believes that he won the commission because he came to the table without preconceptions, an attitude suited to a scientific approach. “When we first met and the owner asked what I would do, I answered ‘I don’t know.’ ” He designed the interior with clean lines and light-reflecting surfaces. Electrical and ventilation elements hide from view; classic pieces from the mid-twentieth century and from contemporary Maine craftsmen furnish rooms focused on the outdoors. Opposite the view in the living room, a massive fireplace built of local granite tapers to a chimney that “The homeowner pierces the ceiling and passes through the master bedroom on its way to the cleresto- applied his scientific method ry and the sky above. The homeowner had one stylistic prohi- to the design bition. “He was very clear: no oriental process. When an rug,” Peter Forbes recalls. “For him, it repidea is proposed, resents the predictable and unimaginative.” he begins testing.” The master bath embodies the spirit of the house with a curved vanity, an Italian travertine vessel sink, honed granite walls and floor and, hung before a window, “the world’s coolest mirror,” says Forbes. “It’s a one-way mirror that becomes transparent at night. It still reflects, but you also see through it to the woods outside.” The mirror could almost stand as a symbol for the house itself: grounded in sound principles, designed and built with the most modern scientific methods, yet yielding a result that feels like sheer magic. • Resources For more information about this home, see page 161. To see more of this home, tune in to NECN’s New England Dream House, Sunday November 14 at 7:30 p.m. Host Jenny Johnson and Kyle Hoepner, editor-in-chief of New England Home, will take viewers on a tour. The show will also air at 3 p.m. on November 15, 18, 23, 26 and December 1. You can see the story online at www .nedreamhouse.com starting on November 14.
November/December 2010 New England Home 115