da Parma

The clients came to the Architects with the challenge of creating a new home and office atop the foundations of their previous house, which had recently burned down on this 125 acre hilltop site outside Warwick, New York; their desire was to create a new 8,000 s.f. house that might recall aspects of both English country houses and Tuscan farms. CCA chose a simple gabled form to follow most of the old foundation for the main house to the North and introduced a subtle bend where this linked to a service wing to the South. This inflection both enhances the feeling of partial enclosure on the western terrace and softens the long mass of the building, especially as viewed from the approach. It also complements the gentle curve of the ridge and, together with the placement of native fieldstone walls, visually anchors the house to the site. Natural cedar clapboard and "post & beam" trim clad the majority of the house as a way of settling the Euro-inspired form into a NorthEast American context. The use of oversized weathered brick further roots the house to the land by transitioning between the articulated cedarwork above and the fieldstone below. The arriving motorist is welcomed to park in the lower court and ascend the entry stair, or continue up through the 2-story passage in the skewed service wing which leads to the upper parking court, garages and rear loggia.