International fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld, the legendary creative director who breathed life into the house of Chanel after its founder’s death, had an eye for more than just the runway. Outside the design world, Lagerfeld was a passionate collector of books (at the time of his death in 2019, his personal library held nearly 300,000 publications); an influential photographer (in addition to self-portraits, he shot commercial fashion campaigns, editorials, and landscapes); and a lover of architecture. Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Houses (Thames and Hudson, 2024) explores the interiors of 13 homes Lagerfeld inhabited throughout his lifetime, including the sumptuous Hôtel Pozzo di Borgo in Paris, an apartment in Monte Carlo decked out with quirky furniture from the Memphis Group, a futuristic loft on the Quai Voltaire, and a black and white, Vienna Secession–inspired apartment walking distance from Fendi’s workshops in Rome.
“Lagerfeld changed his decor even more often than his image,” writes Patrick Mauriès in the book’s foreword, adding that “he ‘amused’ himself…by creating an interior and then casting it aside. Every place had its own spirit, every room its own staging.” The result is an ever-changing repertoire of interiors that “reflects the desires, circumstances, and whims of its creator and reveals his character more fully than any biography.” Andrée Putnam, a French interior decorator and Lagerfeld’s longtime friend, explained it a bit differently: “Karl Lagerfeld is sincere in his approach. Each apartment that he creates is a world in itself. He takes his obsession to the limits, then he gets rid of everything.”
Purchased in 2009, the Pavillon de Voisins, which Lagerfeld renamed Villa Louveciennes after the western suburb of Paris in which it stood, was the final dwelling in the designer’s catalog. Featuring a neoclassical facade and a variety of treasured objects from Lagerfeld’s former residences, the home was not shown to the public until after the icon’s death. In the ground-floor sitting room, an oval mirror by Armand-Albert Rateau hangs above a writing desk; to the right is a Biedermeier cabinet from Villa Jako, Lagerfeld’s previous property in Hamburg. Painted wooden seats with luxurious blue velvet padded upholstery (attributed to German illustrator and furniture designer Bruno Paul) rest atop a floral rug by Louis Süe and André Mare, while a neo-rococo porcelain table lamp by Gerhard Schliepstein sits on an end table near the window. Over 1,000 items from Lagerfeld’s estate, auctioned off by Sotheby’s in Paris, Monaco, and Cologne, fetched more than quadruple the auction house’s original estimates. Incorporate Lagerfeld’s ultimate interior aesthetic into your home with these nine finds.
Excerpted from Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Houses (Thames and Hudson, 2024). Reprinted with permission from the publisher.
GRAPE BOWL 263B Georg Jensen // georgjensen.com LA ROSA VICTORIAN TUFTED ACCENT CHAIR Jennifer Taylor Home // jennifertaylorhome.com WIMBORNE WHITE NO. 239 Farrow & Ball // ringsend.com STRIPED WALLPAPER Pottery Barn // potterybarn.com IMPERO 16-LIGHT CHANDELIER #3 Italian Luxury Lighting // artemest.com COPENHAGEN OVAL MIRROR Arhaus // arhaus.com ROCAILLE VASE Astier de Villatte // abask.com ROUND TULIP COFFEE TABLE IN DAYDREAM Maine Woodworks // mainewoodworks.com PRN-01 RP BLOSSOM CREAM RUG Rifle Paper Co. x Loloi // loloirugs.com
June, 2024 | Photography: Jeff Roberts | As told to Becca Abramson
“The client came to us with the intent to build a pool house in their backyard that tied into their existing house and looked like part of the original structure. They brought the idea of a greenhouse/conservatory theme, which ended up being the biggest driver of our overall design. Using that as a jumping-off point, we focused on natural materials that are simple, refined, low maintenance, and kid-friendly. The pool dictates a lot of the program space because it’s quite large, so the circulation around it was engineered to minimize the footprint while maximizing the available space. There’s plenty of room for plants, a small sitting area, and space for the grandkids to play.
“In our initial hand sketches, we introduced structural timber frame trusses and roof dormers, with a fun truss design that we don’t usually get to do for most of our residential projects. The trusses were built in Vermont and shipped to Maine, and the natural wood finish adds warmth to the pool house. We kept a darker color scheme with the gunnite, so the pool has more of a pond vibe. The client didn’t want a nautical theme—and we agreed—so there are no pool ladders. Instead, there are low steps and a simple handrail going down into the water.
“The idea of keeping a connection to the outdoors motivated us to include bigger windows and double doors that open to the semi-wooded yard. The tree line is close to the structure, so we were initially concerned that it might be too shaded. Luckily, the roof dormers bring in plenty of natural light and allow the clients to use the space year-round without worrying about the weather. We upgraded to triple-pane windows to create a more insulated building envelope that maintains a comfortable, consistent temperature. The windows match the house on the exterior, but on the interior, we painted them a cool gray tone that we pulled from the natural coloring of the water. They allow a clearer view of the yard and call back to the conservatory feeling we were trying to emulate.
“The builder, McClellan Renovations, and the pool design-install team, Aquatic Development by Tapley, were big players in bringing all the elements together. Aquatic Development helped with sourcing the stone decking and coping around the pool. They were a great resource and helped us determine what made the most sense when designing a custom pool. McClellan was able to match the existing exterior finishes perfectly and brought our vision to life. Their combined expertise was invaluable.”
—Rebecca Sargent, project manager at Kevin Browne Architecture
June, 2024 | By: Alyssa Bird | Photography: Darren Setlow
It’s always interesting to see what architects dream up when given the opportunity to design for themselves. For Boston-based architect Stewart Roberts, who has been conceiving public spaces, including libraries across New England, for the past three decades, his own vacation property on Westport Island was the perfect opportunity to step outside his comfort zone and embark on a new creative adventure. “I wanted a place to get away from the city and enjoy some family time, and I’ve always loved the Maine coast,” says Roberts, who has two grown daughters. The architect settled on a three-and-a-half-acre wooded lot with 300 feet of tidal frontage. “Part of Westport Island’s attraction is how underdeveloped it is,” he continues. “From the site, you can’t see any other houses. It looks out onto a couple of islands, and in the opposite direction is an organic farm.”
No doubt Roberts had plenty of design concepts kicking around in his mind, but he resisted overcomplicating the process. “One pitfall that many architects succumb to when building their own homes is trying to use every good idea they’ve ever had,” says Roberts. Instead, he thought back to the critical theories he was exposed to early in his career. “I hadn’t designed a house for some time, but I worked on passive solar homes during the oil crisis in the 1970s. When it came time to work on this residence, I revisited those principles while considering new technology and techniques. My goal was to create a cutting-edge structure that’s self-sufficient from an energy perspective.”
As with any project, one of the first and most critical considerations was how the structure would sit on the sloping site, which features a series of granite terraces that cascade down toward the water, leading to a steep drop-off. “Instead of coming in and flattening everything, I wanted to build something with the least impact on the land as possible,” explains Roberts. “The views are fantastic, so I tried to capitalize on that and work with the existing topography.” The resulting 2,500-square-foot four-bedroom, fully electric, net-zero dwelling utilizes the sloping site, with the mechanicals and three water-facing guest rooms on the lower level and the primary bedroom and living areas enjoying the prime vistas from above. An angled shed roof makes for a variety of interesting spaces on the main level, with the ceiling height spanning from 8 feet in the kitchen to a soaring 14 feet in the living area. “The roofline points toward the view, with expansive windows on one side,” says Roberts. However, there’s no bad seat in the house thanks to the open floor plan, which is perfect for entertaining family and friends.
In addition to the kitchen, living area, dining area, and primary bedroom, the main level contains Roberts’s woodworking studio as well as a screened porch. “When the folding door to the porch is open, you feel like you’re outside,” notes Roberts, who tapped Brunswick-based Senecal Construction Services to build the home. According to the firm’s principal, Matt Senecal, Roberts’s careful spatial planning set this project apart. “Stew thought of everything, from how much square footage a bedroom actually requires down to where you’ll set your keys and jacket when you come in,” says Senecal. “The process is similar to designing the interior of a ship, where you need to be thoughtful of the flow and floor plan to keep square footage down and make use of every inch. There are four bedrooms, but they don’t take up a ton of space. He chose to focus more on the entertaining areas.”
Encasing these spaces is a low-maintenance exterior envelope that blends into its wooded site to the point where it’s nearly invisible from the water. A metal roof and corrugated-metal trim are offset by thermally modified poplar vertical siding—a product that’s prevalent in Europe and starting to gain traction in the United States, according to Roberts. “The wood is essentially cooked in an oven, which removes its sugars, oils, and moisture so that it won’t rot or warp,” he says. “Poplar is an inexpensive species that isn’t normally very attractive, but this cooking process lends a rich mahogany color that will take on some nice variation as it weathers.”
