By Sarah Stebbins
Photos by Brian Vanden Brink
From the Fall 2020 issue of Maine Homes by Down East
Glimpsed from across Bass Harbor, the home William Hanley, of Northeast Harbor’s WMH Architects, designed for a Maryland couple knits seamlessly into the fabric of Bernard’s working waterfront. A trio of gabled forms, brought to life by Bar Harbor’s Atkinson Builders, riffs on the New England connected farmhouse and reiterates the peaks on the surrounding sea captains’ homes, while factory-white shingles pick up the cotton-ball shade of the resident lobsterboats. But whereas mariners’ dwellings often “turn their backs to the water,” Hanley says, employing small windows to conserve heat, here, expansive glazing and a screened porch fully embrace the seascape. Classic two-over-twos punctuate the gables — which house bedrooms, accessed via separate stairways, for the owners’ children and their partners — creating a pleasing symmetry on the front and rear façades. Bridging the volumes on the back side, a Mondrian-esque marigold door trimmed with asymmetric glass panels allows slivered harbor views and serves as a beacon, even in pea-soup fog.
