Sunset Lane Tower House

A 3,600-square-foot seasonal residence on Sunset Lane in Barnstable, on the north shore of Cape Cod, completed in 2024. The house is organized around a handcrafted central staircase that rises beneath a brass-and-glass lantern, framed by trimwork and a wood-clad turret - the architectural moment the rest of the plan turns on.

The lot is tight - just under a quarter acre - and the project was grandfathered in to a pre-existing nonconformity, which fixed the building footprint at what was already there. The existing covered entry sat in an octagonal volume off to one side of the house. Rather than rebuild it as something incidental, we made it the organizing element: the entry and the vertical circulation pulled into a single tower that reads, from the water, as the house's defining gesture. The principal elevation faces north toward the harbor and aligns directly with the harbor entrance. Fishermen working the channel use the tower informally as a lighthouse - a navigational reference on the approach in.

The interior is paneled, light-filled, and finished with oak floors that carry through the open kitchen, dining, and living areas. Divided-light windows frame water views on the principal elevation and pull daylight deep into the plan. Materials throughout are deliberately limited: painted millwork, natural oak, and brass, used in proportion rather than as flourish. The intention was a traditional Yankee restraint rather than anything formal - the house is a seasonal home for a matriarch whose children and grandchildren come down through the summer, and the finishes had to hold up to that kind of use without feeling precious.

The brief was a graceful Cape Cod home built for everyday family use and for entertaining at scale. The lighthouse, the stair, and the sightline from front door to water were the three things that had to be exactly right. Everything else is composed around them.