August Moon

On two-hundred acres of waterfront overlooking Maine’s Western Bay a new home was constructed. The property, August Moon, was Brooke Astor’s private summer retreat. Two structures built for her in 1964, a Cottage and Glass Tea House, along with a meandering garden, served as a point of design inspiration. While paying homage to architect-landscaper Robert Patterson, the clients desire for a modern sensibility and their complimentary reverence for the surrounding natural environment led to our biophilic-forward siting and detailing.

The new house takes its cue from the hillside strata of rocks, moss, ferns, trees. Like the Cottage roof mirroring the distant form of Blue Hill Mountain, the upper two floors of the house are captured below an unfolding form pinned by the large, central hearth and stair – the sky toned zinc coated copper roof is the great gesture of the building. In contrast, the semi-subterranean lowest floor is nestled discreetly into the valley saddle providing private access to paths leading to the coastline below, and a green roof-lawn for the living spaces above. The structure lives in situ with a minimal carbon footprint limiting the palate to natural materials, local Cedar, Douglas fir and stone from the same quarry that Patterson used and were processed and fabricated within 2 miles of the estate. The glass walled master suite flies free of the roof cantilevering into the tree line. Akin to a treehouse, you sleep within the canopy of the forest. Spaces within the house are experienced in the round in a cinematic quality.

Interior details enhance the connection to the natural surroundings as much as the view corridors, angled roofs and skylights. The signature dining room chandelier by David Wiseman, reinterprets site specific leaves, branches and the client’s favorite flowers in cast-metal and porcelain. The steel handrail is made of perforations cataloging the phases of the moon. Historic maps, books, as well as pen and ink drawings of the natural phenomena of Acadia National Park and Mt. Desert Island were sourced and placed throughout, adding a sense of place and authenticity. Old and new complimentarily co-exist; antique and vintage décor contrasts with other, more modern sculptural elements: ice-cast pewter candlestick holders by Steven Hautenbeek, a glass mobile titled “Foam” by Tomas Saraceno, and a painting from the Alan Cristea Gallery Collection that is a reproduction of a Belgium masters still life of butterflies and tulips rendered unrecognizable with streaks of turpentine. A vintage brass mirror adorns the master bath alongside a large mirror with backlit etched patterns of local pine boughs.

The new Corten steel Moon Gate embodies the essence of the home, a starkly modern adaptation of a traditional Chinese design. Constructed of the same local stone, the simple circular form is cut from a rectangular wall that extends and integrates the house with the landscape. The renovated gardens are connected with the homes entry sequence while incorporating a simple, falling water feature on its narrow side celebrating the tremendous amount of ground water from the local snow melts.