The construction itself is rather unusual, explains Roberts, who collaborated with Senecal Construction to incorporate smart systems and techniques that minimize the home’s environmental impact as much as possible. “There is two-by-six framing; sheathing over that; then a continuous air, water, and vapor barrier; and finally, six to eight inches of insulation,” says Roberts. “The barrier extends from the footings to the roof, creating an airtight envelope that’s extremely thermally efficient. The thick insulation is expressed on the exterior in the form of deeply inset windows and walls that overhang the foundation.” The electrical system includes an energy recovery ventilation system, heat pumps, backup batteries, and solar panels that provide a bit more power than the house utilizes annually. “Stew designed this house with maximum passive-solar gain in mind,” adds Senecal. “And with the air-exchange system, it’s also a very healthy home.”
With the “guts” of the residence buttoned up, it was time to move on to the interior finishes. Roberts chose to keep the palette simple and clean, employing walnut flooring and birch plywood—a favorite material of his—for the cabinetry, built-in storage, and walls, which are studded with plywood battens for additional interest and texture. In fact, the architect uses this material to construct wood sculptures and furniture as well—hence his desire for a woodworking studio in the house. “There’s a decorative quality to the birch plywood that I like,” explains Roberts. “The sculptures I produce are modernist-inspired architectural reliefs that hang on the wall. I see the interior of the home as an extension of my sculptures.” Whether it be these sculptures, the door and window casings, or the furniture—including the living room coffee table and side tables, the dining table, and the beds and nightstands—the plywood is celebrated rather than made to appear like something it’s not. “Wherever possible, the plywood is turned to expose its laminations,” says Roberts, who built most of the furniture in the home himself and then supplemented with a handful of contemporary items, including barstools by Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto and a few pieces from Herman Miller. The neutral palette is dotted with pops of green and brick red that tie into the exterior elements. “I’m interested in natural materials, and I also want to be honest about the materials I’m using,” explains Roberts. “If I choose plywood, I don’t want it to look fancy. I want it to look like plywood.” Throughout the project, Roberts capitalized on the integrity of the carefully chosen materials and the simplicity of the overall scheme. “This house is designed to show off the way it’s built,” he continues. “My vision was to create something beautiful, efficient, and respectful of its wooded setting while maximizing the spectacular water views.”
June, 2024 | By: Jorge S. Arango | Photography: Jeff Roberts
Tom and I are list people,” says Kristin Simon, describing herself and her husband, Tom Simon. “A lot of our friends make fun of us because we have lists for everything.” Why, then, would their search for a second home to retreat to from Boston—and the ensuing process of renovating and appointing it—be any different? So, in the fall of 2019, Kristin explains, they adopted a ritual. “On Sunday over coffee, while the girls were still asleep, we would draw up lists of what we each wanted.”
At the top of both lists: Where to buy? Tom hailed from Wisconsin and grew up around lakes. Kristin was raised in upstate New York but spent summers on Cape Cod and was partial to an ocean setting. Marriage, as they say, is a negotiation. “We picked Sebago,” recalls Tom, “because it is less than an hour from Portland, so we could go to the beach but still live on a lake.” Sebago is also closer to skiing, something that the Simon girls, now 10 and 13, were just learning to do.
On Tom’s list was a rustic lodge-type home, something Kristin could get on board with as long as the interior had a bit more refinement. He wanted wood paneling, but she wanted things to be a bit brighter and lighter. The house they eventually purchased, however, was none of these things. “It definitely needed a renovation,” remembers Tom of the 3,000-square-foot suburban-looking structure built in 2008 and sheathed in shingles painted an unfortunate colonial blue. “It had a poor use of space,” he continues, “with an enclosed staircase in the middle of the house that blocked views.”
The Simons contracted Knickerbocker Group to transform the house into something more reminiscent of a Maine camp. The first order of business, says architect Michael Belleau, “was to make it normal, then make it great.” A top priority to normalize was the roofline, which comprised four different peaked roofs, all at various elevations, and looked especially disjointed from the lake-facing rear of the house.
Building two bedrooms above the kitchen and leveling it with the double-height dining area raised the leftmost volume almost up to the tallest roof so the silhouette wouldn’t appear so jagged. (That and other alterations brought the square footage from 3,010 to nearly 3,230, plus a 253-square-foot screened porch.) Then, says Belleau, “Adding a gable in front of the dining room area helped everything gel.”
Old camps are usually clusters of single-story buildings with the occasional two-story main house. On the approach through the woods, it is indeed two stories that we see. But from the back, the visible below-grade walkout basement make this one atypically three stories. Belleau dissimulated this stylistic anomaly by cladding the basement in contoured boards trimmed along the top with a “water level–like” band, then used cedar shingles on the two stories above it. “The rustication of the bottom made it look like a foundation, sort of like rock at the base of a shingle home.”
Essentially, it was about the balance between “a refined home that’s well detailed and a home that feels rustic,” observes Belleau. Hence we encounter windows with modern mullions flanking the front entrance, where bark-stripped tree trunks hold up the porch roof. They not only are camplike but also add a note of whimsy.
The same formula dictated the decor. After relocating the stairs to the front of the house to afford an open-plan main floor, lead interior designer Angela Ballard drew the palette from the surrounding woods and mosses (green), morning fog on the lake (grays), and loamy ground (brown). Then she riffed on familiar tropes but elevated them. Referring to the furnishings, she explains, “They’re all plays on elements you might see in a lodge—plaid, leather, wools—but with more modern lines.”
For every aspect of the project, from layouts to finishes, the Knickerbocker team—which also included interior designer Renée Bissonnette, project manager Jessica Rodenhizer, assistant project manager Brianna Beebe, landscape architect Kerry Lewis, and site manager Jason Sorensen—presented at least three options. They didn’t know about the Simons’ devotion to list making, but, recalls Ballard, she did notice that “they definitely prioritized everything. It was very exciting when they’d give you the yes, especially on options that were going to be a little more impressive.”
The team had to strike an equilibrium between Kristin’s yin and Tom’s yang. For instance, he wanted paneling, and she wanted lighter walls (“I didn’t want it dark and cavelike,” Kristin says). So, in the dining room, the accent wall around the dormer window that frames the lake view was paneled, but the other walls were left creamy white.
Tom’s list called for a moose antler chandelier, so Ballard suspended it above a simple trestle table surrounded by spare Shaker-style slat-back chairs. The living room’s massive fieldstone fireplace (on both the Simons’ lists) is framed in more creamy white walls and green-painted built-ins. In both these rooms, potentially heavy details are leavened with lighter surface treatments and furniture featuring clean silhouettes.
In the kitchen, this combination manifests as more austere overhead wooden cabinets in a quasi-Mission style contrasted with undercounter cabinets swathed in a calming green. The backsplashes resemble subway tile but skew more camplike by virtue of their finish, which is unpolished and defined by irregular edges. Straddling the Simons’ potentially opposing predilections is the lighting deployed throughout the house, which in most cases has an industrial feel that can be equally at home with rustic or refined surroundings. “They’re all different metals,” says Ballard, “which helped break up tones that dominated the fairly traditional elements in the spaces and also added another texture.”
Outside, Knickerbocker redid all the stone walls and steps and built a stone patio that now connects to the path leading to the lake. Lewis then came in and planted a native Maine landscape: high-bush blueberries, viburnum, witch hazel, ferns, and plants with pollinator value adding accents of seasonal color. “There’s nothing flashy about it,” says Lewis. “It allows the architecture to speak and takes a supportive role.”
It’s all visible from the screened porch, which Kristin calls “my little slice of heaven.” To one side, near the pass-through window of the pantry bar, is a lounging area with wicker seating. To the other is a teak dining table and chairs. “We paid a lot of attention to the ceiling here,” notes Ballard. “We wanted it to look like knotty alder so it wouldn’t be too dark. But it was COVID by then, so it became a matter of what we could get.” Local eastern white cedar did the trick.
The porch is where, these days, Tom and Kristin sit to make their lists, usually with the family labradoodle, Millie, snoozing happily nearby. But, instead of building materials, architectural features, color palettes, and other desires for design and construction, these lists focus on a new phase. “Here’s where we plan the activities we’re going to do each day, make grocery lists, and plan the Thanksgiving meal,” says Kristin. And dictating all those lists is one supreme objective: to unwind, relax, and enjoy each other.
As Maine’s definitive design authority, MH+D is thrilled to showcase the winners of the state’s prestigious Design Awards distributed by the Maine chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA Maine). The awards, which recognize the incredible talents of Maine-based architects and firms for projects completed both here and away, serve as a fundamental record of the evolution of contemporary architecture in the state. “The design work that Maine architects have submitted this year continues the trend of excellence in our awards program,” said Paul Lewandowski, founder of Paul Designs Project and chair of the awards committee. “Each year, we see more work that is thoughtfully conceived and espouses sustainability, energy efficiency, and water conservation.”
For the 2024 program, AIA Maine received 46 submissions from 31 applicants in the categories of commercial, single-family residential, renovations and adaptive reuse, and small projects with budgets under $350,000. In the past, the awards committee has selected a jury of peers from Iceland, Montreal, and Wyoming to review the entries; this year’s jury hailed from Connecticut. “We work very hard to keep the sanctity of the jury pure and allow our jurors to select the best of the best,” says Lewandowski. “They decide on the number of award recipients; we don’t have a formula for them to determine the number of winners.” The total of 19 winning projects grace the following pages, though all entries in the Design Awards program are displayed at the recognition reception. “This helps us to achieve our goal of celebrating design in Maine; even if a project isn’t awarded, it is on display for all to see,” adds Lewandowski.
