Majestic Home on a Cliff’s Edge Overlooking the Pacific Ocean

The house is a lookout, a delicately detailed observation platform from which to view what’s beyond rather than a set piece in a highly articulated domestic drama. Here you are exposed, even susceptible, to the moods and rhythms of the land you see and the light you see it in. And because the house is not tied to any set script, you are free to respond.The identical steel moment frames that make up the structure of the building were fabricated offsite. This pre-fabrication minimized the staging area needed to build the house. Since the erection of the frames could be choreographed precisely, the balance of the construction could take place in the air – on a platform supported by these frames hovering en pointe above the existing topography. Over the course of the construction, phases of the work were scheduled with the help of a wildlife biologist to protect an eagle’s nest with newborn chicks 60 feet off the house. “(Photography by Lara Swimmer)