The Rockport Residence is a vacation home situated within a family compound in a tightly organized seaside residential neighborhood. Fit within the zoning envelope and roof line of a previous residential structure and garage on the property, the home has been completely rebuilt, as has the surrounding topography. New exterior finishes, doors, and windows allow the interiors of the house to “breathe” and connect directly with the spectacular beauty of the surrounding property. Stone-framed terraces have been added on all sides of the house, raising the ground to that of the first floor level, allowing activities to flow easily between inside and out. The interior ground floor has been modified significantly. The kitchen, dining, living, reading nooks and TV rooms have been organized within a modulated open plan. Varied activities of family and friend can take place separately while still being visually and aurally connected. The upper level offers bedrooms and baths, with full room-width sliding doors, open to a surrounding “ship’s deck” that seemingly hovers over the ocean. The lower level offers game and exercise rooms that benefit from their seclusion from the remainder of the house. In total, the residence celebrates vast vistas and gentle breezes over the Atlantic Ocean from both intimate spaces within the house and structured gardens surrounding the house, all while enjoying privacy from the traffic of the immediate neighborhood.

 

Realization

Previous Structure

 
 

Project Data

STATUS: Completed 2017

SIZE: 6,700 sf

COST: Withheld at owner’s request

Project Credits

OWNER: Rockport, MA Client

CONTRACTOR: ThoughtForms Corp.

ARCHITECT: Epstein Joslin Architects

Principal-in-Charge: Alan Joslin, Project Architect: Arthur Pinkham, Project Designer: Robert Picardy, Designer: Jaime Bustos

IMAGE COPYRIGHT: Neil Alexander, Eric Roth

Honors and Awards

2019 Grand American Residential Design Award in Renovation, American Institute of Building Design

2019 Merit Award in Design, Boston Society of Landscape Architects