Using agrarian architectural precedents, Elliott + Elliott Architects of Blue Hill, Maine designed this striking house, barn and studio for a client in coastal Maine. Grange halls and Shaker meetinghouses were some of the influences that informed this lovely house project. Sitting on the high ground of an open seaside meadow, a stone wall serves as a sort of visual plinth upon which the house rests and helps to enclose the compound. The clients wanted the house to be simple and unadorned by decoration, inside and out. White clapboards, oversized windows and standing seam metal roofs reflect the Shaker influences on the buildings. Designing a house that looks historic and modern at the same time can be challenging, but in this case it was done very successfully. While giving a respectful nod to the past the house also surges forward with a modernist statement all its own.
