Great Oak Gallery

Sited along a wide tidal creek facing south, this house and outbuilding is conceived of as a series of buildings arranged to create the effect of being “added-on” over time while wrapping around and sheltering an existing ancient Live-Oak tree intended to be a surprise after entering the home. These forms are sited to maintain privacy from the users of the dock-access easement along the western boundary of the site, and maximize views of the creek from the main living spaces as well as to create a courtyard around the oak tree from which the art inside the house can be viewed from the outdoors.

The building program was divided into six forms; five interconnected, wrapping around the tree, with the sixth detached in the field. The simple forms are arranged to create eight outdoor spaces: a park for the outbuilding, a parking area between the garage and outbuilding, a hidden motor-court behind the garage, and entrance promenade, a Japanese-garden between the master suite and carport, a courtyard from which to view the art indoors, a creek-viewing platform, and a public promenade along the dock access easement. Five of the six forms of the building are clad with cypress reclaimed from the bottom of the Cape Fear River, with the art gallery clad in metal. The limited material palette is utilized to express the “deliberately simple” forms seen along creek-banks of which the client is so fond.

Four of the five forms comprising the main house are wrapped around the tree, and the fifth is the garage/carport, initiating the dialogue with the outbuilding. The first of the four main house forms serves as sleeping quarters with courtyard and creek views both upstairs and down, with the entrance adjacent to the dock access easement. This form creates the northern wall of the courtyard. The second form houses a space dedicated solely for the collection of the clients most special art. This form creates the west wall of the courtyard boundary from the dock access easement. The third form houses the main living spaces, intended to be a viewing platform, where cantilevered frames with anchor-chain-hurricane tie-downs preclude the use of view-blocking columns. The fifth form is the owner’s study, kinked southward, resting on a four concrete piers so as to protect the root system of the live oak.