What an honor to be mentioned in this month’s Dwell Magazine issue featuring Berman Horn Studio’s Little Peek project. MARTOS had the privilege of providing structural engineering design and consultation for this private residence located in Vinalhaven, Maine. The project is dubbed “Little Peek” for its unique siting, which offers only glimpses of the house ascending a meandering footpath from the water. The home was designed by and for the talented architecture team at Berman Horn Studio as both a retreat and secondary studio from their primary Manhattan offices. The house is a contemporary reinterpretation of the New England connected farmhouse. It includes a main house, a small guest cottage, and a custom designed fully screened porch that links the two.

Structurally, MARTOS’ primary role involved the design of the framing and foundation for the residence. Because the home sits in an open terrain, there was much consideration in calculating the increased wind loads and the overall impact on the structure itself. The screened in porch shown in the photos was a quintessential element to the home, both aesthetically and practically. Our role was to assist in this area of the home so it would be structurally stable and allow for removable screening that had to integrate into the structural framing. Facing the screened in porch is a large unsupported gable end wall designed to include minimal lateral systems. This allowed for resistance of in plane and out of plane loading to achieve the least amount of conventionally framed structure. MARTOS also provided consultation for the foundation design in order to properly thermally isolate from the bedrock below.