AIA Maine introduced the Architrave Award this year to recognize excellence in traditional design. “In our mission to showcase all of the excellent design work happening in Maine, we felt the addition of a traditional design award would celebrate design even further,” Lewandowski explains. A separate jury was selected to review the Architrave entries and select winners based on the thoughtful adaptation of tradition to address twenty-first-century needs.
The “unbuilt” category, which is the only area that extends to both professional architects and students from Maine (as well as those studying architecture in the state), offers an opportunity to recognize projects that were fully conceived but never constructed. “There is so much excellent work that is on the drawing boards of Maine architects that never gets to see the light of day,” says Lewandowski, adding that the student work coming from the architecture program at the University of Maine in Augusta “is an indicator that Maine will have some very strong ‘homegrown’ architects soon.”
MH+D is honored to present the winners of the 2024 AIA Maine Design Awards.
Institutional + Commercial
The Paula Crane Lunder House, Jane Powers House, Carol Swann-Daniels House & Jacqueline Núñez House, Waterville
Kaplan Thompson Architects Honor Award for Excellence in Architecture
Project Architect: Jesse Thompson, FAIA Senior Architectural Designer: Emily Greene Architecture Team: Danielle Foisy, Sarah Spielman Interior Designer: Mikaela Baldy Structural Engineer: Trillium Engineering Group Off-Site Modular Construction: KBS Builders Landscape Architect: Klopfer Martin Design Group Civil Engineer: VHB Electrical Engineer: Enterprise Electric Mechanical & Plumbing Engineer: Design Day Mechanicals General Contractor: Consigli Construction Photographer: Christian Phillips Photography
From the Jury:
The project’s delivery showcases the architect’s role in problem-solving to create a beautiful project. The restraint in the use of materials is very refreshing. Embracing wood as a natural material is commendable. Letting the shade and shadow over the form create interest in the facade is well done.
From the Architect:
The Paula Crane Lunder House, Jane Powers House, Carol Swann-Daniels House, and Jacqueline Núñez House are four high-performance residence halls for Colby College, which were designed and built in 15 months. A replicable building design, rapid modular construction, and an integrated design-build team satisfied an urgent need for housing and maintained the college’s high standards for quality, sustainability, and design.
The residence halls satisfy both the aggressive timeline and the college’s deep sustainability mandates. By distributing 200 beds across four two-story buildings (50 beds per building) instead of one monolithic structure, sustainable, low-embodied-energy wood construction methods could be employed in a manner atypical for a college campus.
A strategic hybridization of factory- and field-built elements allowed multiple phases of the build to progress simultaneously across three production sites: a modular factory, a temporary precast concrete yard created in a college parking lot, and the actual site for each building. Concrete foundation panels were precast with a board-formed pattern while site work and excavation progressed nearby. At the same time, prefabricated structural units were constructed at an off-site factory and delivered to the campus with interior fixtures and finishes installed. The 18 modules that compose each of the two-story buildings wrap centralized stick-built corridors and plug into the site-assembled mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems.
Staggered construction starts for the four dormitories enabled design improvements that were identified during the first build to be rapidly applied to the remaining structures.
USM Portland Commons Residence Hall & McGoldrick Center for Career & Student Success, Portland
SMRT Architects & Engineers / Elkus Manfredi Architects Merit Award for Excellence in Architecture
Principals-in-Charge: Craig Piper, AIA (SMRT Architects & Engineers); John Martin, FAIA (Elkus Manfredi Architects) Senior Architects: Nicholas Vaughn, AIA (SMRT Architects & Engineers); Ross Cameron (Elkus Manfredi Architects) Project Manager: Kristen Damuth, AIA (SMRT Architects & Engineers) Project Architects: Philip Chaney, AIA (SMRT Architects & Engineers); Austin Lee (Elkus Manfredi Architects) Interior Designer: Elkus Manfredi Architects Structural, Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, Plumbing & Fire Protection Engineer: SMRT Architects & Engineers Development Partner: Capstone Development Partners Passive House Consultant: Steven Winter Associates Permitting Partner: Woodard & Curran Code: Jensen Hughes Acoustics: Acentech Commercial Kitchen Designer: Sodexo Geotech: SW Cole General Contractor: PC Construction Photographer: Trent Bell
From the Jury:
Commendable sustainability performance. The mass timber becoming part of the iconography of the building is very nicely done. The material integration of the interior and exterior creates a unique project that is well integrated.
From the Architect:
The Portland Commons Residence Hall and McGoldrick Center for Career and Student Success transformed the University of Southern Maine’s Portland commuter campus into a welcoming residential community. The new buildings and landscape enhance social equity, drive economic prosperity, and promote environmental stewardship through Passive House design.
The project was initiated in 2019 as part of the university’s facilities master plan and was completed in 2023. It is a stunning example of sustainable design and is the university’s first on-campus housing facility in Portland as well as the country’s second-largest Passive House university building. With enough room to accommodate nearly 600 students, the Portland Commons Residence Hall includes 385 units, incorporating a mix of single-occupancy rooms, studio apartments, and large apartments with multiple bedrooms and bathrooms. Four wings compose the structure, two of which reach five stories and two, eight stories in height, defining the street walls and a new campus entrance.
At the heart of the campus and adjacent to the residence hall is the McGoldrick Center for Career and Student Success. The Student Center structure and L.L.Bean Quad (nicknamed the “Bean Green” by students) form a physical and metaphorical campus heart by connecting preexisting facilities with features that serve students and the local community. Rugged building materials and mass timber design define a sense of place on the school’s Portland campus. Designed to LEED Silver Standards, the center achieves the university’s sustainability goals: embracing renewable low-carbon building technologies, waste diversion, and healthy living and work spaces. Student center amenities include a 300-seat dining hall, student lounge, bookstore, cafe/pub, Career and Employment Hub, and 4,500-square-foot multipurpose room.
West End Apartments, South Portland
Kaplan Thompson Architects Merit Award for Excellence in Architecture
Project Architect: Jesse Thompson, FAIA Senior Architect: Danielle Foisy Architectural Designers: Cara Bionde, Grace Mathieson Interior Designer: Rachel McBrien Sustainability Specialist & Certified Passive House Consultant: Kai Fast Structural Engineer: Thorton Tomasetti Landscape Architect: Carroll Associates Civil Engineer: Ransom Consulting Electrical Engineer: Swiftcurrent Engineering Mechanical & Plumbing Engineer: Ripcord Engineering General Contractor: Allied Cook Construction Photographer: Trent Bell
From the Jury:
We value the effort and thought taken into consideration to create a dignified design for affordable housing. The creative use and deployment of inexpensive materials create a rich texture on the exterior. The details of the windows and articulation on the facade are successfully executed.
From the Architect:
The West End Apartments introduce 116 beautiful, sustainable, and permanently affordable housing units to South Portland, Maine. The buildings advance the West End Neighborhood Master Plan by creating a precedent for an inclusive, diverse, and walkable neighborhood focused on high-performance design and a high quality of living. The structures were designed in partnership with a nonprofit affordable housing developer.
The project prioritized the preservation of the area’s longstanding affordability by creating a new neighborhood center anchored by a mixed-use housing development. The project was designed and constructed in two phases. The first 64-unit building was completed in 2020, and the second 52-unit structure was ready for occupancy in 2023. The unit mix is 80 percent permanently affordable and 20 percent market rate, and there are studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom apartments. Street-level storefronts and community spaces serve residents who also enjoy an outdoor plaza, on-site laundry, and indoor bike storage.
The buildings nearly achieve Passive House airtightness metrics as well as a 71 percent reduction from the benchmark energy use intensity (EUI), even without renewable energy systems installed. The roofline serves as a “solar mountain” angled for the future installation of photovoltaic panels. The project maintained its original aesthetic intent and provided high-performance housing for low-income households despite strict budget and pandemic-related challenges. The West End Apartments advance the neighborhood’s historic livability and encourage further development of walkable destinations and infrastructure through the infusion of a new population ready to use them.
Husson University College of Business, Bangor
Harriman / Goody Clancy Citation Award for Excellence in Architecture
Design Principals: Mark D. Lee, AIA (Harriman); Rob Chandler, AIA (Goody Clancy) Design Team: Jamie Ouellette, AIA, Melissa Metivier, Kathryn Austin, Sharon Ames (Harriman); Olivia Huang, AIA (Goody Clancy) Civil Engineer: James W. Sewall Company Acoustic Consulting: Acentech General Contractor: Sheridan Construction Photographer: Ryan Bent Photography
From the Jury:
The simplicity of the form and elegance of the standing-seam wrapping the roof and enclosure of the building create a beautiful building.
From the Architect:
Historically anchored in its abundant natural resources and strong manufacturing core, Maine’s economy is experiencing a pivotal transformation, with increasing emphasis on technology and innovation to align with broader global economic trends. Husson University, a longstanding Maine business education leader, is meeting the state’s demand for a technologically skilled workforce with Harold Alfond Hall, a visionary new home for the university’s College of Business.
