Along the shore of Ocean Park, at the southern end of Old Orchard Beach, an array of historic homes and hotels crowds right up to the long, low dune that separates beach from town. Covered in idiosyncratic balconies and Victorian … Continue reading →

Eve Harrison—co-owner of the design-build firm Harrison, Inc., with her partner in life and work, Eric Yeomans—found herself often quoting Yeomans’s maternal grandmother, Mavis, while selecting materials for this recreation and work barn on an island off midcoast Maine. Each … Continue reading →

Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm,” wrote Plato, “depend on simplicity.” This maxim is as true today as in fourth-century BCE Greece. Yet simplicity requires discipline and restraint, qualities many clients throw to the wind when … Continue reading →

At first, builder Mark Conforte wasn’t sure he wanted to build houses anymore. He’d been working for five decades; it felt like time to retire. “We got his name from a friend with a house on Horseshoe Pond,” says one … Continue reading →

Some of the best design is born out of constraints. So when architects Sara L’Espérance and Michael Putman of Nova Scotia−based studio SUPRBLK were tasked with conceiving a new structure to accompany a summer residence in Biddeford Pool, they used … Continue reading →

When Elisa Castillo and Rob Solomon bought their East Boothbay property in 2019, the 15-acre parcel had sat on the market for a year. It was densely wooded, covered with scrubby growth, and run through with ledges that threatened to … Continue reading →

Jorge Arango is in the kitchen, stirring a pot of richly scented soup, when I arrive at his Portland apartment. This in itself is unusual. Homeowners don’t often feed me when I come for tours, but Arango is different from … Continue reading →

This is not your typical oceanfront home. The decor is not in seaside hues, nor is the upholstery striped. There are no nautical flags on the pillows. Placid harbor scenes in watercolors, and violent crashing ocean waves in oils are … Continue reading →

Beginning in the 1910s, many popular publications peddled “ready-cut” kit homes tailor-made for the American dream. Emblematic of American ingenuity at its best, these homes were economical, ordered by mail, and conveyed in boxcars across the land to first-home buyers … Continue reading →