Residential Archives - Page 3 of 3

Eastern White Pine Floors Shine in Bright Contemporary Home

Posted on August 7, 2013 by Jeff Easterling

The rustic texture and color of Eastern White Pine makes it a natural choice for country-style homes, cabins and mountain retreats, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a place in contemporary and modern buildings. In fact, contrasting this character-rich wood with bright, smooth and polished surfaces makes it stand out as a major interior design highlight. This home in Vermont is a prime example.

Just over two miles from Woodstock, Vermont, this New England home is a blend of classic and contemporary styles. Originally built in 1971, it received a modern update with an emphasis on green materials in 2010 including narrow horizontal wood cladding on its exterior, and lots of white paint inside.

All of those white surfaces really put the focus on the center-cut, wide plank Eastern White Pine floors. Subtly stained to retain the wood’s natural beauty, the floors help give the home a warm and inviting feel.

Demand has steadily risen for sustainable wood flooring in recent years. More buyers choose homes with wood floors over those with carpet or tile, and they’re more concerned than ever about how their home-buying, building and renovation choices affect the environment.

Check out a gallery of ten more homes with Eastern White Pine flooring in a range of styles.

Architectural Monographs: Competition for an Unusual Lakeside House

Posted on July 26, 2013October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

In 1918, an owner of a lakeside lot in New York sought plans for the perfect vacation home, to be built for no more than $5,000 in a design that would blend in with a nearby village. The White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs sponsored a competition for plans that include a spacious living room, a grand fireplace, recreational space, a sleeping porch and a boat dock, inspiring dozens of architects to participate.

But the resulting entries, as noted in Volume IV, Issue IV of the Monographs entitled ‘Vacation Season,’ were largely disappointing because they ignored the call to design a house that isn’t in the typical cabin or lakeside bungalow style. Apparently, the architects got lost in daydreams about what they would like in their own vacation home on a lake, rather than addressing the needs of the homeowner (and can we blame them?)

The jury’s description of the entries reflects what they call “an almost painful absence of direct, synthetic, logical thought.” Though several designs – which ultimately won first through fourth places – clearly stood apart, others had to be excluded “on account of a perhaps small but significant indication of a blind spot in the brain.” The first prize-winning entry is simple, direct and logical, but also beautiful, and artfully rendered.

“It is rare that artistic skill of such a quality is combined with such practical good sense as is shown by the floor plans,” they write of the winner, Richard M. Powers. “Most of the practical solutions were painfully deficient in any sense of purely aesthetic values, while the ‘snappy’ drawings too often served only as cloaks for flagrant architectural sins.”

Read more about the winning entries, and see more images, at the White Pine Architectural Monographs Library.

Post and Beam Eastern White Pine House by Eric Watson Architects

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Jeff Easterling

Eastern White Pine may be more closely associated with log cabins and the historic architecture of the Northeast than with beachy contemporary cottages in Florida, but architect Eric Watson proves the material’s versatility with the Haupt Walstrom House. This two-story residence in Seaside, Florida is a post-and-beam structure made with Eastern White Pine timber.

The natural, pale creamy shade of the wood is enhanced with just a touch of whitewash to give the home’s interior an airy, bright and open feel. It lines the walls and ceilings, and comprises the clean and simple cabinetry in the kitchen. While still maintaining its rustic charm, the wood adapts beautifully to this surprising usage, resulting in a beach house that’s anything but typical.

Light stains, whitewashing or nothing but a clear coat finish not only allow Eastern White Pine’s natural beauty to shine through, they also lend a more contemporary air to residences and other structures than medium to dark treatments.

Choosing between light and dark wood can change the entire vibe of an interior, making the difference between a clean and spa-like environment and a cozy, historic-feeling space.

Hand-Hewn Eastern White Pine ‘Jupiter Barn’ by Vermont Timber Works

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Jeff Easterling

With a frame cut from native Eastern White Pine and hewn by hand with an adze and slick, the Jupiter Barn house in Hunter, New York by Vermont Timber Works is a beautiful example of handcrafted traditional architecture made of a sustainable material. This home features a gambrel-style frame, traditional wood joinery, a wrap-around porch on the lower level and a balcony.

The post and beam frame not only provides the basic structure for this standout home, it’s also a main architectural feature of the interior. The rustic, rough finish of the wood provides striking visual flair, especially in contrast to the smoother finishes of drywall and contemporary-style wood flooring.

Vermont Timber Works chose Eastern White Pine not only because it’s a material that grows locally, and is therefore economical and environmentally friendly to procure, but also because of its stability. White Pine is a popular choice for residential timber frames, because it’s less expensive than alternatives like Douglas Fir.

Jupiter Barn is just one of many striking hand-crafted structures with traditional framing styles produced by Vermont Timber Works. The company, based in North Springfield, provides lots of details about the whole building process (accompanied by plenty of photos) on their website, VermontTimberWorks.com.

Architectural Monographs: Colonial Architecture of the Eastern Shore of Maryland

Posted on June 14, 2013October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

The simpler Colonial structures of the Eastern United States are often overshadowed by the larger, more famous ones, but though they may be less ornamental, they stand as beautiful examples of the strong, sturdy and practical building methods of early Americans. In Volume III, Issue VI of the White Pine Monographs, these structures are examined and celebrated.

“Founded in 1632 by Lord Baltimore, Maryland in many ways exhibits in its architecture the tendencies of the Cavalier stock that came with him to America to escape persecution abroad. There is no feeling of arrogance or ostentation about the work; in fact, rather a refinement that denotes gentility; but, lacking the spirit of thrift possessed by the Puritans, their houses possess a spaciousness not usually found in the North.”

The Eastern Shore of Maryland contains many quaint old towns where these early structures can be seen, many still owned by the descendants of those who built them. One such plantation, Beverly, sit on an estate of over 1600 acres – or did, at the time of writing this account in 1918. Read author Charles A. Ziegler’s musings on Beverly and other buildings at the White Pine Monograph Library.

Architectural Monographs: Early Dutch Houses of New Jersey

Posted on May 10, 2013October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

On the banks of the Hackensack River in New Jersey stand beautiful colonial houses with quaint gambrel roofs, wide overhanging eaves, and broad, flat walls made of brown stone. While these houses have been deemed ‘Dutch Colonial’, that term isn’t entirely accurate. These homes, built in the 17th and 18th centuries, are entirely unique, owing to Dutch sensibilities, the building materials available in this New Jersey landscape and the virtually unlimited labor that came about due to a large influx of slaves to the region in the late 1600s.

Practicality dictated many of the architectural elements of early Dutch Houses of New Jersey. The overhanging eaves divert water from the walls of the buildings to prevent washing out the clay joints in the masonry. But there are plenty of stunning details that are purely ornamental, such as the intricately wrought medallions (brackets used under cornices) seen in some of the houses’ gables.

In Volume XI, Issue III of the White Pine Architectural Monographs, these Dutch houses are explored. Written in 1925, this architectural record details the aesthetic qualities of these homes, how they were built, and provides photos of notable examples, such as the Hendrick Brinkerhoff House in Teaneck, pictured above.