The design expresses this future-focused mission through a modern interpretation of the state’s agricultural legacy. Metal panels on a steeply pitched roof elegantly transition to vertical standing seams on the building’s facades, providing a modern interpretation of the regional barn vernacular. Inside, a simple materials palette puts the focus on the building’s abundant natural light and sweeping views across campus to the hills beyond.
The building’s program is designed for a unique business education model—one that emphasizes advanced technology, flexibility, and social interaction. Agile workspaces, simulation environments, classrooms with 360-degree teaching capabilities, and the iEX Center, a cutting-edge virtual and augmented reality innovation hub, support new partnerships between academia and industry.
Renovation + Adaptative Reuse
50 Exchange, Portland
Woodhull Honor Award for Excellence in Architecture
Project Architect: Patrick Boothe, AIA Architectural Project Manager: Josh Jacques Structural Engineer: Intelligent Design Civil Engineer: Terradyn Consultants Mechanical & Plumbing Engineer: Ripcord Engineering General Contractor: Woodhull Construction Team: Michael Cleary, Shawn Couture, Mark Sturgeon Photographer: Trent Bell
From the Jury:
Beautiful execution of an adaptive reuse where the structure was able to be salvaged. The fourth level is well executed. The materiality is light and elegantly complements the historic rooftop—an elegant and skillful blend of its history and new life. The architecture doesn’t whitewash the history in the name of restoration. The sensitivity of the discreet positioning of the penthouse is relevant to the building’s presence on the street.
From the Architect:
The transformation of 50 Exchange Street in Portland’s vibrant Old Port district breathed new life into a rich legacy. The rehabilitation of the building, which originally housed jewelry stores and commercial spaces, aimed to create modern residential units while preserving the structure’s rich past.
In 2020 we worked with the building’s owners to explore adding a new story, resulting in two second-floor apartments and two two-story units on the third and newly constructed fourth floor. Through successful occupancy-type transition, federal historic preservation tax credits, and thoughtful design of the apartments, our firm brought the initial vision to fruition.
Over ten months, the construction team meticulously removed the building’s roof and erected an additional floor while adhering to the National Park Service’s esteemed historic rehabilitation standards. The fusion of classic red brick with contemporary aluminum paneling celebrates both heritage and progress. This juxtaposition continues inside, where the apartments blend historic charm like plaster finishes and pine floors with modern elements like ornamental stairs, roof decks, and skylights. As a result, 50 Exchange Street pays homage to the rich history of the Old Port district while ushering it into the twenty-first century with grace and style.
Sweatt-Winter Child Care and Early Education Center, University of Maine at Farmington
CHA Merit Award for Excellence in Architecture
Project Architect: Robin Tannenbaum Architectural Designer: Ashley Richards Interior Designer: Pamela Anderson Visioning: Ariana Melzer Natural Playground Designer: Sashie Misner Landscape Architecture Electrical, Mechanical, Plumbing, Security Design & Fire Protection Engineer: CHA Specifications Writer: Kalin Associates General Contractor: Optimum Construction (building), Taylor Construction (site) Photographer: Blind Dog Photography
From the Jury:
The programming change from a call center to a childcare center is very compelling. The scale and color of the child-centered spaces are well considered. The materials and art selection, with influences from nature, create a unique space for children.
From the Architect:
A former call center has been transformed into a state-of-the-art, 10,000-square-foot nature-based childcare center at the University of Maine at Farmington (UMF). The Sweatt-Winter Child Care and Early Education Center, a dual-function facility, serves as an accredited nature-based childcare center for infants through six-year-olds and functions as a vital lab school for the UMF’s teacher education program.
While building renovations were limited to the interior, except for new egress doors, the design team sought tools to create a range of scaled experiences within the existing structure’s constraints. The building design creates two separate zones for adults and children, with a central circulation spine running through both. The adult zone contains functional spaces to support school operations: offices, kitchen, laundry, storage, and undergraduate classrooms. The children’s zone creates a child-scaled learning environment. The central circulation opens into a broad, sunny, central multipurpose space linking the four early childhood classrooms. This space provides a location for shared group activities, access to two observation rooms with one-way mirrors into the classrooms, and an area for gross-motor-skill activities during inclement weather.
Each age-specific primary classroom is represented by an iconic residential form, such as a gable, gambrel, sloped roof, or curved roof, creating welcoming entries to each classroom that are echoed inside each room as scaled-down niches for imaginative play and gathering. Two natural playscapes flanking the building cater to the age-appropriate explorations of the adjacent classroom occupants, encouraging children to engage with the natural environment. Biophilic design strategies connect the interior spaces to the outdoors.
Single-Family Residential
A House in Three Parts, Midcoast Maine
Winkelman Architecture Honor Award for Excellence in Architecture
Architects: Joanna Shaw, AIA; Will Winkelman, AIA Structural Engineer: Albert Putnam Associates Landscape Architect: Richardson & Associates Environmental Consultant: Albert Frick Associates General Contractor: Hewn Builders, High Seas Builders Photographer: Jeff Roberts
From the Jury:
There is consistency in the consideration of detail that weaves through all structures. The expression of the roof framing is very compelling. The structure is effortlessly integrated into the site. All the jurors agree that this is a place we’d like to spend time. It has a scale that is very inviting.
From the Architect:
Carefully designed within the 35-acre site, this house is pulled apart into a series of spaces dispersed into the woods with compact, precise insertions. This design choreographs openness, views, and relationships, prioritizing the experiences between built forms and within the wild natural environment. The house was designed for a young family that dreamt of a place to inspire adventure for their kids: summer camp and the comfort of home crafted into one.
Beginning with arrival, the entry tower marks a transition into this home. Its first floor provides a mudroom for shedding gear, bikes, and skis; this space welcomes adventures with friends and family. Above the mudroom, a bunk-tower with loft platforms climbs into the tree canopy, hosting guests and children. A metal ladder and wooden climbing holds playfully connect these vertical layers.
The entry and kitchen are partners in the landscape, lightly linked together with a covered boardwalk. The kitchen provides a social space with cooking, dining, and gathering in the heart of the site. Embraced by topography, its form wraps around a granite ledge, and its roof canopy floats beyond the pavilion’s enclosure, sweeping the groundscape below. Easterly windows welcome light for morning rituals and the first meal together each day. The ebb and flow of stepping apart and coming together inspired this home’s composition.
Our clients desired shared spaces fostering social connection as well as personal retreats. A bedroom cabin for parents and young children connects to the kitchen via a wood boardwalk slicing thinly through the landscape. The parents’ sleeping space pairs with a loft, which opens to an ocean view. As the children grow and seek adventure in the bunk-tower, the loft will become a retreat for meditation.
The interior palette of each space is consistent, simple, and raw, with regionally harvested timbers, granular concrete, and softly textured plaster. Shifting sunlight and views—woods, water, wildlife—are the elements that give these spaces life.
The Overlook, Kingfield
Whitten Architects Honor Award for Excellence in Architecture
Principal Architect: Russ Tyson, AIA Associate Architect: Tom Lane, AIA Project Designer: Drew Bortles Landscape Architect: Soren deNiord Design Studio Interior Designer: Heidi Lachapelle Interiors Structural Engineer: Albert Putnam Associates General Contractor & Millwork: Sebastian Tooker Construction Photographer: Trent Bell
From the Jury:
The simplicity and clarity of this project is commendable. The materials feel “of the place” and have an experiential quality that is richly residential. There’s a sophistication to the detailing on the inside and outside.
From the Architect:
This family-oriented Carrabassett Valley retreat balances a desire for sweeping mountain views with the need for protection from harsh mountain winters as well as privacy from the surrounding popular trail system. Its gabled form echoes traditional alpine shelters, while deeply set openings offer valley views and direct access to the landscape.
Prospect and refuge were guiding principles—balancing protection from and connection with nature. The single elongated structure captures sunlight throughout the day. The large gable efficiently sheds snow away from entrances, offering immediate protection.
Collaboration and adaptability empowered the skilled local builder and craftspeople to create a robust home with a high level of finish that reflects the owner’s vision. Local eastern white cedar shingles, a standing-seam roof, and sustainable western red cedar siding withstand harsh conditions and echo New England traditions. The board-formed concrete base roots the structure to the site. The traditionally clad envelope, featuring a rainscreen system, continuous insulation, and remarkable airtightness, was informed by building science experts to ensure comfort and longevity.
Interiors are zoned by activity. The porte cochere offers refuge during loading, buffering the transition from harsh weather to shelter under the gable. Large sliding doors block wintery gusts and open wide for summer breezes. The gear room organizes the makings of myriad outdoor activities. The sauna offers a retreat for relaxation and self-care. Upstairs, bedrooms and living areas frame curated views from within the shelter, while views from the loft extend perpendicular to the peak across the valley.
The architecture narrates the story of the landscape and region. The central staircase, crafted from local reclaimed elm, branches out to strategically divide public and private spaces. Stone extracted from the site to form the foundation sets the tone for the entire home—from hearth to countertops and fabric schemes.
