alex hayden photo
close to no maintenance as possible.
That was critical. They wanted a place
that they could just walk up to and walk
away from without worrying about anything.
So there’s no lawn. There’s no hot
tub. There’s no planting beds.
We selected materials that are bulletproof.
Concrete block. Painted aluminum
siding and roofing, which doesn’t
have to be repainted for 50 to 60 years.
These products are incredibly durable.
The interior floor is concrete slab. We
used commercial grade aluminum
windows. This house will last 80 to 100
years. It’s just incredibly sound from a
maintenance standpoint.
An added bonus of building this way
was that the project was very budget
friendly.
Did the site’s projects present
any challenges?
We’ve done a fair amount of island
work. Each area has very strict environmental
controls, so you have to be very
cognizant of those. You need to do your
homework before you start designing.
Because just when you think you know
the rules, they change. And that can
cause any number of problems.
With this project, the lot is big,
but there aren’t many buildable spots
because it’s on cliffs. However, there’s
a natural meadow on a bluff that runs
a couple hundred yards long and is
ringed by fir trees. The easiest place to
build would have been the center of
the meadow, but we decided to locate
the house at the northern edge next to
some tall firs.
This let us make the meadow a focal
point, while also providing views of the
Olympic Mountains and Inside Passage.
The trick was leaving the landscape
as untouched as possible. We really had
a mindset of not cutting stuff down.
But we were able to carefully orient
the house between a couple of madrone
trees, which offered slotted views
through the tree trunks.
alex hayden photo
Orcas Island
Suncrest Residence
Designed by Joe Herrin of
Heliotrope Architects
heliotropearchitects.com
With a long, narrow footprint, every
room of this Orcas Island residence has
stunning views of the sea. Featuring the
client’s two favorite materials, wood
and concrete, a 120-foot long boardwalk
along the front of the house provides
an open-air vantage that changes from
every angle. In keeping with the client’s
wishes and Heliotrope’s best practices,
the project minimized the architectural
impact on the environment, while
retaining its strong connection to the
surrounding forests.
What kind of specific precautions did you
take to connect this house to the land?
While the parcel is large, there was
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