Tivoli, New York, USA
Designing the Hudson River Guest Cottage posed a significant challenge for architects Brian Messana and Toby O’Rorke. The task involved creating a new guest cottage nestled on a hillside within the picturesque Hudson River Valley, meeting the specific requirements of the client.
Yet, to avoid zoning issues was forced to stay within the one-story, rectangular envelope of the existing structure.
The architects saw this as an opportunity to make, what was practically a box, more livable and more beautiful, calling to mind Donald Judd’s simple-yet-beguiling boxes in mill aluminum.
Hudson River Guest Cottage has been awarded a 2023 Future House Award by Global Design News and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
The cottage is part of an early-twentieth-century estate on a wooded, 99-acre property that opens to spectacular views of the Hudson River in Tivoli, New York.
The architects connected the house to the setting by opening the monolith with four sets of tall sheets of glass held in thin metal frames.
For cladding, they selected corrugated, polished stainless steel (corrugated metal is a common vernacular in the owners’ native New Zealand) to create a rhythmically curved surface that mirrors and abstracts the changing sky and surrounding environment.
On opposing sides of the central great room, the glass panels allow unfettered views through the home to the outdoors and slide open to serve as the entry and to connect to a deck overlooking the yard with extended views.
A built-in kitchen island covered in Carrara marble doubles as the dining room table and has two refrigerators and storage to improve the functionality of the nook kitchen. Originally, two bedrooms flanked the main living area.
The architects divided the south room into two bedrooms—one with bunk beds for children—along a hall leading to a shared bathroom. Tall, glass sliding doors in the west-facing bedrooms marry the vistas and open to the deck. In each bedroom, white oak containers conceal closets.
Both bathrooms are clad in Carrara marble with a small, round window. New skylights bring shafts of natural light into the showers, and a third skylight opens and illuminates the hallway.
Project: Hudson River Guest Cottage
Architects: Messana O’Rorke
Lead Architects: Brian Messana and Toby O’Rorke
Design Team: Brian Messana, Toby O’Rorke, Viktor Nassli and Hanna Buja
Client: Craig and Kirstin Nevill-Manning
Photographers: Messana O’Rorke