OUTDOOR DESIGN - An Open-air Great Room

Architect Merle Thorpe sited the screened structure to maximize views of Broad Creek.

Over two decades in their mist-gray weekend house in St. Michaels, Maryland, two generations of a Washington family have embraced the outdoors. Their Eastern Shore idyll can be measured in memories of nature—the day the deer swam by on Broad Creek; the year a hurricane whipped one long island into three just past the boat dock; the seasons when swans flocked by the dozens to this waterside paradise— all viewed from a simple patio.

“The view is everything to us,” says a grown daughter.

With 17-foot-high ceilings, the space enjoys steady breezes.

But for all the pleasures of their retreat, the owners finally were compelled to acknowledge two small discomforts that come with the privilege of living just 100 feet from the water’s edge: unrelenting sun and insects. A little more than a year ago, they decided to add a screened porch to gain more shade and keep unwelcome creatures at bay.

But where to build it? What seemed like a simple idea became a quandary: Putting an addition onto the living room would have blocked the view from a favorite bedroom. Building a free-standing structure beside the swimming pool would have put the porch too far from the house and distant from that incomparable view. “I didn’t know how to do it,” admits the wife.

A new covered entry ushers visitors into the screened great room.

Finally, architect Merle Thorpe of Washington, DC, resolved the issue by proposing to locate a screened-in great room at an undervalued corner of the house near the garage.

To call the 40-by-19-foot space a porch is to miss its grander qualities. The gracious 17-foot-high room, which extends off one end of the living room, effectively doubles the family’s panoramic access to the water. By letting the porch jut out beyond the existing house, Thorpe also created a dramatic new waterfront axis: From the outdoor room, the natural sightline follows the shoreline across the length of the property to specimen trees at its most distant point. The shift in perspective has given the family a dramatic new view as well as a three-season outdoor living room.

Its open interior features a dining area, a large brick fireplace, a comfortable seating area and a fully equipped kitchen.

“We’re very slow learners,” the wife says with a laugh. “We should have found Merle 15 years ago.”

“Sometimes, it takes a while to ask the right questions,” Thorpe responds.

The architect, who has been designing homes on Maryland’s Eastern Shore since 1989, takes pride in understanding the interwoven factors of location, climate

and ecology. He envisioned the porch as a “dramatic screened extension of the house” with doors both to the living room and onto the lawn terrace.

The kitchen view.

Broad eaves provide protection from the elements while still allowing the space to be caressed by gentle rain and welcome breezes. A roof monitor with operable

windows adds light and additional air circulation. The space features a fully equipped corner kitchen with grill station as well as a grand brick fireplace to take the chill out of fall evenings. The generous floor plan allows ample space for dining and comfortable seating under exposed rafters, which are stained gray-green to show off the wood grain.

The porch’s minimal structure takes its cue from shipbuilding rather than contextual architecture: Masts were sunken into a sturdy foundation to achieve invisible strength. Between the slim columns, screened panels are barely visible, thanks to the use of black powder-coated stainless steel; their fine mesh prevents no-see-ums from getting through.

Sheltered from most of the elements, the owners can entertain in comfort and style for three seasons.

Architecturally, the rhythm of the porch columns is designed to echo the windows of the existing house, which the owners had gutted and remodeled two decades ago. To provide a seamless visual connection between house and porch, the interior woodwork was painted “house gray.”

The owners had hoped to gain more expansive space for outdoor cooking, which the entire family of a dozen adults enjoys. The gas grill, previously located near the driveway, caused people-jams around the chef, rather than on the patio. The former cooking station has been transformed into a generous formal entry leading to a screened six-by-16-foot breezeway. The new route brings visitors directly from the drive to the host at his grill, or to the welcoming sofa beside the Rumford-designed fireplace. 

View from the water.

“This solved everything,” says the wife. The porch provides “a lovely kitchen to cook in” with pale yellow cabinets set on stainless-steel legs. The practical brick floor can be hosed down easily thanks to weep holes in the baseboards. All appliances are salt-tolerant and countertops are made of matte-finish Juparana granite.