The project involved the design of seven lakeside cottages at the Great Pond Outdoor Adventure Center. The cottages are used for vacation retreats by institutional client personnel and their families, and the complex is designed to invoke a traditional Maine “cabin in the woods” vernacular. The 1½ story cottages were carefully sited along an existing woods road within a ±13-acre site, with the intent of minimizing disturbance and maintaining as much of the natural character of the site as possible. Utilities were run under roadways and parking areas, and sites were chosen based on character of the landscape as well as earthwork balance.
The two-bedroom cottages, with a footprint of 960 square feet and a gross area of 1,308 square feet, are wood frame construction, with locally harvested white cedar exterior siding and interior pine board siding. A cathedral ceiling gives the living/dining/kitchen area an open feel, and allows light into the loft space on the second floor. In order to enhance foreground and mid-ground views of the landscape, windows in the dining area were extended to floor level. Each cottage has a screen porch that faces the pond. Interior spaces were made flexible in order to maximize the small footprint. The kitchen countertop swings down to be able to provide a more generously sized entryway, while giving the ability to hold larger gatherings if needed.
Because the site slopes rather steeply toward the water, each cottage is elevated on concrete piers and accessed from the gravel parking area by a slender wooden bridge. The cottages were oriented to take advantage of prevailing winds and view corridors toward the pond, and to minimize views of the parking areas from within the cottages.
The cottages were designed under the LEED for Homes program and each has achieved LEED Silver certification. Oak Point provided full-service design services for the project.