New York, USA

Category: Private Homes
Year: 2015
Architects: BarlisWedlick Architects LLC
Lead Architects: Alan Barlis and Liza Paredes
Client: David Rosenberg
Contractor: Taconic Builders
Photographers: Peter Aaron, Rob Cardillo, and Connor Harrigan 

Situated on almost three acres in New York’s Westchester County, Meadow House is a 3,800-square-foot, single-story home, that was completed in 2017. The idea for the home originated with an old barn that former Ralph Lauren executive, David Rosenberg, came across and fell in love with on Post Office Road in Waccabuc.

To find a partner in accomplishing his vision of a high-performance modern home complementary to the barn, he turned to BarlisWedlick Architects, as they are known for their sustainable high-design projects for prestigious creatives such as Marina Abramović and Julie Taymor.

The new 3 bedroom, 3 ½ bath, 3,800-square-foot, single-story home was created using 3 barn-shaped volumes arranged in an L-shape and connected by links with large windows overlooking the original barn on the property. Mirroring the barn’s L-shape, the two structures form a large courtyard between them. The historic barn on the site is to be fully restored as an event/entertainment space in collaboration with local barn restoration specialists.

BarlisWedlick Architects employed a dark palette of black Boral siding and very dark gray metal window frames and roof to contrast with both the colorful, seasonally varied landscape and the very light wood and white fabrics of the interiors. The dark color also emphasizes the geometry of the house, situating it firmly in the landscape and at the same time underscoring its built-ness. While not quite transgressive, this is not a house that bends over backward to make nice with the environment, blending in with the trees and leaves; it operates subtly with the natural world. This home exaggerates the rather gentle slope on the site, only about a 5-foot-height difference from one side of the property to the other, by sitting at the natural grade in the middle of the property. Cutting into the land a bit on the kitchen pavilion side creates a cozier refuge at the breakfast terrace, and lifts above the earth the living room pavilion, which enjoys the ‘prospect’ over a garden and onto the longest views of the site.

The client, David Rosenberg, was responsible for the interior design achieving a tailored look informed by his work in men’s fashion and mixing antiques he had collected within his vision for calm and wellness at home. For the surrounding landscape, he enlisted the help of meadow designer Stephen Stimson in perfecting the look of a wild indigenous pasture that complements the casual and refined aesthetic the client was going for.