Prologue
As I began the introduction of my Comprehensive Architectural Project (CAP) in a presentation to my studio colleagues, I spoke of an opportunity I had in 1991 to design a second home for a New York City businessman in the southern mountains of Vermont. The site was in the little town of West Dover, located midway between Bennington and Brattleboro on Route 100. Not much happens in West Dover until the snow falls, but when the days grow short and the winds turn cold, skiers from all over the northeast crowd the little town to test their skills on Mt. Snow.
The site my client had chosen was a 19 acre lot located due north of Mt. Snow and it commanded the southern ridge of a lower mount. I remember my first visit to the property as clearly and vividly today as it was revealed to me that day. I was there with the Owner to do a site survey and determine where their new residence might be placed and if there were any other remarkable features on site that could be used in the design. I was carrying in my pocket a small knife to cut staking twine and a Silva Polaris compass; over my shoulder I slung a field transit. This image of me is what I hold in my memory - that of the Architect, the tekton – climbing that mountain, possessed with the will and the tools necessary to read the terrain, I would define a specific geographic location for the homesite and record the natural phenomena that controlled that microcosm. In this encounter, I would record the metaphysical, what my mind and body experienced. The influence of sensory experience and what the mind conveys through perception would give me clues about what it might be like to live in this place.
Using the transit, I carefully established an east-west axis along the most advantageous ridge on the lot. It was quickly realized that a building placed with its long axis running east-west would provide spectacular panoramic southern views and a full appreciation for one of Vermont’s most notable slopes. We surveyed the types of vegetation and the nature of the soils. The site afforded excellent solar orientation and natural rock outcrops. One outcropping in particular was suitable to be blast-formed during site preparation to form a deep crater in its base for the design of a natural rock pool.
Beyond the physical was the metaphysical, and as such, the phenomenological. This is what we perceive through our senses. Through discovery, imagination, knowledge, history, culture and time- all contribute to our interpretation of place. How it would smell after a snow or rain. The way the wind sounded as it blew through the pine trees. Fresh snow and the warmth from lighting a fire of hickory and oak; the mountain air and the change of seasons, all affected how form and space is developed in the design of the residence. Architecture is informed as a captured experience and contributes to the whole of everyday life in the home.
View of Mt. Snow looking south from the Eigen House site.The final design of the residence is not relevant to this introduction, other than to mention that care was taken to integrate and overlap spatial elements between indoor and outdoor. Opportunities to place individuals on the boundary between inside and out, completely outdoors or indoors, was done to inform one about that very place – being - to be on the mountain, and to live with it through every season of every year.
Martin Eigen, my client, and his wife Joan enjoyed their home. I sent him an email in 2001, right after Memorial Day. I received a reply from his daughter that both he and Joan, along with Marty’s mother had died in a plane crash. He had crashed his plane on an attempted landing on that Memorial Day weekend at the Mt. Snow airport. His daughter told me of her disappointment of having to put the house up for sale as part of closing out her parent’s estate. I don’t know what has become of Eigen House. One day I hope to visit West Dover again and see the place where I have left a part of my soul. The project I tell you about took place in the landscape, and that landscape was entered, uncovered and human settlement occurred. The house and site, by coming into being, are made part of the landscape now, and will carry forward making its own history as it is viewed, experienced, and inhabited by others. Architecture was rooted in the experienced I had in Mt. Snow, and that experience is vivid in my memory. To capture the phenomenology of the mountain is what I realize I was always trying to do.
The site my client had chosen was a 19 acre lot located due north of Mt. Snow and it commanded the southern ridge of a lower mount. I remember my first visit to the property as clearly and vividly today as it was revealed to me that day. I was there with the Owner to do a site survey and determine where their new residence might be placed and if there were any other remarkable features on site that could be used in the design. I was carrying in my pocket a small knife to cut staking twine and a Silva Polaris compass; over my shoulder I slung a field transit. This image of me is what I hold in my memory - that of the Architect, the tekton – climbing that mountain, possessed with the will and the tools necessary to read the terrain, I would define a specific geographic location for the homesite and record the natural phenomena that controlled that microcosm. In this encounter, I would record the metaphysical, what my mind and body experienced. The influence of sensory experience and what the mind conveys through perception would give me clues about what it might be like to live in this place.
Using the transit, I carefully established an east-west axis along the most advantageous ridge on the lot. It was quickly realized that a building placed with its long axis running east-west would provide spectacular panoramic southern views and a full appreciation for one of Vermont’s most notable slopes. We surveyed the types of vegetation and the nature of the soils. The site afforded excellent solar orientation and natural rock outcrops. One outcropping in particular was suitable to be blast-formed during site preparation to form a deep crater in its base for the design of a natural rock pool.
Beyond the physical was the metaphysical, and as such, the phenomenological. This is what we perceive through our senses. Through discovery, imagination, knowledge, history, culture and time- all contribute to our interpretation of place. How it would smell after a snow or rain. The way the wind sounded as it blew through the pine trees. Fresh snow and the warmth from lighting a fire of hickory and oak; the mountain air and the change of seasons, all affected how form and space is developed in the design of the residence. Architecture is informed as a captured experience and contributes to the whole of everyday life in the home.
View of Mt. Snow looking south from the Eigen House site.The final design of the residence is not relevant to this introduction, other than to mention that care was taken to integrate and overlap spatial elements between indoor and outdoor. Opportunities to place individuals on the boundary between inside and out, completely outdoors or indoors, was done to inform one about that very place – being - to be on the mountain, and to live with it through every season of every year.
Martin Eigen, my client, and his wife Joan enjoyed their home. I sent him an email in 2001, right after Memorial Day. I received a reply from his daughter that both he and Joan, along with Marty’s mother had died in a plane crash. He had crashed his plane on an attempted landing on that Memorial Day weekend at the Mt. Snow airport. His daughter told me of her disappointment of having to put the house up for sale as part of closing out her parent’s estate. I don’t know what has become of Eigen House. One day I hope to visit West Dover again and see the place where I have left a part of my soul. The project I tell you about took place in the landscape, and that landscape was entered, uncovered and human settlement occurred. The house and site, by coming into being, are made part of the landscape now, and will carry forward making its own history as it is viewed, experienced, and inhabited by others. Architecture was rooted in the experienced I had in Mt. Snow, and that experience is vivid in my memory. To capture the phenomenology of the mountain is what I realize I was always trying to do.
posted by Joe Monico, AIA, LEED AP @ 7:39 PM
2 Comments:
I knew the Eigens well. As a friend of Barry, their oldest son I had the pleasure of growing up with Marty and Joan. I flew with him and saw your beautiful estate. Thanks for writing such a kind tribute.
Well, this is a surprise note. Is the house still in the Eigen family? I dont have the opportunity to visit Vermont these days. My wife's family have all left the state and we are in NC now. One day I will visit again. If the house is still in the family I would love some pics on a sunny winter day.
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