Westchester County, New York, is renowned for opulent homes—Twin Ponds, Kykuit, the X-Mansion—that match the tastes and aspirations of its mostly very wealthy residents. Channeling champagne wishes and caviar dreams, Philadelphia-based KieranTimberlake recently completed a two level, 5,250 square foot “house in the woods, of the woods” in the leafy northern Westchester town of Pound Ridge.
(Courtesy Peter Aaron / OTTO)KieranTimberlake has been known to push the envelope of facade design. Mirrored surfaces make the property, hemmed in by glacial outcroppings, appear more expansive.
(Courtesy Peter Aaron / OTTO)Viewed from the outside, the metal and mirrored glass facade is like a sylvan Lee Bul installation. To avoid a last days of disco effect, exterior treatments alternate between glass, tin zinc-coated copper, brushed stainless steel, and polished stainless steel. The home has precedent in MLRP’s 2011 Playground Pavilion (below), designed for a public park in Copenhagen.
(Courtesy MLRP)The south-facing property descends over 100 feet, from a ridge to a wetland.
East-west (top) and north-south sections (Courtesy Kieran Timberlake)A ravine carrying water downhill bisects the home’s two “rock rooms.” The first level is clad in stone. A glass-sided walkway, punctuated with skylights, connects the house’s private and common spaces.
The daylighted interiors create the illusion of a bivouac without the hardship of camping outdoors.
(Courtesy Peter Aaron / OTTO)Kieran Timberlake collaborated with Cambridge, MA and New Haven, CT–based Reed Hilderbrand on the project’s naturalistic landscape architecture.
(Courtesy Peter Aaron / OTTO)
