GREENE RESIDENCE

The Greene residence on the Chesapeake Bay's eastern shore in Maryland divides a substantial house into a series of components, each with its own volume. Whereas the Sohn house in Canada is a group of gable-roofed pavilions all in a neat row, the Green house shows that pavilions can be arranged at a series of angles, thus making the collection appear even more strikingly village-like. The five pavilions gather together as if huddling against the elements; the result is a welcoming courtyard. Pyramidal roofs give each component a conspicuous stillness, an eye-stopping stability. The walls are redolent of the restrained houses that people built in the area in the eighteenth century, their windows no larger than absolutely necessary. An atmosphere of purity and decorum pervades the setting. Hugh Newell Jacobsen turns the absence of substantial trees—ordinarily a disadvantage—into an asset, by spreading a pavement of pea gravel around the base of the structures, thereby tying everything together.

As you explore the house, the calm initial impression is contradicted by surprises such as a sheer corner of butt-jointed tinted glass giving the occupants unconstrained views of the water. The glassy cutaway corner and other details are as restrained, in modern style, as the white clapboard aesthetic is in traditional style. Upon entering, a visitor discovers that this house is anything but traditional. Soaring interiors with divided-light windows far higher than in an old house creates the drama for which the best modern romantics are famous.