Location
Long Beach Island, NJ
Status
Completed 2010
Client
MacDonald Family
Cost
—
Located in Harvey Cedars, on Long Beach Island, NJ, this vacation house replaces an earlier residence swept away by Hurricane Sandy. Raised on piers, the cedar-clad structure resembles its 19th-century predecessors using local indigenous materials and vernacular transposed to a contemporary idiom. In response to the intense summer sun, a porch of cedar slats wraps around the south side, expanding to a 2-story volume framing the view to the bay on the west side. The raised living level is seamlessly connected to the bay level with a generous stair flanked with stepped seating areas acknowledging the family pastime of “bay watching.”
The open 2-story layout easily accommodates the newly acquired influx of weekend beachgoers by retaining a private upper level for the family, while the lower level contains a second master bedroom as well as a dormitory room that sleeps six. Consequently, the flexibility in the living/dining area extending to the south porch will allow for intimacy as well as open informality that one desires in a vacation setting.