Pine Cove, Harpswell
Woodhull Merit Award for Excellence in Architecture
Project Architect: Amit Oza, AIA Architecture Team: Caleb Johnson, AIA; Stacey Woodworth, AIA; Michael Chestnutt Landscape Architect: Soren deNiord Design Studio Landscape Installation: Pinnacle Landscape & Design Structural Engineer: Casco Bay Engineering Metalwork: Jim Larson General Contractor & Millwork: Woodhull Photographer: Trent Bell
From the Jury:
The detailing within the interior creates rich elements that play with design and color in a beautiful way.
From the Architect:
Settled within the pines and mirroring the shape of a nearby cove, Pine Cove is a trio of buildings designed for exploration and reflection. The design was inspired by its unique location and a pair of artistic, adventurous clients.
From the initial site selection—a collaborative effort to capture the quintessential Maine experience—to the meticulously planned arrival sequence, every element of this home reveals itself with intention. Inside, diverse spaces cater to friend and family gatherings as well as moments of quiet reflection.
The interior is an expression of craft and the owners’ personal stories; inherited family pieces and the clients’ own artwork blend with precise millwork. There is understated honesty in the materials chosen throughout the project; solid wood was almost exclusively used for the millwork.
The building’s form references the cove’s curve, embracing natural outcroppings and stepping lightly across the land. Its vertical siding mirrors the surrounding pines, blurring the lines between architecture and nature. Within this harmonious gesture lies an unwavering precision. From meticulously crafting walnut veneers in the kitchen to sequence-matching hundreds of spline joints on the wood-slat walls, the attention to detail, while subtle, is also unrelenting. This home is about responding to a place and representing the clients’ personality and craft.
Somes Sound House, Northeast Harbor
Baird Architects Merit Award for Excellence in Architecture
Principal Architect: Matthew Baird, FAIA Architecture Team: Alice W. Chai, Maria Milans del Bosch, Florence Schmitt-Thai Structural Engineer: Albert Putnam Associates Civil Engineer: G.F. Johnston & Associates Windows: CAOBA General Contractor: Chris Parsons Photographer: Elizabeth Felicella
From the Jury:
The interior and exterior work together nicely, and the forms are compelling. The profile of the roof form creates an elegant composition.
From the Architect:
A young family with two kids asked our firm to design an all-season retreat at the edge of Acadia National Park. Baird Architects was encouraged to create a structure that would “sit lightly on the ground,” respecting the beloved natural setting the owners had visited for many years of picnicking and camping.
To accommodate the goal of “a modest expression worthy of the site,” our solution involves a simple L-shaped plan made of two structures connected by a cedar breezeway. One volume is winterized and capable of accommodating the family for colder seasons; the second is a sleeping wing for summer and shoulder season use.
The primary structure is a sloped volume, low and horizontal at the waterside, rising to a vertical, solid expression on the mountain side. The primary bedroom and bathroom are located at the top of this volume. A small sleeping loft is tucked into the eaves of the open-plan dining, kitchen, and living room. A cantilevered overhang protects the living room glazing from excessive western sun in summer and provides shelter from the rain and drizzly fog. The summer wing has two bedrooms connected by a shared bathroom. It is entered from a communicating deck such that all circulation is exterior and protected.
The design constraints of creating an affordable, four-bedroom house in rural Maine were addressed through a selective materials palette. Using a hybrid of winterized and nonwinterized volumes resulted in an efficient cost of construction.
The project is an example of a restrained contemporary vernacular, demonstrating how simple architectural form can express larger, compelling ideas about site, conservation, and environment. This architecture respects and complements its precious natural landscape.
Gable Archipelago, undisclosed
OPAL Citation Award for Excellence in Architecture
Design Partner: Riley Pratt Designer: Alex Rosenthal Structural Engineer: Thornton Tomasetti Landscape Architect: Richardson & Associates General Contractor: GO Logic Photographer: Trent Bell
From the Jury:
The composition and siting are well considered. The way it integrates with the landscape and its integration of sustainability is successful.
From the Architect:
This net-positive year-round Maine residence is a contemporary response to a rugged site and rich local building culture. Referencing vernacular connected buildings, the house assembles three gabled forms joined by a central element with a vegetated roof. The open-plan interior is forthrightly modern, with broad planes of natural-finish wood.
Each of the building’s connected pavilions establishes its own relationship with the hilltop site, adapting to its varied topography to frame ocean views. The interlocking geometry helps to define and shelter the building’s main entry and a broad south-facing deck. The whole, including the foundation and decks, is clad in cedar shingles that unite the separate building forms in a single sculpted mass firmly rooted to the earth.
The building’s exterior materials reflect traditions shaped by the rigors of a coastal environment. The cedar shingle siding and standing-seam metal roof will weather gracefully, give long service, and require minimal maintenance. The building envelope follows Passive House performance levels for insulation, air sealing, and glazing to minimize energy usage and maximize occupant comfort. A grid-tied 16-kilowatt photovoltaic array generates enough electricity to offset not only the house’s total energy demand but also that of the owners’ two additional nearby properties. The occupiable green roof and robust vegetable garden act as biophilic anchors, tying the owners to place and encouraging stewardship of the coastal site.
Studio 84, Harpswell
Kaplan Thompson Architects Citation Award for Excellence in Architecture
Project Architect: Phil Kaplan, AIA Architectural Designer: Ben Bailey Structural Engineer: Trillium Engineering Group Solar Energy Consultant & Installation: ReVision Energy General Contractor: Benjamin & Company Photographer: Irvin Serrano
From the Jury:
Citation for interiors and programming for use by the community.
From the Architect:
Studio 84 packs practicality and party into an adaptable space designed for creative expression and community events.
Years after completing a net-zero home along Harpswell’s coast, we returned to the waterfront property to design a new accessory structure. The multipurpose space would not quite be a barn or studio, and neither a boathouse nor guesthouse. Instead, it would be all of those things and more, adaptable to every practical and whimsical use the owners might subject it to, including opening it up to the community for both rehearsal and performance. Body, mind, and spirit are nurtured with a woodshop, ceramics studio with a gallery, game room, and steam room.
An open, double-height area on the ground level can be accessed by oversized barn doors to accommodate boat storage. The space often serves as a venue for table tennis tournaments, traveling bands, and lively dance parties. Beats drop from a second-story DJ booth overlooking the room, while spectators revel from the cable-railed gallery wrapping the upper level. On quieter days, the indoor balcony functions as a sunny library. Flexible sleeping quarters invite friends and family to stay a while longer and rest after the last song plays.
The barn creates a dialogue with the site’s existing residence using a shared materials palette and complementary form. Its unique program inspired a volume with two intersecting shed roofs that extend beyond the building’s primary mass to create a screened porch on the water-facing elevation and a boat canopy along the driveway. The canopy’s braces gradually fan outward to mirror the property’s setback, allowing the roof overhang to taper outward at the driveway and clip back toward the building at its opposite end. Exposed hemlock timber framing and pine interiors finish the space with playful geometries and lend a warm, rustic feel to the contemporary form.
Small Projects
Juniper I, Boothbay
Knickerbocker Group Honor Award for Excellence in Architecture
Project Architect: Julien Jalbert, AIA Architecture Practice Leader: Rick Nelson, AIA Project Manager: Bill Burge Senior Architectural Designer: Greg Norton Interior Architecture & Design Practice Leader: Bob Francisco Interior Design Studio Leader: Kira Eisenzopf Interior Designer: Samantha Tobia General Contractor: Knickerbocker Group Photographer: Jeff Roberts
From the Jury:
Well-executed detailing and finishes with an impressive ambition of budget as it relates to sustainability and accessibility. The transparency, paired with the achievement of energy efficiency, is commendable. The design within such a small footprint is smart.
From the Architect:
As the inaugural build of our Prefabrication Division, Juniper I embodies an art-infused design maximizing light, space, and connectivity to nature. Featuring cutting-edge building and mechanical systems, Juniper I champions biophilic living sustainably. Each Prefab Pod is designed and built in Maine, with 95 percent completed at Knickerbocker Group’s prefabrication facility.
Each Prefab Pod is crafted with Maine’s future sustainability and housing needs at the forefront. Central to the design and build of their Prefab Pods, our team diligently pursues using renewable materials to minimize environmental impact and promote community resilience. Prioritizing local sourcing, we meticulously select natural, sustainable, low-maintenance, low-embodied-carbon, and carbon-sequestering building materials, ensuring both environmental consciousness and longevity.
Each Prefab Pod is built using volumetric construction. The skilled craftspeople handle minimal finish work on-site. We estimate delivery times to be four to six months, a third of traditional on-site construction. The design-build prefabrication team has undergone Kaizen training, which emphasizes continuous feedback and process standardization among prefab teammates throughout the build. With thoughtful design and execution oversight, we ensure enduring quality throughout the continuous improvement process.
Juniper I, a 500-square-foot model, features a harmonious blend of kitchen, living area, bedroom, and bath for comfortable living year-round. Vast triple-pane windows and doors invite nature in, complemented by natural materials fostering biophilic design principles. This all-electric dwelling features dense-pack cellulose insulation, engineered white oak flooring, and locally crafted custom cabinetry, while clever built-in storage solutions maximize space efficiency. Juniper I excels in the art of small living, thoughtfully designed to integrate with its surroundings.
