Ferguson & Shamamian Architects: A New Equestrian Estate

Architects frequently invent stories to give new structures a history and to explain the evolution of the buildings on the property over the course of hundreds of years.

In the case of the new equestrian estate in Fairfield, Connecticut, Ferguson & Shamamian had to look no further than the client for an incredible and interesting back story.

The woman, a native of France, had come to America to study law. She had no intention of making it her permanent home, but as these things sometimes happen, she fell in love. She got married, earned her law degree, had two children, and settled down in the suburbs of Connecticut.

Her grandfather had left her the family chateau in France, and she realized that she wanted an estate in America that her children could use and pass down through the generations.

She set her heart on a stone house—her chateau is stone—and as it turns out, there’s actually a pocket of precedent for that choice of building material in the area.

When the members of the Ferguson & Shamamian team showed her a 1920s stone house in Connecticut they had restored and renovated, she told them it was exactly what she was looking for.

After touring three properties, she bought a 30-acre estate that included a house that had been poorly modified so many times that it couldn’t be saved, says Ferguson & Shamamian Principal Andrew Oyen.

The client had very specific ideas about what would become her family’s legacy compound. Her list included a living room/dining room combination that could be cleared of furniture to create a dance floor, a conservatory where she could sip a cup of tea in the afternoon sun, a library where she could work in the evening, a big kitchen for sit-down meals, and an unheated screened porch where she could feel the cold air while bundled up next to a roaring fire on a winter’s night.

A competitive equestrian, she also wanted a barn large enough to stable her horse and those of her friends, and a pool house with a spa where she could relax after rides. In addition, a two-bedroom guest house was needed to accommodate family members from Europe who came for extended stays.

Ferguson & Shamamian designed a 13,400-square-foot main house that looks as though it has evolved over two and a half centuries. The five-bay main house is a five-part composition; subtle asymmetries suggest a modest original house to which a main block and balancing hyphen and wing appear to have been added during the 19th and 20th centuries.

The illusion continues inside, where the high-ceilinged drawing room, for instance, is intended to look as if a former loggia had been enclosed. And the pool house is intended to look as though it had once been a farm shed.

While the exterior is decidedly American, the interiors reveal stylistic influences of its European owner.

“There were times where we broke rules,” Oyen says.

The library, for instance, recalls a room in Ireland’s Lismore Castle, which was inspired by the Gothic Revival mantelpiece the client selected.

“Because of the mantelpiece, we placed the library in the 19th century,” Oyen says.

The timing of the project is what Oyen calls “brisk” —three years from start to finish.

The land itself offered the biggest challenge. Although it looks like gentle, rolling hills, there actually is a huge change in grade—the 10-foot difference from one side of the property to the other was rectified with retaining and step-down gardens. And there were wet areas that had to be addressed.

The homestead, he adds, “puts the owner as the centerpiece. This project started with the interior designer, who’s an old friend of the client. And he brought all of his favorite players. We formed an extraordinary team of people who were in sync.”

He adds that the real beauty of the estate is the fact that “it’s not just a pretty house—it created a nice world where the joy is seeing people happy and using it.”TB