Project: A Country House and Garden, Dutchess County, NY
Architect: Gilbert P. Schafer III, Project Architect; Brent Kovalchick, Jonathan Lee, Project Team
Landscape Design: G.P. Schafer Architect, PLLC, with Deborah Nevins Associates
Interior Decoration: G.P. Schafer Architect, PLLC, with Miles Redd, LLC
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A New Greek Revival
Architect Gil Schafer was in the market for a country house for years. His search took him all over New York’s Dutchess County, a region filled with rolling fields, hedge rows, and dairy and horse farms, which sits between the eastern bank of the Hudson River and the western border of Connecticut. The area is also dotted with 19th-century Greek Revival structures, and Schafer hoped to discover an overlooked architectural gem that he could make his own. He’d nearly given up when he discovered a piece of property that was topographically perfect for what he had in mind: a small rise between two fields surrounded by wooded areas. The only thing missing was the Greek Revival house that looked as if it had always been there, so Schafer built the house himself.
To avoid what the architect calls the “Dorothy’s-house-dropped- from-Kansas effect,” Mr. Schafer sited the house in such a way as to suggest a kind Greek Revival of “inevitability”– it looks as though it belongs where it is. First, the approach to the house was thoughtfully considered to give the visitor a dramatic sense of anticipation and arrival.
Next, with New York landscape designer Deborah Nevins, Schafer created precincts around the house to give it a sense of place, what Ms. Nevins calls “definition of the territory.” Exterior spaces around the house are delineated by hedges and fieldstone walls and anchored with new mature trees.
Schafer designed the house mindful of how such a structure might have evolved, beginning with a smaller, less formal structure, and growing into a more substantial house over time. Using 19th-century builder pattern books and surveys of local vernacular Greek Revival architecture as references, he created proportions and molding profiles that look indigenous.
The use of traditional and antique building components furthered the old-house feeling: salvaged antique or new restoration glass was specified for doors and interior cabinetry; new wide-board pine flooring was painted for the kitchen and the less-formal areas; and where natural stained-wood flooring was called for, 200-year-old heart-pine flooring from BABA Wood, a North Carolina antique-wood dealer, was installed and re-finished.
For door hardware, Schafer turned to E.R. Butler Co., N.Y., both for its selection of knobs and levers based on Early American precedent, and for its expertise in metal finishing and patination. Butler custom made new “mercury” glass knobs based on 19th-century examples – the first such knobs made since the turn of the century. All the new brass hardware for the house was antiqued by Butler, as were the nickel plumbing fittings. Light fixtures received similar attention as well, contributing to a consistent level of “patina” which suggests that everything in the house has been there for a while. Grinning, Schafer says, “The most consistent question from visitors is, ‘When did you finish the renovation?’”
Creating a house that appears “old” and integral to its landscape was a challenge on a number of levels. As Schafer says, “An architect has to bring to the task an understanding of what makes houses look old and what makes them look new. He must also be able to synthesize that sense of history with the new things that are inevitable components of residential design today.”
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