DESIGNING for outdoor spaces SITE PLANNING AND THE ARCHITECTURE

Site planning and a consistent architectural vision made sense of this unique double lot near the sea in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Architect Frank Shirley “integrated two properties and made this a special place to be,” the homeowner says. Outbuildings, two of them newly designed and built, are critical to the overall design, providing not only additional space but also protection from the street. New porches, formal elements of hardscape, and plantings tie it together.

- Patricia Poore

When multiple restrictions define the challenge, a holistic design may be the satisfying result. This difficult yet beautiful site was molded by tight parameters. The main house, a ca. 1900 Victorian Queen Anne that had seen a few remodelings and additions, was better than salvageable. The pool was already in position. Two factors were immutable: on one side, a busy street; on another, the Atlantic Ocean.

The homeowners had snapped up the lot adjacent to their own, when it came up for sale. The neighboring house, sight unseen at the time of purchase, turned out to be a derelict rental stripped of every detail. “I mean, gone,” says Cambridge architect Frank Shirley. “Every window, moulding, even the staircase: gone. It was on piers, and the furnace was underneath, in open air.” The initial plan was to turn the second house into the garage, but it was deemed “too horrific” and too expensive to save. The carriage house built in its stead holds garage space and a mudroom, with unfinished space above.