Water Mill House, Long Island, New York

This weekend house in Eastern Long Island sits on a wooded, gently sloping site.  The house is arranged around three-sides of a man-made mound built from excavation fill.  The slope of the mound gives privacy to the house from the road and acts as a fictive ‘found object,’ anchoring the house to an otherwise neutral site.  With the mound as starting point, the rooflines inflect in unexpected ways, creating shifts in scale as you move around and through the house.

The house interior was developed in tandem with the landscape design, so that each room is associated with a programmed outdoor space.  The materials within the house - cedar and limestone - are chosen for a sense of continuity with the outdoors.  The pool and pool house sit on an elevated platform framing views back toward the main house. The pool house roof hides a 12 kw photovoltaic array, which works in tandem with other energy saving features such as passive solar design and high performance glazing and insulation.

Photographs: Scott Frances
Project Team: Vrinda Khanna, Robert Schultz
Landscape Design: Julie Farris, XS Space LLC and Margie Ruddick Landscape
General Contractor: Brian Mannix, Mannix Custom Builders
Landscape Contractor: Summerhill Landscapes
Structural Engineering: Ross Dalland PE
MEP Engineering: Condon Engineering