From his office in Greenwich, Connecticut, Joeb Moore, FAIA, has spent nearly 20 years perfecting, among other things, the art of designing modern buildings that innovate the traditional forms of this region’s farmland. The firm’s work often starts with primitive shapes that are then creatively manipulated in honor of the land’s rise and fall, distant views, ecological or cultural history, or the clients’ program. For Bar House, that formal rigor helped to meet a strict budget while subtly celebrating all those conditions.
With its 12:12 pitched roof and a footprint measuring 148 feet long and 26 feet wide, the building is based on the region’s 19th-century long barns. Their length came from the need for multipurpose spaces that could house grain, livestock, and equipment under one roof, often in distinct bays for each use, and with doors on one or both sides of the long elevation. Those simplified geometries were just the starting point on this project, but they made the four-bedroom house easy to build on the 4½-acre plot that backs up to protected land.
The owners had seen Joeb Moore & Partners’ work on social media and soon realized they knew some of the firm’s patrons, says Devin Picardi, AIA. “They had a beautiful house in the area, but the wife grew up on the West Coast in a Midcentury Modern home and loved the open plan. It was always her dream to do a house of her own.” While the husband was quite happy where he was, he also appreciates art and architecture, Devin says, and supported his wife’s dream.
“He’s very understated and reserved and pragmatic, so this was a big challenge for them to reach out to do a house, which is a big time and money commitment,” adds Joeb. Fortunately, the clients were in no hurry. As architects like to say, every project has three variables—time, cost, and design—and he advises clients to prioritize two. “The husband cared about cost, and the wife, an interior designer, about design, so this went on for several years through many iterations,” he says.
Viewing Boxes
The bar-shaped building hugs the top of a wooded hill with views over the Housatonic River. Rectilinear dormers slide into notches in the triangular roof, creating northern and southern exposures and a rhythm that abstracts the traditional gable form. This move allowed the architects to tuck two en-suite bedrooms, a game room, and an office into the roof volume, so that as you come up the drive, it reads as a one-story building rather than dominating the hill.
The dormer slots take cues from the window placement and dimensions on the main and walkout lower level. “Where the dormers fall, they relate to openings and spaces below and frame views to the specimen trees and the river,” Joeb says. To the north is a woodland with rock outcroppings, to the south the view of water, meadow, and state forest.
Those “light boxes” not only define the second-floor room locations, but also the vertical circulation—a stairway between the family room and library. Arriving at the front door, you can see through to the view behind the house. Circulation spines running east-west connect the public social spaces—garage, mudroom, kitchen/dining area, and family room— to the private spaces—the library and primary suite on the east. While the three dormers are spliced into the roof, the fourth notch marks the separation between the house and garage, with a corresponding ground-level void that serves as a porch with motorized screens. In the future, a loft can be built in the attic space above the garage, accessed from the adjacent dormer.
“Simple, subtle moves have a fairly dramatic effect on how you experience the house,” Joeb says. “Gaps frame views without creating a glass façade that says, oh, here’s the view beyond. We think of fenestration as a formal language that creates a syncopation almost like music, and those scores run horizontally with the grain of the building.” The basement rooms, which walk out to the pool, include a sauna, closet, bath, lounge, gym, office, and fourth bedroom.
Carving out the basement, rather than building up or out to gain the needed space for visiting grandchildren, was a lifestyle, circulation, and budget strategy, as were the stairs—stacked between two walls rather than floating. While the floor plan lets the couple live on one level, the vertical spine supports their privacy when the grandkids visit: the children move between the upstairs bedrooms and the lower play area. “They put their money into the square footage,” Joeb says. “This is a legacy home; she wants family to come here with their kids.”
Push and Pull
The long-simmering design gave the team time to find and expertly execute the soundest solutions, particularly on aspects driven by price. For example, on a site where every move required blasting into the glacial till, the house was designed to balance cut and fill. A ledge that needed to be removed was crushed on-site and reused. The grid of floor trusses allowed them to preplan mechanical systems in the floor rather than creating interstitial spaces to house them, and the interiors are column-free. The repeated, prefabricated wood trusses effectively reduced waste, accelerated construction, and kept the project within budget.
Throughout the design process, the section was sacred. “When the project went on hold during Covid, the first thing we did was to draw the master section, first the vertical circulation, getting an open-riser stair that fit within the width of the building elegantly,” Devin says. “That informed how wide building needed to be, while also accommodating a 12-pitch roof with 4-foot overhangs and gutters, which are concealed outside the thermal envelope.”
