Neubauer’s porches can
dwarf the rest of the house.
“We’ll design mudrooms,
outdoor showers, and spring
porches,” she says. “And if
you want, we will design a
house to go with that too.’”
for connection is even stronger. “So many clients are thrilled to
be here. Whether new to the Cape or here for generations, they
are more aware of the regional environment,” she says.
In this aspect, Neubauer sees a kinship with her
Midwestern roots, “Like North Wisconsin, this is a place about
landscape and escape to that landscape.”
Neubauer herself landed in Falmouth, where she raised her
two children after earning an undergraduate degree in drawing
and photography from Cornell University and her degree in
architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.
“Falmouth is such a thoughtful place with a wonderful
demographic,” she says. “There is so much science and academic
strength here, and now there are multiple generations of scientists.
There can be deep resources, but there is a modesty about the
people here—a quiet New England Yankee quality.”
Through her years on the Cape, she has gladly bore
witness to the expansion of the architectural aesthetic beyond
traditional Capes and Colonials, an expansion she has watched
evolve across the country. For decades post-World War II, she
reminds us, our “American real estate/development culture”
was largely about building formulaic houses quickly to get
expanding families settled. “There was nothing intelligent,
interesting, or joyful about it.”
Today, a wider range of architectural styles is being embraced
on Cape Cod and around the country, and Neubauer credits the
proliferation of home design magazines and television programs
for “shifting people’s comfort with a broader aesthetic, and that
has meant a rebirth for architecture.”
The porch of this house in Saconesset in Falmouth has a soaring
ceiling and a retractable window by some bar seating.
AT HOME ON CAPE COD 42 • SPRING/SUMMER 2020
PHOTOS: MEREDITH HUNNIBELL