Surrounded on three sides
by a saltwater pond, and
tucked onto a steep plot of
land, this approximately
5,200-square-foot twin gabled home
named “Summer Mooring” seamlessly
merges architectural homage with
nautically inspired whimsy.
With an environmentally sensitive
site, height limitations, and the need
to build within an existing footprint,
combined with specific client
requirements, it presented a unique
challenge.
But for John R. DaSilva, FAIA,
Architect & Builder: Polhemus Savery
DaSilva Architects Builders
Interior Design: Susan Tuttle, Surroundings
Landscape Architect: TerraInk
Design Principal and his wife Sharon
M. DaSilva, Senior Designer, of
Polhemus Savery DaSilva Architects
Builders, an integrated architecture
and construction firm based in
Harwich, the design also offered a great opportunity for creativity.
“Sometimes constraints can be helpful,” says Sharon. “We found
some really interesting ways to utilize all the space we could.”
The homeowners requested there be a view from the front
entrance through to the water, so the DaSilvas designed a
AT HOME ON CAPE COD 24 • SPRING/SUMMER 2020
(Left) Decorative anchors are cut into
the shutters. The flat façade of the
house (above) is punctuated with an
eye-catching entry with an abstracted
fan light and two pairs of flat
carpenter’s columns (opposite page).
decorative, abstracted classical front
porch that is cut into the mass of the
house, rather than added on. “We
couldn’t have done it any other way,
due to the limitations of the lot,” says
John. “The buildable footprint was
long and narrow.”
To create the eye-catching entry,
they designed an abstracted fan
light, and two pairs of what John
refers to as “carpenter’s columns” to
flank the doorway. “They are flat,
not cylindrical, and don’t have to be
molded. I consider the fan light and
columns to be abstractions, rather than
recreations of historical elements,” he says.
The outer one of each pair is incomplete and sheared off,
making a straight edge that is in line with the white cedar shingles.
“There is a figure-ground relationship that reveals itself between
day and night,” he adds. “During the day the column is the figure,