A few years ago, a couple acquired a lot next to a remote piece of land, 65 miles northwest of Seattle, where they had been going on weekends and summers since 2005. They already had a tree house and other places to sleep and cook meals for themselves and guests, but the neighboring lot had rare access to the waterfront—and the island can only be reached by seaplane or by ferries from Anacortes, Washington.

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Something had to be done to address an existing structure on the site, though. Hand built by the previous owner in the late 1960s, the old boathouse balanced perilously on the shore, held up by a concrete embankment and a makeshift assemblage of creosote-soaked logs and tires. “It was a very ramshackle but interesting structure that he used to keep his boat equipment,” the client says of the original owner.

The couple wanted to build a sustainable boathouse that would restore the site’s natural ecology and serve as a social gathering place, so they reached out to Dan Wickline of Prentiss Balance Wickline Architects, who had done previous renovation work for their home, and another house on the island. “So much of the project is about the site and the interaction between the structure and the shoreline,” the client says.

Wickline’s plan removed the old building and the remains of the dilapidated bulkhead, and set a new boathouse on a small concrete landing, lifted above the embankment on narrow columns that allow daylight, eelgrass, and kelp to return to the shoreline. A corner-to-corner gable faces broad views of the Salish Sea, folding down to reduce its visual impact on the upland landscape.

“One of the main goals was to recreate the shore’s edge, so that it’s as natural as possible,” says Wickline. “We reduced the amount of in-water structure by 98 or 99 percent by creating these really thin columns. We touch that shoreline as minimally as possible to allow for the natural ecosystem to come back to what it once was.”

Now they can open up the windows and connect with the animals inhabiting the terrain. They share the waterfront with salmon, herring, river otters, crabs, eels, dolphins, and whales—as well as foxes, deer, raccoons, and all kinds of birds (including at least one bald eagle).

“The boathouse is so much about being out there on the edge of the shore, and hearing the sounds, and feeling the breezes,” Wickline says. “For the most part, the space is used when they want to be connected to the outdoor experience.”

Related Reading:

This Tiny Boathouse in Norway Is a Private Retreat in Plain Sight

An Abandoned Boathouse Catches a Second Wind as a Shipshape Tiny Home

Project Credits:

Architect: Dan Wickline, Prentiss Balance Wickline Architects / @pbwarchitects

Builder: Dalgarno Construction

Structural Engineer: Harriott Valentine Engineers

Landscape Design: Green Man Landscaping

Interior Design: LeeAnn Baker / @leeannbakerinteriors

Project Manger: Bonewitz LLC

Environmental Consultation: Jen-Jay, Inc.

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A Streamlined Boathouse Perches Above the Water in the San Juan Islands