Pacific Palace

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the living room and dining room
mingle together with the breathtaking
view of the waterfront, which can be
seen from the expansive windows on
the first floor.
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the steps of the entryway are lit with
a soft glow casting down from the
protective canopy roof.
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the master bathroom window looks
out onto the Olympic peninsula, and
a pair of illuminated mirrors and
medicine cabinets open behind flush
birch panels.
Now they are home by 6 p.m. every night and
are able to spend time with their children. “Life
is pretty terrific,” says Brachvogel. “It is a different
lifestyle that adds new facets to how we approach
projects.”
The company styles its work to accommodate
how the client wants to live and thrives on a
measure of completeness in its concepts. “It is
more than a front and a back held together with
sides,” says Brachvogel. “We are practicing in the
Northwest so we do take on a certain aesthetic,
but we aren’t style or fad-driven.”
The Olympic View House on Bainbridge Island
personifies the notion of unique design inspired
by lifestyle. The owners are empty nesters living
the dream of early retirement. “They wanted
something fresh and modern and not stoically
trying to be hip,” says Brachvogel.
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Inspired by Darryl Fish, an industrial designer
on the eastern seaboard who “understands the
evolution of materials,” Brachvogel used wood
for its classic beauty and for the opportunity to
explore how to accommodate the harsh, oceanside
environment.
Generous overhangs protect the exterior, but
the trick was keeping the slope of the roof down
so as to avoid creating a huge ground shadow.
The house is designed around light penetration
because the island is starved for light for much
of the year.
A framework of battered bases on each corner of
the building forms the strength of the structure.
From the water, the result is a series of negative
and positive—a membrane of glass, a massing,
back to glass—that provide recessions for doors
and generous outdoor areas.
aRchitects
Inside, the main floor is all living space, including
a master bedroom and a great room for entertaining
and relaxing with an easy flow to the
waterfront terrace. Upstairs the glass-enclosed
media room is directly over the living room and
a shallow-hipped roof stretches out over the
windows. The tops of the battered bases are positioned
to end two feet short of the roof plane,
which appears then to float on the glass, leaving
room for light to escape onto the street at night.
“Twenty years from now the house will still be
classically balanced,” says Brachvogel. “At the
firm we are about understanding the difference
between this not being about us and being solely
focused on the art of architecture.”
“At the end of the day it is about making sure the
buildings stay up, respond to everything and are
beautiful.”
SPrING 2012 luxury home quarterly
143