Most of this waterfront lot on the Sakonnet River sits inside the Coastal Resources Management Council’s 200-foot buffer. Zoning setbacks, no sewer service, and strict limits on clearing invasive growth left only a sliver of buildable ground. The lot sat unsold for years as earlier buyers walked away from visions it couldn’t hold.
The owners wanted the house those buyers had wanted: a place to draw their adult children and friends back for summer weekends. The site was treated as a fixed condition to design within rather than a problem to solve by variance. Water views drove nearly every decision. The plan steps in a stagger to angle rooms toward the river, and a long enfilade runs from the front door to the garden door in one unbroken sightline. A screen porch, deck, piazza, balcony, and meadow path each offer a different way to take in the water.
The roof is the house’s principal gesture. It is large and protective but held low toward the street so the house fits its modest neighborhood, even where a near net-zero mechanical system called for a broad roof plane to the south.
At the top, a third-floor study with a shingled balcony set into the roof peak is where the owners go after a full weekend. With an elevator and a program written for three generations, the house is meant to keep working as the family changes.
