Deep Dive: The Heart of the Matter

As any issue of Dwell proves, the choice of material or joinery method can transform a good project into a design for the ages. The Deep Dive is a forum where design and building pros can obsess over those details. Here we ask expert colleagues to share the inspiration behind house elements that delight clients—as well as the nitty-gritty information about how they were built.

"For a lot of projects, clients want a home to embody their essence. But that’s difficult to achieve," says Brian Mac, principal architect at Birdseye, the Vermont firm behind Megaplum, the project featured in our July/August issue story, "Phish Bassist Mike Gordon’s Home Studio Is Just as Psychedelic as You’d Expect." "At Megaplum, you know that Mike Gordon lives here the moment you walk in." 

Birdseye was established as a building firm in 1984, and it became a full-fledged design-build studio when Mac joined it in 1996 to launch an architecture division. Looking back on three decades of practice, he concludes that granting homeowners the wish of self-expression depends a lot on the clients themselves. "If you want a project to uniquely reflect you, you have to be daring during design," Mac says.

Few of the studio’s design patrons wear their hearts on their sleeves from the get-go, though, Mac says. Even "when you come across a client who is exceptional in an artistic way, who is fearless, I leverage that creativity to open more doors," he explains. There are also clients who are deeply knowledgeable in a technical or academic field, in which case Birdseye uses those virtuosities as conduits to greater personal discovery. As for folks who are more guarded, Mac says breaking through is simply a matter of establishing and sustaining trust.

When it came time to design a 3,175-square-foot recording studio and living space for the beloved Phish bassist, all signs pointed to creative expression. Mike’s exceptional artistry is plain to see, for one, and as writer Jack Balderrama Morley discovered, the musician’s expertise in both architecture and acoustics runs deep. Mike developed confidence in Birdseye over many years, too: Mac oversaw a transformative home design for Phish’s manager in 2005, and he and his interior design partner Brooke Michelsen completed the renovation of Mike’s adjacent main house prior to the pandemic.

Still, Mac says something about this project distinguishes it from other Birdseye works. "Most people describe their ideal spaces as an aesthetic and/or a vibe," he says. "Perhaps because Mike was designing a place to live and create in that also includes his recording studio, he thought long and hard about how the space could inspire him as an artist." Of course, Mac and Michelsen worked hard to crystallize specific design decisions—Michelsen recalls a conversation about concrete with exposed aggregate, to which Mike excitedly offered himself and his daughter Tessa to collect lakeside stones, for instance. Yet the pair agrees that thanks to Mike’s perspective, "we actually looked at the project differently, too," and the result is deeply authentic for it.

Michelsen acknowledges that Mike is the rare client who not only delights in baring himself to trusted collaborators but also wants to turn his soul into three-dimensional reality. "Most people fear living with a bold statement," she says. "That’s often why you see a fun powder room: it’s a space that is not occupied all the time." Since completing Mike’s studio and living space, Michelsen and Mac are more focused on drawing out an individual’s essence. "Working with future clients, I’m going to ask more questions that insert them in the project and put them in the foreground," Mac says. "Just as Mike wondered how a space could make him as creative as possible, I’ll now ask people, ‘How do you want your space to inspire you, and to help you live your best life?’"