Dutchess County Residence

City

Region

Cladding Area9 500 sf

ArchitectAllied Works Architecture

Project type

Phase of InvolvementDesign
Construction

Type of Construction

Year of Completion2011

On the eastern slopes of the Hudson River Valley, Allied Works designed a residence, guesthouse, and private gallery that punctuate a 400-acre property in Dutchess County, New York. The main house sits at the opening of a large meadow, giving it expansive views of the valley and the mountains beyond. The building’s shape, an orthogonal helix, sits at the intersection of three landscaped courtyards, bounded by stone walls that connect the house to the landscape.

The helical structure is enclosed by a skin of transparent, translucent, and opaque panels, that let views and natural light into the space while helping to protect an extensive art collection within. While its volumes are designed to give the appearance of sliding past one another, the facade had to be completely waterproof and airtight to control temperature and humidity throughout the year. Because of the very high aspect ratio of each strip of long, narrow facade glass, the system had to be installed to extremely tight tolerances. Heintges helped devise a system by which the steel structure was pre-loaded with the exact weight of the facade panels, ensuring its deflection would be minimal upon installation.

Though the entire house is clad in glass panels, some are back-painted to conceal structural elements or interior walls for hanging art. Other panels are acid-etched with vertical stripes, and the rest are transparent to give the most striking views of the landscape to those inside. When darkness falls, the facade itself becomes a canvas for “Light House,” a site-specific video installation by Doug Aitken that uses 360-degree projection to illuminate the glass with striking images that make it pop from its surroundings, or almost camouflage it altogether on the landscape.

Heintges served as curtain wall and building envelope consultant for the custom steel window wall system through all phases of the project.

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Photographs 1- 6 by Jeremy Bittermann; Photographs 7 & 8 by Heintges.