Modern Waterfront Home Design Redefined

Built on a gentle slope on the Westport River, less than a mile from the coast in southeastern Massachusetts, is an unabashedly modern, waterfront glass home designed for a well-known Cambridge general contractor and his wife. The house is technically a renovation, recycling an earlier faux “Saltbox Colonial” house’s foundation.

The architecture expresses the owners’ gregarious way of life and accommodates their passions for cooking and entertaining their large group of devoted friends.

Modern House Design Responds to the Natural Landscape

Mature oaks and cedars define the property edges and frame dramatic coastal views while mowed lawns contrast with wild native plants and lush garden beds.

Conceptually, two long, low bar buildings float above sculpted lawn terraces, sliding past each other to enhance views and cross ventilation. The riverside bar has a ten-foot-high by eighty-foot-long continuous wall of glass that frames views of the river, while the inland bar is shorter and more solid, with windows opening to carefully edited views of the woods.

Between the two bars is a compact circulation zone that terminates at one end in a floor-to-ceiling window facing the woods; the main roof drain is directly above, framing a rain waterfall that spills into a steel-framed, rectangular bed of river rock in the ground below.

Contemporary Architecture Meets Multi-Functional Spaces

To control costs, massing and finishes are simple, circulation space is minimal, and square footage is limited; all spaces are multi-functional, and details are contemporary riffs on traditional New England conventions.

The overall openness, as well as the large proportion of glazing, or glasswork, helps the house feel much larger than its actual square footage. Much of the space is strategically divided into multi-use rooms:

An open concept upper-level space combines living, dining, and cooking,
A contiguous screened outdoor space allows room for living and dining,
Separate exterior decks for cooking and gathering,
A home office that doubles as a guest room.

Newly designed within the existing basement walls are two bedrooms with a shared sitting room and bath, as well as a large storage area with slatted walls for boating and beach storage, built below the screened porch.