January 24, 2017 | Sandy Giardi
Perched above the sandy banks of a salt pond in Chatham, and adjacent to a prized golf course, stands a luminous new Shingle Style home. Gracious but playful, it’s a friendly wave of a house, designed and built by Polhemus Savery DaSilva Architects Builders. A firm that is “very serious,” says design principal and architect John DaSilva, “about designing homes that do not take themselves too seriously.” To wit, a frustrated golfer weather vane sits atop the home’s curving roofline. Visible from a nearby tee, the copper figure cracks an iron over its knee, in a sporting breaking point, if you will. To get the finial just right, the firm photographed a model performing this action, traced the image and had the shape cut by a metal worker. Exacting, yes. But humorless? Far from it.
Previously, the vacation home sat so close to the shore that it nearly kissed the tides. While lovely in theory, there is nothing idyllic (or humorous, we might add) about living in the floodplain. The team was commissioned to remove multiple existing structures and build one new home safely uphill.
The current footprint maximizes glorious outdoor living spaces, including a shaded veranda, full-sun and fireplace terraces, and a screened-in porch overlooking the water.
Cohesive and jubilent, the interior design has a breezy, maritime air.
The interior is comfortable but chic. “It’s a relaxed house,” says DaSilva, with “relaxed detailing,” yet there are “some abstracted classical revival” elements, like paneled built-ins, columns, pilasters and the fireplace mantel. “Across the view side,” explains DaSilva, “all of the main living spaces are open to one another,” sharing an easy camaraderie, with spaces differentiated by ceiling, soffits and cased openings.
Susanne Lichten Csongor of SLC Interiors selected crisp whites and a full spectrum of sea and sky blues for the furnishings, mingling solids, pattern and beachside motifs in all four bedrooms, as well as the public gathering spaces.
Upstairs, the client opted for large and traditional punched windows with shutters and dormers under the rooms’ high cathedral ceilings rather than “ganged” windows that lend a more contemporary look. Granted, banks of windows would “stretch the view” even more, offers DaSilva, but they would come at the expense of that traditional Cape Cod character beloved by this special client with a subtle sense of humor.
Architecture and Construction: Polhemus Savery DaSilva Architects Builders
Interior Design: SLC Interiors, Inc.
Landscape Architecture: Hawk Design
Home Integration: Creative Systems
Photography: Brian Vanden Brink
"Worth it's Salt" by Sandy Giardi
As seen in BDG Cape & Islands Summer 2016 edition
View the Digital Edition here
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