Creek House

As families get bigger, the notion of ‘a place for all’ escalates in appeal: a retreat that fosters community and interaction, facilitates multi-generational gathering, and supports aging in place. Creek House grew out of precisely this impulse.

‘There are thirty family members, so we solicited feedback for what everyone wanted the house to be,’ Broughton relates. From this research, R+B discovered that the optimal way to strengthen intergenerational connections was via a paradigm of unforced togetherness: to design spaces with specific uses, but to enable the people within them to participate in collective activities, break off into smaller groups, or enjoy solitary pursuits.

There are multiple bedrooms, as well as play and media rooms, but the principal multigenerational appeal lies in the great room, which soars to a height of twenty-three feet. The fireplace is flanked by reading nooks; there are two primary sitting areas, one before the fireplace, one at the room’s midpoint; a gaming table, in front of a bookcase; and an expanding feasting table for all thirty family members at the room’s far end. The sense of home is palpable, in an environment that can be savored in multiple ways.

Though the residence calls to mind a Western vernacular ranch, it remains grander than one would have seen in the past. To reconcile the difference, R+B developed a narrative about how Creek House could be both contemporary and authentic. ‘We decided that we’d found a stone barn on the land, and a farmhouse close by it, and connected these two old buildings with a modern glass link,’ Broughton says. ‘And in the link we put the stair and the elevator.’

From the front, the stone volume, which contains the garage and mudroom, reveals three wood plank doors, each capped with a roughly chiseled stone lintel and held in place by wrought-iron strap hinges. The glass link incorporates the exterior walls of the stone barn on one side and the wood-clad main house on the other. As for the residence, the weathered horizontal boards, towering stone chimney, and standing-seam metal roof place it indelibly in style and in time. A wraparound covered porch, which touches four elevations, proves inviting even in the cold months.

Ensuring the maintenance of the property’s natural beauty, and ecological health, was a critical part of the mission. To exceed our clients’ expectations for energy performance, and incorporate active and passive systems to reduce the home’s carbon footprint, we chose to re-use the site of a pre-existing house; rotated the new building to move it out of the 100-year floodplain setback; and provided every living space a visual and auditory connection to the adjacent creek – from which the house takes its name.