Grace Creek

Set on the waterfront near the idyllic Eastern Shore town of St. Michaels, this house reflects the owners’ deep desire to reconnect with the natural landscape. Although the aspiration was one of immersion and stewardship, the site itself had been almost entirely clear-cut prior to the project, leaving a diminished relationship between land, water, and habitat. The design response begins with restoration. Native meadow plantings are reintroduced to re-stitch the site’s ecological systems, while the surrounding forest is allowed to regenerate over time. Within this rehabilitative landscape sits a modest, geometrically restrained house that treads lightly on the land. The architecture is organized beneath a single, continuous horizontal roof plane that unifies the composition. Two solid programmatic volumes containing the private spaces anchor the plan, while the living room is conceived as a void carved between them. Fully glazed on opposing sides, this central space allows light, air, and views to pass through the house, enabling the landscape to slip seamlessly from meadow to water.
Gallery-like connectors extend the public realm into the solid volumes, reinforcing the continuity between interior and exterior. Together, these moves make the experience of inhabiting nature—rather than merely observing it—the defining condition of the house.

Location
Bozman, MD

Area

2,750 SF

EXISTING