To stay within the desired proportions and cost-per-square-foot range, the architects bumped some storage areas several feet over the foundation, creating a cadence while maintaining the compact footprint. “We take the section concept as the key driver, not the plan,” Joeb says.
Material World
A spare material palette reinforces the perpendicular relationship between the horizontal wood siding and standing seam-metal roof. Cypress was subbed for western red cedar, which had almost tripled in price over the course of design. Given a bleaching stain and oil preservative, it will weather naturally over time. When the sun shines on the hilltop, the deep gray roof almost dissolves to white, Devin says, and its standing seams create shadow play. “The roof ribbing and the slicing of the dormers help break down the house into five volumes instead of a single one,” he says.
Interiors have a similar modernist economy. The SieMatic kitchen features lacquered and wood cabinetry paired with black metal accents. Furniture-like storage units act as dividing walls on the first floor. These open rooms occupy the middle of the plan, allowing for circulation and views on the long sides of the house.
The time spent value-engineering the design also pleased builder Chris Washington. “Because of the research and exercises we went through before construction began, nothing needed to be sacrificed on the job,” he says. “We moved 100 percent forward with few if any changes.” Thanks to such discipline, the budget was able to absorb the cost of triple-glazed windows that reduce heating and cooling loads, as well as a photovoltaic field installed away from the house.
“The husband would have lived in the other house for several more decades; he thought it was perfect and was afraid he would have buyer’s remorse,” Devin says. “But over time they have fallen in love with the house.” The owners have said that they love the house when the kids are there, and just as much when everyone leaves and they can enjoy its peace, he adds.
Indeed, Bar House interweaves economy and craftsmanship, resulting in an inventive and regionally sensitive home that met the clients’ economic goals without compromising livability or beauty.
Rectilinear dormers slide into roof notches, creating a cadence that deconstructs the form of New England’s historic long barns.
“The roof ribbing and the slicing of the dormers help break down the house into five volumes instead of a single one.”
First-floor living spaces, such as the library (above left), float in the middle of the plan and are divided by furniture-like built-ins.
Bar House
North Fairfield County, Connecticut
Architect: Joeb Moore, FAIA, principal in charge; Devin Picardi, AIA, associate principal, Joeb Moore & Partners, Greenwich, Connecticut
Builder: Chris Washington, Washington Builders, Southbury, Connecticut
Landscape architect: Dean Pushlar Landscape, Brookfield, Connecticut
Civil engineer: Stuart Somers Co., Southbury
Structural engineer: Marchetti Consulting Engineers, Pound Ridge, New York
Kitchen: SieMatic, New York, New York
Project size: 5,800 square feet
Site size: 4.5 acres
Construction cost: Withheld
Photography: David Sundberg / Esto
Key Products
Cabinetry: SieMatic, Silva Woodworking
Cooktop: Wolf
Cladding: 54-inch American cypress shiplap with 3/8-inch gap
Cooking vent hood: Best
Countertops: DuPont Corian, quartz, marble
Engineered lumber: LVL Beam
Entry doors: Upstate Door, Marvin
Faucets: Fantini, The Gallery, Dornbracht
Finish materials: Porcelanosa, Stone Source, Rombini
Fireplace: Flare
Fixtures: Robern (medicine cabinet), Ginger (bath accessories)
Floor trusses: National Building Products
Flooring: Plain-sawn oak, Akdo Gaja, Stone Source, I Colori
Foundation: Cast-in-place structural slab/underslab rigid insulation
Garage doors: Wayne Dalton
Grill: FBO (built-in)
Hardware: Rajack (cabinetry), Formani, Arc, Merit, Sugatsune (passage doors)
Home theater components: Sonos
Humidity control: AprilAire
HVAC: Trane
Insulation/housewrap: ZIP System
Motorized insect screen: Phantom
Ovens: Wolf
Paints/stains/coatings: Benjamin Moore
Refrigerator: Sub-Zero
Roofing: Standing seam over ventilation mat, Sharkskin Comp underlayment, EPDM
Security system: Napco
Sinks: DuPont Corian, Furniture Guild, Elkay
Toilets: TOTO
Tub: MTI Baths
Vanities/pedestal lavs: Furniture Guild
Ventilation: Panasonic
Washer/dryer: Miele
Windows/window wall systems: Marvin
Wine refrigerator: Sub-Zero