Thomas & Denzinger Architects

The site is an almost sacred place.

Near the edge of the barrier island, where the maritime forest meets tidal marshes, one finds, out in the wetland, an oval-shaped natural pond which seems as though it were a crater made by the landing of an asteroid. One can imagine a connection with the cosmos.

This design was driven by a desire to give resonance to the sense of transition and the sense of arrival at this evocative edge---the place where one is released from the dark confinement of the island’s oak canopy to the brilliant light and infinite space of the wetlands and the open sky.

The structures are configured to frame and guide the sense of passage. They are articulated as humble sheds, reduced to simple utilitarian, yet organic, presences echoing the rough bark texture of the Live Oaks.

We ascend the wide stair to discover an elevated platform and reflective pool at the center of the complex. These empty, serene surfaces of the wood and the water create a Zen-like void receiving energy from the surrounding nature. Trees penetrate the wooden deck like the symbolic stones in the raked sand of a Japanese garden. The pool mirrors the crater-pond, the sky and the distant ocean which has suddenly come into view. The arms of the pool reach out laterally directing our eyes to the expanse of the horizon.

Immersed in the waters of the pool we feel all barriers between ourselves, landscape, and space have disappeared.