The first floor master bedroom features paneled walls and a cathedral ceiling with paneling and chamfered beams. Larry Malvin Photography

Perched atop a bluff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, this new residence adds a modern twist to the classic Shingle Style. The house is anchored to the land by stone retaining walls made entirely of granite taken from the site during construction. Clad almost entirely in cedar shingles, the house will weather to a classic grey. Photo Credit: Blind Dog Studio

Joe Fletcher Atop a ridge in the Santa Lucia mountains of Carmel, California, an oak tree stands elevated above the fog and wrapped at its base in this ranch retreat. The weekend home’s design grew around the 100-year-old Valley Oak to form a horseshoe-shaped house that gathers ridgeline views of Oak, Madrone, and Redwood groves at its exterior and nestles around the tree at its center. The home’s orientation offers both the shade of the oak canopy in the courtyard and the sun flowing into the great room at the house’s rear façades. This modern take on a traditional ranch home offers contemporary materials and landscaping to a classic typology. From the main entry in the courtyard, one enters the home’s great room and immediately experiences the dramatic westward views across the 70 foot pool at the house’s rear. In this expansive public area, programmatic needs flow and connect - from the kitchen, whose windows face the courtyard, to the dining room, whose doors slide seamlessly into walls to create an outdoor dining pavilion. The primary circulation axes flank the internal courtyard, anchoring the house to its site and heightening the sense of scale by extending views outward at each of the corridor’s ends. Guest suites, complete with private kitchen and living room, and the garage are housed in auxiliary wings connected to the main house by covered walkways. Building materials including pre-weathered corrugated steel cladding, buff limestone walls, and large aluminum apertures, and the interior palette of cedar-clad ceilings, oil-rubbed steel, and exposed concrete floors soften the modern aesthetics into a refined but rugged ranch home.

Ian Colley Photography

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Interior View Of Marvin's Beautiful Double French Doors Combined With Georgian Style Casement Windows. Note The Slim Profiles Achieved On The Glazing Bars That Allow Enhanced Sight Lines. Read More About This Luxury New Build Case Study By Visiting Our Website. Photo Credit: Phil Ashley

The guesthouse of our Green Mountain Getaway follows the same recipe as the main house. With its soaring roof lines and large windows, it feels equally as integrated into the surrounding landscape. Photo by: Nat Rea Photography

Gres Experience Colours and materials Low-thickness porcelain stoneware for cabinet doors, a striking solution Low-thickness porcelain stoneware is made from a ceramic paste cooked at 1150 / 1250 C° and then cooled to room temperature (vitrification). It is often used in modern environments for a contemporary look that is rather urban and industrial, but it can also be used to create more traditional, rustic atmospheres, country and ecological. This striking solution can be applied to Scenery and LiberaMente kitchen models. Why choosing porcelain stoneware in the kitchen? Because stoneware is so strong: it's a material resistant to cuts, abrasions, water and temperature changes, it will not deform and it guarantees an exceptionally long life for surfaces. Because it's widely used for flooring and washable work surfaces. This is why it is particularly well suited for use in the kitchen. Because it's perfect for unprecedented combinations, playing on colours and workings. It offers sensations that reward touch and sight, thanks to the variations of robustness and lightness, continuity and intervals. It's a material that, in addition to its beauty, offers the wealth of possibilities for matching worktops and doors. Gres adds value and, when combined with wooden stains, interprets timeless, versatile elegance. "Open space" stoneware facing illuminates and underlines technological elements in glass and aluminium and ensures effective contrasts with the Vintage Oak finish. This detailed view of the bottom-hinged door shows off the edge-to-edge stoneware facing, which is recommended for those that prefer a persistent “affinity” between surfaces. Symmetry and precision, these are the most evident geometrical aspects of this spacious composition that welcomes and surrounds you with its pleasant elements and essential accessories. A minimalist combination of geometry, functionality and compositional freedom. “Family size” design that thinks ahead, expanding the possibilities of the space and interpreting it in a personal way. Gres expands the perception of volumes of the wall cladding: from the extensive worktop for the processing, cooking and washing area, it moves in a balanced, elegant fashion to the wall units, the formal order of the design, guaranteed by a perfect alternation of dark and light and rectangular and square forms. The “unexpected” inclusion of the oak breakfast bar is a pleasant intrusion. This composition shows how the stoneware can be fitted onto a door supported and surrounded by a light frame that gives the panels an interesting graphic effect.

This Northwest Modern design used natural cedar siding, structural insulated panels, board form concrete, permeable pavers, a glass ceiling + floor and a residential elevator to offer sustainable luxury for our clients.

Set along a winding stretch of the Guadalupe River, this small guesthouse was designed to take advantage of local building materials and methods of construction. With concrete floors throughout the interior and deep roof lines along the south facade, the building maintains a cool temperature during the hot summer months. The home is capped with a galvanized aluminum roof and clad with limestone from a local quarry.