Spring Street, Portland
Gavin Engler Architect Citation Award for Excellence in Architecture
Project Architect: Gavin Engler, AIA Structural Engineer: Lincoln/Haney Engineering Associates Lead Carpenters: Shane Brennan, Hugh Cook Cabinetry: David A. Fields Cabinetmaker Window Restoration: Jung Restoration General Contractor: Raymond T. Keith Carpentry Photographer: Trent Bell
From the Jury:
The rigor and attention to detail achieve a clean and beautiful aesthetic.
From the Architect:
Located in Portland’s West End, reimagined interiors transform and optimize the dining, kitchen, pantry, and routine entry of this historic 1867 house for future years of enjoyment. Stripped of a century’s worth of alterations, the design restores and accentuates original details and natural daylighting within the 11-foot-high spaces.
While many aspects of the house suited the family’s needs, the kitchen and back amenity areas, altered multiple times throughout the past 150-plus years, lacked fundamentals of spatial efficiency and natural daylighting. This resulted in awkward and dead-end circulation, unnecessary and ineffective interior doors and partitions, and dark spaces that were further affected by their location within the duplex’s northeast corner. These criticisms formed the underlying basis for the design challenge: produce Boffi-inspired interiors (one of the owners is Italian) that would function well into the future.
The new floor plan removed an excess of interior doors, partitions, and headers while maintaining basic organization around a central stairwell serving the second floor and basement. A new opening was created in the wall between the dining and kitchen spaces, forming a direct circulation path through the house and around the kitchen. All soffits, bump-outs, and areas of dropped ceilings previously built to hide aspects of past alterations were removed. What used to feel like small, cramped spaces now open seamlessly into one another while remaining distinct and purposeful. Natural indirect daylight fills even the deepest interiors thanks to the removals noted, light-toned finishes, and a nine-foot glass entry door that replaced a solid wood door of much shorter height.
Interior detailing was kept to a minimum to showcase items true to the original architecture. Ornate cast-iron radiators were refurbished and reused. An original brick masonry chimney, previously concealed, now contrasts elegantly with the surrounding modern casework and countertop. In the dining room, architectural millwork and original decorative floors, refinished in white, emphasize a bygone era.
Professional Unbuilt
Harbor Residence, St. George
AAmp Studio Merit Award for Excellence in Architecture
Principal Architect & Design Co-Lead: Andrew Ashey, AIA Design Co-Lead: Anne-Marie Armstrong, AIA
From the Jury:
The building’s form and diagram are clear and create an interesting section. The atmospheric quality of the renderings is very successful.
Project Summary from the Architect:
Nestled along the edge of Penobscot Bay’s shoreline, this residence strategically addresses zoning and coastal guidelines. Constrained by the current structure’s foundation footprint, the design provides water views from all primary spaces and bedrooms, while catering to the requirements of various generations. Drawing inspiration from the surrounding context, the architecture embraces large dormers that punctuate the expansive gable roof and frame the waters beyond. Conceptually, these large dormers form a cube interlocking with the primary gable form.
The home takes a modern approach to vernacular Maine coast design. Externally, the residence is a blend of cedar shake siding and standing-seam metal roofs, integrating with the coastal environment while ensuring durability against the elements. Inside, a blend of white beadboard cladding and warm wood floors creates an inviting atmosphere. Each material and design choice is carefully curated to enhance the space’s aesthetic appeal and functionality, ensuring a harmonious balance between modern design and coastal charm. Sectionally, key moments are celebrated with double-height spaces to capture the view, while others maintain a lower ceiling for spatial intimacy.
Beyond its physical attributes, the house embodies a commitment to resilience, built to withstand the passage of time and preserve its natural surroundings for future generations to enjoy. The home embraces aging in place with spaces designed for live-in care. With two primary suites, inhabitants live on the second floor until their old age welcomes them to the lower level, and the next generation’s family can move in to provide care. From its thoughtful design to its choice of materials, every element reflects a dedication to responsible stewardship of the land and a desire to leave a lasting legacy of beauty and environmental consciousness.
Student Unbuilt
Lowell Makerspace, Massachusetts
Wentworth Institute of Technology Honor Award for Excellence in Architecture
Project Designers: Luc Thorington, Kyle Sylvester
From the Jury:
The clarity of graphics is concise and creative. There is a high quality of images and renderings that are simple and attractive. The section is beautiful, and the subtly of the linework is well done. The design is ambitious, creative, and beautiful.
From the Student:
The Lowell Makerspace serves as a workshop and exhibition center in Lowell, Massachusetts. Its design honors the city’s history, where the economy and culture were built on the process of weaving. This idea of weaving translates directly into the architecture, where the design aims to interconnect and intertwine Lowell’s community.
The building begins by engaging with the landscape. A large deck wraps around the western facade, extending the Concord Riverwalk to the corner of East Merrimack Street, bringing visitors together along the building’s exterior. A series of terraces create distinct moments throughout the site and form connections with the interior program.
Each space within the building is arranged around a central atrium, prompting visitors to engage in activities around the perimeter and then convene in the center. This constant flow of movement, in and out between these zones, creates opportunities for encounters, engagement, observation, and discussion.
In addition to the spatial arrangement on each level, the building’s vertical design is equally important to the comprehensive experience. Exhibition spaces and a shared, public making space directly engage the community at the ground level. Visitors are introduced to the making process and are given a chance to see the building’s creations on display. On the second level, learning and exposure to making continues, and younger or less experienced makers can engage in introductory classes where they’ll be taught the basic uses and functions of various crafts. The third level reflects the arrangement of these same craft spaces but becomes more advanced in function. Here, experienced makers can work on their own projects independently and without supervision.
Bridging the Gap, Augusta
University of Maine at Augusta Merit Award for Excellence in Architecture
Project Designer: Barclay Finck
From the Jury:
The representation is at a consistent, high level with an excellent graphic quality. The simplicity of materials and rational plan is very successful. We like the entry sequence from the side, which is clever.
From the Student:
ARC 408 Community Design Studio students were tasked with designing affordable housing in Augusta. The project brief described a nonprofit organization, Sheltering Families of Central Maine (SFCM), that helps single-parent families transition from homeless shelters to being able to acquire their own housing without the need for financial assistance.
With the understanding of the organization’s mission to help unhoused families, this project intends to bridge the gap for the community, the SFCM organization, and the individuals living in the housing. This is achieved through engagement, performance, accessibility, and livability.
YMCA Summer Camp, Winthrop
University of Maine at Augusta Citation Award for Excellence in Architecture
Project Designers: Ryan Lagasse (lead), Megan Brown, Isaac Austin
From the Jury:
The way the section follows the program and addresses natural lighting is elegant. The split roof element, curving form, and porch create a successful structure for the YMCA camp.
From the Students:
The junior counselor cabin is created with leadership at its core, providing bunk rooms and community spaces that promote growth and education. The site is located within a traditional lakeside summer camp that desires a connection between the environment and the camp atmosphere.
Current senior leadership cabins are disconnected, with no sense of community. The new building facilitates continuity among the community, environment, and camp atmosphere. This is achieved through the integration of tectonics, materials, and views to provide layers of connections throughout the scope of the project.
Throughout the design process, there was a focus on merging simplicity and aesthetic design. Our clients have requested a building for their junior leadership program that focuses on supporting the counselors through their leadership journey. The cabin consists of two separate bunk rooms that join into a large community space. The bunk rooms are designed to have five sets of built-in bunk beds with storage for all personal belongings, accommodating ten counselors per room. Shared spaces include a living area, kitchen, and dining area all located within a central room. A covered porch plays a vital role in this project, providing a space to gather and be protected from the elements.
Architrave Award
Little Hen House, Harpswell
Whitten Architects The Architrave Award for Excellence in Traditional Design
Principal Architect: Rob Whitten, AIA Project Designer: Alyssa Moseman Structural Engineer: Albert Putnam Associates Landscape Designer: Tide Walk Designs Landscape Installation: North Road Millwork & Furniture: Derek Preble Masonry: Bullock Stonework Timber Frame: Seth Gallant Photovoltaic System & EV Charging: ReVision Energy General Contractor: Emerald Builders Photographer: Trent Bell
From the Jury:
Traditional architecture needs to embrace the materials and detailing of the past, but it must also employ historic design principles such as proportion and speak to the history of a place by exploring the architectural vernacular. Little Hen House does all three, creating a timeless beauty characteristic of traditional architecture and making it the clear winner of AIA Maine’s first Architrave Award.
From the Architect:
The design team worked in close collaboration to fulfill the owner’s vision to revitalize the site of a dilapidated island cottage off the coast of Harpswell, including protecting and retaining native blueberries and fruit trees. The result is a collection of energy efficient, finely detailed, and crafted vernacular buildings for living, gathering, and connecting with the local island community.
The owner wanted an efficient home for her active retirement, alongside a barn/community-hub/gallery for island artifacts. Embracing the local vernacular, she sought a blend of careful craftsmanship and timeless design with distinctive details.
