Features

Forging a Legacy

The property on what is now known as Blue Hill Neck has been in the owner’s family since his loyalist ancestors settled there in 1770. Today, the parcel is part of a family trust comprising 25 acres and nine houses … Continue reading

Breathe Out

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

Barn Raising

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

Simple Pleasure

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

Antipodean Inland

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

Frame of Mind

Every year since 2019—and alternate years before that, since 1983—the Maine Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA Maine) has awarded Maine-based architects and firms for their excellent work here and around the world. This year a Wyoming-based jury … Continue reading

Small but Mighty

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

All the Elements

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

At Home With an Expert

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