Deep River Residence

Deep River, Connecticut

A low modern house on a shelf of blasted ledge above the Connecticut River. Everything on it is exposed, which means nothing on it can be fixed later.

Hanby Lontine Architects designed it out of Kent. It is a single long bar in the woods — board-formed concrete below, stained wood and glass above, a flat roof drained by bent metal scuppers, and a courtyard cut into the middle of it. There is no trim in the conventional sense. Wall meets floor at a reveal. Ceilings run into slot diffusers painted black. The stair is painted flatstock with kerfs cut at a quarter and a half inch and no visible seams anywhere.

Detailing like that removes a builder's margin for error entirely. On a traditional house, casing and base cover the difference between the drawing and the framing. Here there is nothing to cover it with. Every plane has to be right when it's built.

The site had to be made before the house could be. It was ledge, and it came out by drill and blast — weeks of it — before a single footing could be poured.

Twenty-one field sketches came out of the architect over two years: the scupper, the slab step, the stair kerfs, the drainboard milled into the laundry counter, the house numbers, and a roof opening drawn around a tree. That is what a house with no trim asks for.

Making the Site

Drill rig working the ledge before blasting — The rig, working the ledge.

Blasted rock stacked on the site — What came out of the hole.

Heavy rebar mat tied before the pour — Rebar mat, tied.

Board-formed concrete foundation wall cut into blasted ledge — Concrete, formed to be seen.

Steel beams set on the concrete foundation — Steel down.

Aerial view of the site with the Connecticut River beyond — The reason for the house, from the air.

II.

The House in the Woods

The house stepping down its wooded slope, board-formed concrete below and wood-clad volumes above — Concrete below, wood above — the house steps down the slope it was blasted into.

A wood-clad volume carried on a board-formed concrete pier — A wood box set on a concrete pier. The tie holes were left where they landed.

Detail where wood cladding, black metal band, window frame and dry-laid stone wall meet — Cladding, metal band, window and stone wall, all arriving at the same line.

The gravel entry court between the wings, with concrete site walls and steps — The entry court. Gravel, concrete site walls, and the two wings closing around you.

From under the deck roof, past a wood-clad wing and dry-laid stone wall, to the river beyond — From the deck. The stone wall holds the grade; the river does the rest.

Base: Exposed architectural concrete, formed for finish
Walls: Stained wood rain screen, held 1¾″ off the sheathing
Roof: Flat, fully adhered EPDM, bent galvanized scuppers

Reveals: ¼″ and ½″ kerfs, no visible seams
Air: Linear slot diffusers, painted black, run into the ceiling plane
Site: Ledge, drilled and blasted before any footing

A Japanese maple growing through a planter cut into the entry terrace, under an opening cut through the roof above

An opening for the tree

Sheet SK-02, issued March 2022, is titled opening for the tree. It draws a rectangular hole cut clean through the roof of the entry link, and a planter cut into the terrace directly below it, so that a Japanese maple can stand inside the house and grow out through the top of it.

It works only if the two openings agree. The roof curb, the beam it sits beside, the waterproofing that has to turn up all four sides, the planter walls, the drainage under them and the paving around them all had to be set out from the same centreline — on a flat EPDM roof, where a leak has nowhere to go.

III.

Concrete You Walk Through

A board-formed concrete passage with a wood soffit, framing the river through autumn trees — The passage gives you the river and nothing else.

Cast concrete stair rising between board-formed walls to the glazed entry above — Cast stair, board-formed walls, one steel rail.

Concrete you intend to look at is a different material from concrete you intend to bury. Form layout, tie spacing, pour sequence and vibration all become finish decisions, and a cold joint in the wrong place is permanent. These treads were cast, not clad — there is no second chance on a stair like that.

IV.

Living

Dining table under a linear pendant, against a full-height glazed wall with the river beyond — Dining. The glass goes floor to ceiling and the river is at the end of it.

Entry hall with a pivoting glass door standing open, black casework and white oak floor — Entry. The door pivots on glass; nothing announces itself.

Primary bedroom with a corner window wall, floor-length curtains and autumn woods beyond — Bedroom, cornered in glass.

Looking out through the glazed link at a cluster of conical pendants hung against the woods — Through the link, late in the day.

The Working Rooms

Walk-in shower with a black rain head, large-format stone tile and a carved stool — Walk-in shower. Large-format tile, a linear drain, and no threshold to trip on.

Freestanding tub with a floor-mounted filler, against large-format tile and a stone vanity top — Tub with a floor-mounted filler — which means the rough-in had to be exactly right, in the slab, a year earlier.

Laundry with dark cabinetry, a ribbed integral drainboard and a geometric tile backsplash — Laundry. The drainboard is milled into the counter — its own sketch, SK-18.

Mudroom lined floor to ceiling in green lacquered casework with a wood bench — Mudroom. Green, floor to ceiling, both sides.

VI.

Dark

The whole house lit from within at dusk, seen from the woods, with the garage volume beyond — From up the hill, after the light goes. Every window is a room you have already walked through.

The mudroom at night, green casework flanking a backlit translucent panel — The mudroom, lit from the far side.

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