Maine Camp
Project Location: Bridgton, Maine
This lakeside camp blends into its wooded surroundings and provides year-round living for our clients, a retired CEO and a sculpture artist. With an active interest in design and craftsmanship, they wanted a refined, yet rustic camp that was tailored to fit its site.
Our highly site-specific design solution included the careful composition of three different structures — a main house, guesthouse, and studio barn/garage — as a series of buildings that look as if they were built up and added to over time, giving the camp a perceived long history. To emphasize outdoor living and connect it to the interior, we created a floor plan that grants maximum daylighting and sunset views to the lake. Our goal was to disturb the site as little as possible so our design sought to preserve as many trees as possible, ground cover, and existing drainage patterns. An expansive exterior deck incorporates some of the existing trees on the site.
Exterior materials and interior spaces are a contemporary interpretation of the traditional camp vocabulary. The design and workmanship of local craftsmen are expressed in the oversized stone fireplace and chimney, radiant stone floors, metal roofs, peeled logs, rough-sawn timbers, hand-planed boarding, and detailed built-in millwork. The camp also features radiant floors, low‑e glazing, networked wiring, low-voltage lighting, a home theatre, and a state-of-the-art kitchen. While modern in attitude, the camp’s vernacular forms and local wood products bond it to the western Maine lakes region, affording it with a strong sense of place. A durable roof, high-performance insulation, and energy-efficient heating system provide long term-value and sustainability.
In 2001, this project received an AIA Maine Award for Excellence in Architecture.
Project Completion Date: 2001
Photography:
Collaborators:
- General Contractor: HB Wood
- Mason: G.M. Libby & Sons Masonry
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