Douglas VanderHorn Architects’ New Greenwich Shingle House

2018 Palladio Awards
New Design & Construction, more than 5,000 sq. ft.

Project: Mead Point Shingle Style Residence
Winner: Douglas VanderHorn Architects

It was the location—a waterside hill in Greenwich, Connecticut—that was the inspiration for the late shingle-style house that Douglas VanderHorn, AIA, designed for a young couple with children.

“The owners reluctantly tore down the old house, and they wanted a new one that would look as though it had been there for generations so it would fit in with the others in the neighborhood,” VanderHorn says. “They also wanted to maximize the great views of Long Island Sound.”

VanderHorn’s solution was a four-level, 8,700-square-foot house that features a stone base, a painted shingle upper story and a hipped cedar-shingle roof. It melds exterior and interior spaces with walk-out terraces, porches, a pergola, bay windows and French doors flanked by sidelights.

“We had to manage the grade change of the nearly two-acre property gracefully so that the home was still connected to its surroundings,” he says. “And the large-pane glass windows had to be balanced with the proportions of late shingle-style precedents.”

The home is high-tech and green. It has high- and low-density sprayed polyurethane foam insulation, energy-recovery ventilators, LED lighting, a geothermal heating and cooling system, a co-generation system and a smart-house system.

“Because the house is close to the Sound and the site includes wetlands, the design had to include a specialized rainwater management and treatment plan to protect coastal resources,” VanderHorn says, adding that the owners made sustainable features a priority.

The interior spaces link the past and present. The more formal areas, which include a cherry-paneled drawing room with bowed ceiling beams as well as a living room and dining room with wainscoting and decorative plaster moldings, are contemporary takes on traditional styles. The lower level, which features a gym, dance studio, bar, recreation room, wine vault and a full bar, is designed for the family’s varied activities.

“Every space has the same level of detail,” VanderHorn says. “And each is thoughtfully conceived.”

Contractor/Building Developer: Significant Homes, New Caanan, Connecticut
Interior Designer: Lee Ann Thornton Interiors, Greenwich, Connecticut
Landscape Architect: Rutherford Associates, Old Greenwich, Connecticut
Windows and Exterior Doors: Dynamic Architectural Windows and Doors, Canada
Exterior Columns: Somerset Door & Column Co., Somerset, Pennsylvania
Mason: N Vona Sons-In-Law, Newtown, Connecticut
Specialty Finishes: Stephen Gamble Historic Floors and Finishes, Greenwich, Connecticut 
Lighting Consultant: Patdo Light Studio, Port Chester, New York