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© Taggart Sorenson

© Taggart Sorenson

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Architects: Scott Specht, Louise Harpman

Contractor: Michael Greenberg, Prutting and Company
Photography: © Taggart Sorenson

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The Weston Residence nestles in a valley adjacent to the Saugatuck River. It’s a small house, but takes advantage of its beautiful site in a way that purposefully blurs the distinction between the built and natural environment.

The house is approached from a road that begins high on a cliff above, and the first glimpse of the house is of its roof. The roof becomes the primary facade, so we turned the roofscape into a lush, green landscape. Terraces planted with year-round, region-specific succulents step down the hill, and bedrooms project out into these roof gardens, giving a feeling of being fully immersed in the landscape. The planted roofs are also integral to the high-performance building envelope.

Interior and exterior spaces are joined through views, portals, and material continuity. A glass-backed fireplace provides an elegant surprise. Like other glass houses, the landscape becomes the “decoration” for the rooms, playing with transparency during the day and reflectivity at night.

Specht Harpman Architects

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All images courtesy of Specht Architects

Specht Architects

Scott is the founding principal at Specht Architects with over 25 years of experience designing and managing institutional, commercial, and residential projects. Before founding Specht Architects (formerly known as Specht Harpman), he worked as a senior designer for Daniel Libeskind Architect and collaborated with that office on its winning New York World Trade Center master planning proposal. He also worked for several years with Kohn Pedersen Fox and Associates Architects in New York, and was the Designer on a number of tall building projects around the world, including the Chifley Square project in Sydney, Australia, and the Niaga Bank headquarters in Jakarta, Indonesia. He is a licensed architect in Texas and New York, is NCARB certified, and is a member of the American Institute of Architects.

Scott received his Master of Architecture degree from Yale University, where he received the George Nelson Scholarship and the Franklin W. Gregory Scholarship.

In addition to his work with Specht Architects, Scott was a featured speaker at TEDx, and his independent design work has been exhibited in two SoHo gallery shows. His design work has also been publicly featured at a Yale University exhibition, the Van Alen Institute, the Municipal Art Society of New York, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

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Specht Architects