The house came first, to anchor the owner’s new full-time island life. Historically, cottages began as modest gable forms. Porches were added, then gradually infilled to meet evolving needs. We aimed to capture that aesthetic without the expense of time. We also reduced the footprint by 20 percent and pulled the building away from rising tides.
The covered entry porch leads through a carefully configured mudroom to reveal an open-plan kitchen/living area with panoramic water views for entertaining. Wider door clearances and pocket doors enhance the maneuverability at ground level, ensuring the owner can age in place. Collaborating with a local artisan, we curated built-in storage to consolidate a lifetime’s collection of books, media, and memories. Upstairs, the bedroom and stairs offer sweeping water views, with a private bath and dressing room tucked into the eaves.
The client’s vision extended beyond the completion of the home. A traditional, heavy timber-frame barn provides an office and garage and serves as a gathering space with a kitchen to host community barn suppers. Working closely with the town to obtain historical photos, maps, and stories of the island’s rich history, the owner dubbed the loft space the “Little Hen Island Historical Society.”
June, 2024 | By: Katy Kelleher | Photography: Christina Wnek
“It’s part of our company DNA,” says Wright-Ryan vice president Greg Greenwald. He’s just finished describing a particularly challenging build taking place on a Casco Bay island. The house in question is located on a previously undeveloped site, a rocky outcropping over the Atlantic with terrain so uneven that “you couldn’t even drive an excavator over it.” However, the team was able to bring things back on schedule by constructing a series of panelized frames on the mainland and shipping them to the site. “Island logistics are quite complicated,” Greenwald adds. “But we’ve always done it, so we know what to expect.”
The company’s founders, John Ryan and Tom Wright, grew up going to Cliff Island and working on the waterfront. “Our company’s history is tied to the bay,” Greenwald explains. “It’s our experience there that gives subcontractors and homeowners the assurance that, if they step onto one of our remote sites, it will still be planned properly and staffed properly.” This emphasis on preparation and hard-won experience is just one of the “core values” that have kept the company afloat during rough patches (including the recent pandemic). “It’s about responsibility, regardless of the challenge,” says Allison Barton, Wright-Ryan’s marketing manager. “We believe that, even when it’s tricky, working through the issue will make us stronger in the end.”
In their 40 years in business, Wright-Ryan has evolved and adapted to Maine’s changing economic conditions and shifting climate. They’ve also grown mightily, and in 2016 the owner decided to sell the company—right back to the employees. Since the early 2000s, there’s been a noticeable rise in worker-owned construction companies. “Because we’re one hundred percent employee owned, I think we all feel a sense of ownership and respect for each other,” says Barton, who has been with Wright-Ryan for over 20 years and participates in the Employee Stock Ownership Plan. Barton quickly came to appreciate the company’s commitment to local causes and engagement with the immediate community, values that were present at every level of the firm. “I had never worked for a company like that before, one that actually gives to nonprofits regularly. I was blown away by the kindness of the people here, and the intentionality of what we did.”
For Barton, this is part of what kept her at Wright-Ryan, moving up the ranks from office assistant to communications coordinator to marketing manager. Over the years, she’s seen Wright-Ryan build a number of local landmarks in the nonprofit community, from expanding and renovating Preble Street’s facilities in Portland to constructing new buildings for Youth Alternatives, Portland Stage, the Maine Audubon Society at Gilsland Farm, and the new Tekαkαpimək contact station at Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. When Wright-Ryan throws a party or holds a corporate event, it often takes place at one of these spots. “If we are going to spend money, where should we spend it?” asks Barton. “That is always a consideration for us.”
The leadership at Wright-Ryan also puts a lot of thought into bringing on new team members. As with any employee-owned service provider, it’s essential that all involved understand their role and are willing to embrace the bigger-picture goals. Incoming president Alan Sparn points out that houses aren’t just shelter; they’re dream homes, they’re huge investments, they’re risks. “The clients we work with come to us because they trust us. Often, this is the biggest investment they will make in their life. If we put a superintendent on the job, they will be face-to-face, day in, day out, with the owner. They need to have those communication skills,” he says. “Technical skills are obviously very important to us, but we take company culture very seriously, too.”
While Wright-Ryan does all sorts of builds, there is something they don’t do: design. “We work with architects from around the globe,” says Greenwald, “which is really exciting and stimulating for us. We get to learn about different materials, building techniques, and traditions.” They’ve built with shou sugi ban, a type of Japanese siding that preserves wood by charring it with fire, and Cor-Ten steel, a weathered red metal that gives great character and texture to outdoor spaces. “Our team doesn’t want to build the same house over and over again,” Greenwald says. “There’s a lot to learn, and sometimes there are pitfalls.” Many of these can be avoided, however, if communication is strong and the entire design-build team comes together early in the process.
“I think that’s the best service we can offer clients,” says Sparn, “to get involved really early in the concept stage to set a budget and a schedule.” It helps everyone, from the architect to the site manager to the homeowner, when there are clear expectations articulated at the outset. As Greenwald points out, sometimes an architect from a warmer climate might not know what kind of insulation a contemporary coastal Maine home requires. “We’re quick to speak up if we see something that isn’t robust,” he says. “Surprises are usually a bad thing in our business,” adds Sparn. “I take pride in our people and their unique capabilities. They can take very stringent details on paper and make them work in real-life situations.” Greenwald adds, “We have a lot to be proud of.”
June, 2024 | By: Leah Whalen | Photography: Christina Wnek
If you’ve ever built furniture, whether you’re an accomplished carpenter or just someone putting together an IKEA haul, you know that quiet thrill you feel when two pieces come together perfectly: it’s almost as if you can hear the satisfying “click” as they slide into place. It’s a moment that Jen Levin, owner of Chilton Furniture, experienced when she first visited the renovated nineteenth-century warehouse space on Commercial Street in Portland that now houses Chilton Furniture’s new showroom. “We came in here and said, ‘This is perfect,’” she says. “It seemed uniquely suited to our furniture, which tells that same story of keeping history and reinterpreting it.”
Chilton was already a storied New England brand when Levin first learned about them. “My husband and I lived in New York,” she recalls. “I had been an attorney for several years, and my husband was in finance, and we were raising our three daughters. We were on a ski trip when I thought, ‘You know, I really miss New England.’” She continues, “I grew up in New Hampshire, went to school in Maine, and my grandparents owned a place in Ocean Park. I had this connection to Maine already. Long story short, after discussing with my husband, I Googled businesses to buy in Maine, and this one came up on the first page.” Chilton’s owner had inherited the business from his father, but his children were not interested in taking it over. It was the perfect opportunity for Levin and her husband, who bought the company in 2014 and moved to Maine a year later. Chilton had already evolved from its beginnings as a paint store after the previous owner noticed that the unfinished furniture he was using to demonstrate his paint colors sold better than the paint itself. But Levin had bigger ideas about new directions for the company. “I had a slightly different vision. I wanted original design. I wanted to find a designer to create a line of furniture that would keep the history of what we were, which was much more traditional, but have a modern spin on it,” she says. Recently, independent furniture designer Adam Rogers has been working with Chilton to shift the company’s offerings. As Levin puts it, “What we’re doing now is our modern take on traditional New England furniture, which is heavily Shaker influenced but very much our own.”
While Chilton already had showrooms in both Freeport and Scarborough, Levin wanted a spot in Portland to showcase the furniture maker’s newest designs. “When we saw this space, we thought, what a great blend of history and a modern atmosphere,” says Levin. She continues, “It’s an 1860s building, the Thomas Block building, and these are all Maine-sourced bricks. The stringers above us are red oak. They were floated down the Fore River and sawn right here on-site. The space was used as a warehouse for food wholesalers and paper manufacturers, which is a common story in these parts. It was renovated in the early 1980s, I think.”
The plain brick walls of the space provide the perfect neutral backdrop for the gleaming tones of the wood furniture throughout. Levin gestures to a wall hanging of a series of wooden pieces interlocked like puzzle pieces: “We added these installations on the wall here and there. They are meant to subtly reference the craft employed in building the pieces. Those are actual pieces of the furniture, the joints that hold them together, so that visitors can visually understand how they all fit together.” Other adornments are also elegant but understated: pottery pieces in earthy browns and creams from Buckland Ceramics cluster on tables while a few traditional Shaker-style boxes stack on a bedroom dresser. The overall effect is one of abundance but simplicity. As Levin says, “Everything has space to breathe here—you can really get your eyes around it, and there isn’t a ton of distraction. We figured that, because we didn’t add any adornment, we could really highlight the objects inside the building.” Enormous front windows that look onto Commercial Street keep the space bright, while the windows at the rear of the building offer reflections of the water beyond the wharves. Everywhere, ample natural light bounces off the polished wood of the furniture. “They’re all American-sourced hardwood: cherry, walnut, white oak—not red oak but white oak—and maple, hard maple,” Levin explains proudly.
