The Design Home is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
This contemporary L-shaped “Orleans House” located on a bluff overlooking Cape Cod’s Pleasant Bay, Orleans was designed Charles Rose Architects. Here is some information by the architects, “The house, which traces and reinforces a naturally occurring bowl in the landscape, is sited on a slight ridge gaining water views and protecting the inland landscape. The L-shaped organization of the house creates an intimate entry landscape and orients a series of rooms to the water and southern light.
The southern wing of the house is a spacious single level volume: the foyer, gallery, living room, dining room, and kitchen open onto each other but remain distinct with stepped floor levels and deliberately positioned walls for art. The southern and western edges of the main house spill into the landscape as a series of stepped exterior terraces. Roof overhangs and sunscreen trellises shelter and shade interior and exterior spaces. At the knuckle of the L is the vertical spine of the house, an open stair providing light and access to the wine cellar, the guest bedroom levels and an upper sitting room nested beneath a roof monitor.
To the west of the main house is a tower structure with a second floor office: this room captures sweeping views to the north, east and south. The family room is linked to the house by a covered walk which also serves to shield the parking area from the entry landscape. A guesthouse is sited on a knoll to the north. A painting studio on the ground floor has large rolling barn doors opening to the south and the view”
