The site planning encouraged the development of a long, slender building that would sit on the side farther from the major thoroughfare and open itself along its length to a linear garden of orderly plantings set in gravel. Michael organized both floors of the house along corridors at the garden’s edge, so that light and views could carefully manage throughout the interior. A row of slender silhouette sweetgum trees creates a screen that softens the relationship to the street.

Formally, the taut extrusion of the familiar gable façade is a nod to European and American vernaculars to which Michael’s parents were endeared. The materials palette, too, is earthy and hand-hewn. The elongated bricks speak to contemporary ideas about linearity, but the mortar slurry softens the effect and creates a muted tonality. Above the block, the larch cladding is left in its natural state and will weather to an imperfect silver.