These clients came to my office looking for an architect who could design their "empty nest" home that would be the focus of their soon to be extended family. A place where the kids and grand kids would want to hang out: with a pool, open family room/ kitchen, garden; but also one-story so there wouldn't be any unnecessary stairs to climb. They wanted the design to feel like "old Pasadena" with the coziness and attention to detail that the era embraced. My sensibilities led me to recall the wonderful classic mansions of San Marino, so I designed a manor house clad in trim Bluestone with a steep French slate roof and clean white entry, eave and dormer moldings that would blend organically with the future hardscape plan and thoughtfully landscaped grounds. The site was a deep, flat lot that had been half of the old Joan Crawford estate; the part that had an abandoned swimming pool and small cabana. I envisioned a pavilion filled with natural light set in a beautifully planted park with garden views from all sides. Having a one-story house allowed for tall and interesting shaped ceilings that carved into the sheer angles of the roof. The most private area of the house would be the central loggia with skylights ensconced in a deep woodwork lattice grid and would be reminiscent of the outdoor “Salas” found in early Californian homes. The family would soon gather there and enjoy warm afternoons and the wonderfully cool evening hours together. Working with interior designer Jeffrey Hitchcock, we designed an open family room/kitchen with high dark wood beamed ceilings, dormer windows for daylight, custom raised panel cabinetry, granite counters and a textured glass tile splash. Natural light and gentle breezes flow through the many French doors and windows located to accommodate not only the garden views, but the prevailing sun and wind as well. The graceful living room features a dramatic vaulted white painted wood ceiling and grand fireplace flanked by generous double hung French windows and elegant drapery. A deeply cased opening draws one into the wainscot paneled dining room that is highlighted by hand painted scenic wallpaper and a barrel vaulted ceiling. The walnut paneled library opens up to reveal the waterfall feature in the back garden. Equally picturesque and restful is the view from the rotunda in the master bedroom suite. Architect: Ward Jewell Architect, AIA Interior Design: Jeffrey Hitchcock Enterprises Contractor: Synergy General Contractors, Inc. Landscape Design: LZ Design Group, Inc. Photography: Laura Hull

Oak Stair Cladding which has been manufactured and designed by Heritage Doors & Floors. The stair cladding enables you to clad over your existing stairs, making the cost much much lower than having a new oak staircase.

LAKE IOSCO HOUSE Location: Bloomingdale, NJ Completion Date: 2009 Size: 2,368 sf Typology Series: Single Bar Modules: 4 Boxes, Panelized Fireplace/Storage Program: o Bedrooms: 3 o Baths: 2.5 o Features: Carport, Study, Playroom, Hot Tub Materials: o Exterior: Cedar Siding, Azek Infill Panels, Cement Board Panels, Ipe Wood Decking o Interior: Maple Cabinets, Bamboo Floors, Caesarstone Countertops, Slate Bathroom Floors, Hot Rolled Black Steel Cladding Aluminum Clad Wood Windows with Low E, Insulated Glass, Architects: Joseph Tanney, Robert Luntz Project Architect: Kristen Mason Manufacturer: Simplex Industries Project Coordinator: Jason Drouse Engineer: Lynne Walshaw P.E., Greg Sloditskie Contractor: D Woodard Builder, LLC Photographer: © RES4

Tamara Leigh Photography

The Mazama house is located in the Methow Valley of Washington State, a secluded mountain valley on the eastern edge of the North Cascades, about 200 miles northeast of Seattle. The house has been carefully placed in a copse of trees at the easterly end of a large meadow. Two major building volumes indicate the house organization. A grounded 2-story bedroom wing anchors a raised living pavilion that is lifted off the ground by a series of exposed steel columns. Seen from the access road, the large meadow in front of the house continues right under the main living space, making the living pavilion into a kind of bridge structure spanning over the meadow grass, with the house touching the ground lightly on six steel columns. The raised floor level provides enhanced views as well as keeping the main living level well above the 3-4 feet of winter snow accumulation that is typical for the upper Methow Valley. To further emphasize the idea of lightness, the exposed wood structure of the living pavilion roof changes pitch along its length, so the roof warps upward at each end. The interior exposed wood beams appear like an unfolding fan as the roof pitch changes. The main interior bearing columns are steel with a tapered “V”-shape, recalling the lightness of a dancer. The house reflects the continuing FINNE investigation into the idea of crafted modernism, with cast bronze inserts at the front door, variegated laser-cut steel railing panels, a curvilinear cast-glass kitchen counter, waterjet-cut aluminum light fixtures, and many custom furniture pieces. The house interior has been designed to be completely integral with the exterior. The living pavilion contains more than twelve pieces of custom furniture and lighting, creating a totality of the designed environment that recalls the idea of Gesamtkunstverk, as seen in the work of Josef Hoffman and the Viennese Secessionist movement in the early 20th century. The house has been designed from the start as a sustainable structure, with 40% higher insulation values than required by code, radiant concrete slab heating, efficient natural ventilation, large amounts of natural lighting, water-conserving plumbing fixtures, and locally sourced materials. Windows have high-performance LowE insulated glazing and are equipped with concealed shades. A radiant hydronic heat system with exposed concrete floors allows lower operating temperatures and higher occupant comfort levels. The concrete slabs conserve heat and provide great warmth and comfort for the feet. Deep roof overhangs, built-in shades and high operating clerestory windows are used to reduce heat gain in summer months. During the winter, the lower sun angle is able to penetrate into living spaces and passively warm the exposed concrete floor. Low VOC paints and stains have been used throughout the house. The high level of craft evident in the house reflects another key principle of sustainable design: build it well and make it last for many years! Photo by Benjamin Benschneider