Her pride in the materials echoes a consistent theme of the new Chilton: true appreciation for old-fashioned craftsmanship, blended with a delight in the new and unexpected. “There’s just always one little pop, one little surprise. Adam calls them moments. I love seeing them. In each new piece, I look for that moment,” says Levin. One of the latest designs to hit the showroom floor is the Atlas chair. “It’s a bow back, so it harkens to the traditional bow back chair, but it’s also a complete transformation,” she says, bending down to show me the “moment” where the artfully curved back meets the seat. “That’s an excellent example. It perfectly encapsulates what we’re trying to do: Look back, see something, and then reinterpret it. I love that.”
Go with the Grain
“When we bought the company, they only carried cherrywood and a little bit of unfinished pine. We stopped doing the unfinished pine and went to all hardwood. We also eliminated stains,” Levin explains. “They used to stain the furniture. We said, you know what? Let’s just offer a variety of woods. Let’s allow the woods to speak for themselves.” Here are some of our ideas for encouraging Chilton’s wood tones to converse with colors in your space.
Cherry is a remarkably versatile wood. Try some blue with lots of gray in it to complement the red tones of a mature Chilton Fjord cherrywood dining table, or add a pop of true red in the form of a lamp or a throw pillow—the cherrywood’s red will seem deeper and richer.
The maple that Chilton offers is a pale, almost creamy tone that will age to a rich honey hue. You can pair it with the subtle pinks and grays that are present in its early incarnation, or bring forward its whites and creams. A maple Broadside bench with a creamy sheepskin tossed over it provides simple Scandinavian chic for any room.
Walnut also matures over time, its warm tones deepening and darkening as it ages. Greens of all shades can look especially good against walnut. Upholstery for Rogers’s award-winning Nautilus lounge chair and ottoman comes in many different shades and fabrics, but we dream of a walnut Nautilus chair with olive Hopsack by Knoll upholstery for that perfect contemporary take on midcentury.
White oak has slight blue-gray undertones, so it works nicely with whites that have some warmth and yellow in them. Chilton’s new Dune bed in white oak, with its modern take on spindles, would be extra inviting made up with undyed linen sheets and a creamy white matelassé coverlet.
The full moon is our indication to create, meet, transition, and go into ceremony,” writes Juan Lucero (Isleta Pueblo) in the wall text that accompanies August Moon (2022), an acrylic on canvas landscape by Dan Namingha, great-great-grandson of Hopi potter Nampeyo. Within Painted: Our Bodies, Hearts, and Village, which spans six galleries of the Colby College Museum of Art, August Moon is arresting and meditative. It’s also in brilliant concert with its surroundings. All together, the artworks—including Lucero’s narrative along with an ambient soundscape composed in 2023 by Robert Mirabal (Taos Pueblo); a painted mural designed by Virgil Ortiz (Cochiti Pueblo) to contain the space like a vessel; In His Garden, a 1922 oil portrait by Taos Society of Artists founding member Walter Ufer; and Altered Landscape 15 (2022), a chromogenic print of a fire cloud on shaped acrylic by Namingha’s son Michael—offer a layered viewing experience like no other.
Lunder Institute of American Art research fellows Juan Lucero and Jill Ahlberg Yohe worked in collaboration with assistant curator Siera Hyte, artist and exhibition designer Virgil Ortiz, and an advisory council of Pueblo and Wabanaki artists and thought leaders to reinstall the museum’s important collection of Taos Society of Artists (TSA) artworks in the historical and contemporary framework of Indigenous experience. Foundational to Painted is the deeply researched presentation of works of art with their oft-complex histories laid bare. In 1906, under President Theodore Roosevelt’s direction, the federal government dispossessed 50,000 acres of land inhabited and cared for by the Pueblo for generations in the area known today as Taos and Taos Pueblo, New Mexico. The land seizure canceled hunting rights for Pueblo people, disrupted and exploited systems of intertribal trade, and restricted access to sacred ground and practices. Within 15 years of the seizure, in the face of irrecoverable losses across body, heart, and village—the whole way of life of the Pueblo—the Taos Society of Artists (TSA) emerged and flourished as an art colony. TSA artists—mostly Anglo-American painters working figuratively and often en plein air—sought to represent a quality of light and color palette they identified as unique to the U.S. Southwest landscape; more broadly, they sought to “capture what they wrongly assumed was a vanishing way of life,” says museum head curator Beth Finch. “Out of ignorance or for effect, they created idealized representations of Native people that failed to reflect their subjects’ lived experiences.” Painted centers Pueblo perspectives, allowing viewers to contemplate the complex power dynamics and cultural factors inherent to Southwest art. “The museum commissioned works for the exhibition,” Finch explains, “and in the art-making process, Native artists created a dialogue with the TSA. An underlying theme of this exhibition is resilience, and the resilience of Native communities is powerfully present here.”
In the same gallery where Acoma earthenware vessels are arranged on a high shelf of honor with baskets by four recently deceased masters of Wabanaki basket making, two portraits of young Native women hang side by side. One is Ernest Blumenschein’s oil painting Girl in Rose (1926), and the other is Crickett (2014), a photographic portrait by Cara Romero (Chemehuevi) of her stepdaughter, who Romero encouraged to “look fierce” for the camera. In the name of Native agency, resistance, ownership of narrative, and artistic expression—and affirming the power of Painted—we can divine an act of resistance and a quiet integrity in the averted gaze of the Girl in Rose. The exhibition succeeds in making us take another look at art made by Anglo-American painters of the Native people in the Southwest and see it in a new light.
Painted: Our Bodies, Hearts, and Village will be on view at the Colby College Museum of Art through July 28, 2024.
A young family that has been camping on this small island for years is ready to build a permanent summer cottage where they can create new memories. It will be a seasonal home, but the structure must withstand harsh Maine winters when the family is at their primary residence. Solar panels on the large south-facing roof will provide energy to the off-grid cottage. A large expanse of glazing in the east-facing great room will display sweeping views of Maine’s coastal waters. Lift-and-slide doors will offer access to the screened porch for an indoor/outdoor experience without interference from pesky bugs. Within the 1,500-square-foot structure, two small bedrooms and a private office will allow for extended summer vacations. The loft that opens to the great room will provide additional sleeping space for guests and visitors.
The architect needed to consider the limited access to this small island off the midcoast when designing the cottage. Materials that can be easily brought to the island by hand are being prioritized, since the site is accessible only by boat and lacks any roads for construction vehicles.
Location: Woolwich Architect: David Matero Architecture Contractor: Chartier Building & Remodeling Mechanical Engineer: BuildingWorks Structural Engineer: Trillium Engineering Group Construction Start: Summer 2024
May, 2024 | By: Danielle Devine | Photography: Courtesy of MoMA Design Store
My husband gifted me a Kit-Cat clock soon after we were married. We hung it in our tiny Brooklyn apartment’s kitchen, and its kitschy design worked well with the rest of the space. The thing is, I felt like it was constantly watching me with its huge, moving side eyes; it almost seemed to be judging how I was using my time. The big smile and wagging tail didn’t help either. The Kit-Cat clock (or Klock as the manufacturer spells it) has been an iconic piece of pop culture for over 90 years. The animated feline was designed in 1932 by designer Earl Arnault (1904–1971) at the height of the Great Depression. Arnault was working for Allied Clock Company in Portland, Oregon, at the time and wanted to design a piece for the home that would put a smile on peoples’ faces during those hard times.
The earliest examples of the Kit-Cat were manufactured in metal in the early 1930s with metal clock hands, four toes on each of the two paws, a knob on the front to wind the motor, and a wired cord. The clocks stopped being made in metal in the 1940s, as the company switched to Bakelite. The 1950s were a decade of significant growth for the Kit-Cat: it became a fixture in the American kitchen. The most significant design change to the clock happened in 1954 when the cat’s top paws, whiskers, and dapper bowtie were added. Sales increased even more. “Lucille Ball used to buy them by the case to give as birthday gifts and at Christmas,” says current owner Woody Young. “It was as popular as the hula hoop.”
The company prides itself on always manufacturing every part of the clock in the United States. In 1962, Allied Clock moved production to southern California and renamed itself the California Clock Company. Then, in 1982, the owner of the California Clock Company convinced Ohio native and serial entrepreneur Woody Young to take over as president and owner and keep the Kit-Cat going strong. One of Young’s first decisions was to put the name of the clock on the front of the cat. This would prevent any confusion with the copies being made by other companies.
The recession of the late 1980s almost put an end to the Kit-Cat when American electric motor manufacturing was almost exclusively relocated to Asia, leaving Kit-Cat without an American motor supplier. Then, in 1990, the company developed the capability to supply power for animation and timekeeping using two C-size batteries. The 1990s also brought the first limited edition color Kit-Cats. Then, in 2001, Kit-Cat was joined by Lady Kit-Cat, swapping out the bow tie for pearls and eyelashes.
Now, after 90 years, Kit-Cat doesn’t show signs of going anywhere. In fact, for the last 50 years, someone has purchased a Kit-Cat clock every three minutes. According to the California Clock Company, more than 70 percent of the population recognizes the Kit-Cat. Those who do not own their own clocks have most likely seen it in movies like Back to the Future, television shows like The Simpsons, or music videos like Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”
The clock originally sold at five-and-dime stores for $3.95 but now retails for over $50. You can find your own Kit-Cat at several brick-and-mortar shops and online.
