Julie Gest

Site plan of Morris Island Residence by Monte French Design Studio

The roof deck, accessed by the ship’s ladder, provides a private spot to relax.

The bathroom floor is covered in Porcelanosa Boston Stone.

The doorway to the suite is framed by cabinetry.

“It’s a really beautiful piece set in that corridor,” says Yoon.

The master suite didn’t have room for a full-fledged stair, so the team came up with the idea for a ship’s ladder, executed by Tradern Fine Woodworking, that’s completely concealed in the cabinetry.

“The main house can be quite boisterous,” says Yoon. Separating the new addition from the main house with the glass corridor privatizes the master wing, and creates a pleasant sequence—as though you’re moving through the landscape to a more serene section of the house.

On the second floor, a catwalk from the lounge leads to the bedroom suite in the new addition. Full-height glass at the end of the corridor captures the natural setting outside, and a ship’s ladder in the hallway leads up to the roof deck.

A view from the new addition toward the shared living area shows how the rooms are connected.

Before: The bedroom was converted to a library/office, so it’s now an ancillary space off the main circulation corridor that bisects it.

A new, open railing improves the lounge’s natural lighting and sight lines.

Before: Solid walls disconnected the second-floor lounge that overlooked the lower level.

New flooring—oak with a walnut stain—connects the living spaces throughout.

“We removed all those walls so that when you walk in, you have these expanded views out into the landscape. We opened up the living area, and made the kitchen virtually three times larger than it was,” says French.

Before: The kitchen was small, which made it difficult to accommodate bigger groups.

Before: Upon entering the home, occupants were met with a wall. “The house definitely felt like you were walking into a typical Cape Cod house, just because the spaces were small and very partitioned off,” says French.

The addition encompasses two bedroom suites stacked one atop the other, and it’s topped with a roof deck.

A dry creek bed arranged beneath the glass corridor emphasizes its elevated positioning. The creek bed is composed of large native boulders and runs the length of the property.

A two-story glass corridor connects the existing home to the new bedroom wing.

Michael D'Angelo Landscape Architecture provided a new master plan that includes grassy areas for lawn games, a fire pit, and new plantings.

The firm streamlined the window plan for the apartment above the garage.

Before: The balcony was removed from the rear facade.

Before: “The existing house was built in the seventies. It’s a midcentury design in spirit, but it was built by Cape builders with vernacular Cape detailing,” says the firm.

The apartment above the garage received a dormer to enlarge the interior footprint.

The team removed the outdated exterior detailing and replaced it with vertical strips of Kebony Clear siding and a Freedom Gray copper standing seam metal roof. “Kebony offered that same sort of silvery weathering that would get us that [Cape] aesthetic, and the feel of this house being set in the landscape,” says Yoon.

Before: The approach to the home was dominated by the garage. It provided privacy to the house behind, but it was an eyesore.

Atelier Branco built 3,229 square feet of shelving units to house all of the client's texts, documents, and books.

"While we did include curtains in the initial sketches, the client proceeded without them," says Pons. "He does have neighbors nearby, but because the vegetation is so dense and lush, it not only provides shade and a cooling effect, but also acts as a natural barrier."

To bolster the open-concept appearance and balance the heavy use of concrete, the glass was also strategically stylized: “We crafted L-frames out of steel, mounted the glass, and used plaster to seal everything up. We opted to arrange them as motifs that pay homage to the iconic ‘Paulistana’ tradition of the 1950s.”

The living room is the largest and brightest space of the home. A bisecting staircase leads to the bedroom, kitchen, and living/dining room. As per the client’s desire for privacy and discretion, the furnishings have been staged by Etel Design.

Built for a scholar, Casa Biblioteca is a sanctuary for reading, stargazing, and enjoying a cigar or two. Floor-to-ceiling glass allows light to freely flood the interior and illuminate its jewel-like structure.

The homeowner inherited the 1.36 acres over 40 years ago and finally saved enough to hire Matteo Arnone and Pep Pons of Atelier Branco Arquitectura, who came recommended by a family friend. The initial project was slated to be a modest, 540-square-foot space to house his books to be built for $50,000—but through the client’s involvement, the scope expanded.

As the facade of a Bates Masi-designed home in Water Mill, New York, rises from eight to 14 feet high, the mahogany planks subtly widen. “It was quite a demand to make of the contractor,” architect Paul Masi says. “But the design was so much about traveling through the site and weaving [the house] together with the deck.”

When you enter into the house, you find yourself in an open space that combines the living and dining room and is lined with floor-to-ceiling glass. The dining area is marked by the same aggregate concrete flooring that began in the front of the house.

The Blue Sky prototype house leads a second life as desert getaway for David McAdam and his partner Scott Smith.