Charlestown, Rhode Island, USA
The south coast of Rhode Island has miles and miles of sandy beaches, salt ponds and adjacent neighborhoods of tight lots with modest cottages.
Over the past few years this coastline has been discovered and small summer cottages are being replaced with larger year-round houses at an alarming rate.
West Pond House by Estes Twombly + Titrington Architects, won an American Architecture Award 2025 from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
This project, while not huge, fits this trend. The lot is only 65’ x 180’ and the owners wanted three bedrooms, with one on the first floor that could become the main bedroom suite, office space, living/dining space separated from the kitchen, a den, a screened porch and outdoor spaces for entertaining. The house should fit into the neighborhood without necessarily being a traditional design.
The challenge was to make a new 2400 square foot program, and an oversized one-car garage, fit the lot and not seem out of scale with the surrounding houses.
The program is divided into two narrow and parallel parts: a 17-foot wide two-story gabled form, housing smaller rooms, and an attached 19-foot wide one-story shed roofed form, which houses garage, living/dining spaces and the first floor bedroom suite.
A second floor guest room doubles as a shared office space to save square footage. The exterior materials are varied to help visually diminish the building mass and the depth of the house is not perceivable from the street. Private spaces face the backyard which abuts conservation land.
The house is all electric, with geothermal heating/cooling and induction cooking. It has a light-colored, durable and wind-resistant metal roof with all roof runoff collected in a 3000-gallon cistern.
Gutters not only facilitate rainwater collection but help keep water away from the exterior walls and windows. Native and drought-tolerant plant species help reduce water use. The site is almost completely surrounded by flood zones but it is high and dry.
The old cottage on site was poorly built and had extensive mold. To reduce waste the owners and builder salvaged and found homes for cabinets, lights, appliances, countertops and mechanical equipment.
The owner is an interior designer and she selected all the furniture, furnishings and paint colors.
While definitely contemporary, the house sits comfortably among older neighbors through the use of traditional materials, forms and scale.
Project: West Pond House
Architects: Estes Twombly + Titrington Architects
Lead Architect: Peter Twombly
Design Team: Peter Twombly and Michael Morris
General Contractor: Granville Builders
Client: Private
Photographers: Warren Jagger Photography
