REMARKABLE – AUGUST 2007

By Stephen Abbott

Photography Rob Karosis

Soaring above sea level in Camden

Every house has a reason. an organizing rationale. A why.

Prelude

But what separates the uncommon house from the common, the exceptional from the serviceable, is how well a design embraces its reason in both concept and execution. Even homes with the most modest of budgets can transcend their means, if only they find the right embrace.

Architect Sam Van Dam, of Van Dam Architecture and Design in Portland, frequently expounds on the subject of creative maturity, for he believes in putting suitability before showiness. He points out that architectural flourishes—the “big moves,” as he calls them—are usually the hallmark of the younger architect. As they mature both personally and professionally, architects recognize that good designs have no need of embellishment.

Soaring more than 125 feet above sea level in Camden, a recent Van Dam design is a perfect expression of its reason: an incomparable site overlooking Camden Harbor and Penobscot Bay. Perched on the crest of a densely wooded hill that falls dramatically to the Atlantic shoreline, the design may have been engineered around the ever-changing view, but the house is a testament to permanence.

Arrival
Follow the winding back roads off Route 1 in Camden and you will come to an unassuming driveway that could be anywhere in Maine. A canopy of thick summer foliage throws flickering shadows across the windshield as you make your way toward the house. Easing around a hairpin loop in the driveway, you look up to see the pastel-blue sky filtering through the expansive windows above the front entryway. This detail, like every other in the design, is intentional—they reflect the owner’s desire to blend the house into the land below and the sky above.

Many would define elegance as beauty without ostentation, but true elegance in design is achieved when the extremely difficult is made to seem effortless. After more than 30 years in the business, Van Dam has learned how to make the most architecturally demanding houses appear so authentic and inevitable that they might have sprouted from a planted seed. “We like to talk with clients about the ‘language’ of the house,” Van Dam says, “and I use that word carefully. I dislike the term ‘style.’ Style is temporary and usually superficial. A house’s language, for me, is about its content—not the way it looks. It’s how a house merges use with visual aesthetic.”

Yet the principles of substantive design and the trappings of style are often confused. “People will come up to me after I finish a design or project and ask, ‘What style is that?,’” Van Dam says, “and I’ll reply, ‘I don’t really know.’ Our designs are usually a synthesis of a lot of different ideas.” Since the intersection of personal taste, functional necessity, and individual budget is a complex terrain to navigate, it is unlikely that any one architectural style will satisfy every need. Van Dam and his team prefer not to place restrictions on creativity and instead work in an extensive palette of traditions, influences, and materials.

Still, a design that aspires to do everything risks accomplishing nothing much at all.

Van Dam’s colleague, Paul Attardo, the project architect for the Camden house, describes how prospective clients will come to their firm with piles of clippings from architectural magazines. Although they have no problem identifying what they like, the biggest design challenge is usually the randomness of their selections. “I tell them that if we give you all the images you want, you will end up with a scrapbook,” Attardo says, “but if we give you the essence of all these images, we can create a novel.”

Assimilation
What is most striking about the home is that no single feature stands out more than any other. The entire design—from layout and dimension to color and detailing—is a model of subtle integration. “I have realized,” Van Dam says, “that many small decisions add up to a good design.” It is the accumulative effect of those many decisions that conspire to suffuse the home with an atmospheric sense of refinement. While the average guest may not recognize the level of talent and expertise required to achieve such sophistication, they will hardly fail to register the home’s ambient artistry.

At 3,600 square feet, the house is neither small nor overly large. Like every other aspect of the project, the proportions reflect the theme of appropriateness that threads its way through the design. Jay Fischer of Cold Mountain Builders in Belfast—the company that oversaw the construction process from start to finish—believes that such quality is attained when architect and builder have a strong understanding, not only of the project, but of each other. “I have worked with Sam and Paul Attardo many times in the past,” Fischer says, “and we’ve developed a trusting relationship that works creatively and productively in projects of this complexity.”

While the design provides the conceptual fabric of a home, it is the craftsmanship, materials, and furnishings that knit it all together. In the Camden house, Fischer says, “the continuity of material selections from the exterior to the interior was crucial to the success of the design.” From the red-cedar siding and copper cladding to the white-oak floors and ivory walls, the physical elements are a seamless extension of the concept. “This house responds to its environment right down to the detailing,” Attardo says.

Perhaps no feature in the home captures the harmony of design and execution as well as the abundant built-in casework on display in nearly every room. Using end-matched, white-oak veneers, the European faceless cabinetry and interior doors are continuous in both color and grain. All the custom cabinetry in the kitchen and dining areas was constructed by Ezra Howell of E.H. Fortner Woodworking in Washington, Maine, while the rest of the casework in the bedrooms and living spaces was created by Cold Mountain’s cabinetry shop. An extensive search was undertaken to find just the right tone for the white oak, and meticulously aligning the grain in all the contiguous veneers was a demanding and labor-intensive process.

Scene
And then, of course, there is the view.

From the second floor, the towering ocean views inspire a feeling of calmness tinged with elation. The scenes have an almost unreal quality, as if you were gazing not at life itself, but at a life-sized photo on the wall of a European museum. The whole of Camden Harbor seems to be encased in glass, and the billowy treetops swaying in the cool morning breeze beneath the windows might as well be clouds slipping past an airplane in flight. The boats on Penobscot Bay are undefined silhouettes set against the backdrop of the distant shoreline, and the iconic Curtis Island Light is a picture postcard tacked to a field of blue. As if on cue, a gorgeous two-masted schooner moves in near-imperceptible slow motion across the harbor below like a ship in a bottle on painted sea.

“This house has the most spectacular view of any that we have worked on,” Van Dam says.

To appreciate the entirety of the design, however, it is necessary to not only soak in the view, but to stroll across the grounds. Granite-slab steps sheathed in a curling stone wall descend from the back door to the crown of long sloping lawn that disappears into scrub and forest. From the lowest point on the property, you look back to see a graceful arrangement of irregular stonework, wide horizontal siding, and thoughtfully placed windows. The once-gleaming copper paneling has faded to a rusty orange-brown and the red-cedar siding has lost some of its original saturation. The exterior materials were chosen for their durability and for their visual continuity with the surrounding environment as they weather naturally over time. The idea was to balance bold design with a reverence for the unsurpassable beauty of the site. “When I was sailing in the harbor the other day, I looked up at the hill and couldn’t find my house,” the owner says. “All the other homes stuck out, but mine was lost in the landscape.”

The organic materials and minimalist landscaping reflect the owner’s mission to preserve as much of the original site as possible: “Most people assume that when you build a house, you need to tear up the site and then landscape it afterward. I rejected that approach.” Everything about the landscaping exemplifies the value of “less is more.” Standing between his home and the adjacent two-car garage, the owner surveys a patch of untouched forest floor. “Look at this right here,” he says with evident pride. “You just can’t recreate this. The natural texture and beauty of the landscape can’t be restored once they’ve been disturbed.”

Finale
As the sun slips below the tree line, a slight evening chill comes on with the dimming light. Standing before his home, the owner watches a light click on within and a wistful look falls across his face.

“When you’re driving up to the house,” he says, “there is just this incredible feeling of lightness.”