For a sleek guesthouse in upstate New York, Manhattan-based architecture firm Janson Goldstein didn’t want to compete with the existing main house on the rural site. ‘We did this by coming up with a very simple and clear design,’ says partner Hal Goldstein.
The result is a rectangular structure sited to the northeast of the main house. Clad in charcoal-coloured vertical cedar boards, the concrete and wood structure’s opacity gives way to striking transparency at its centre. Here, a window-walled enclosed breezeway provides views and connections to the surrounding meadow. The breezeway – a living area – separates a bedroom at one end of the house from a home gym at the other, each oriented towards the east of the wooded property, with large picture windows framing the landscape.
At the southwestern entry of the guesthouse, the architects cut away a rectangular notch, leaving the framing members intact to create a sort of trellis or pavilion and emphasising the verticality of the cladding. The intent was to highlight the transition from outside to inside and make an ‘exterior foyer’, says Goldstein. The flat roof consists of an EPDM rubber membrane over insulation, with a visible parapet edge of darkened copper (adding rich detail).
Completed last fall, the guesthouse – with its concrete floors and exposed rafters – helps complete the property, along with a pool and deck that were part of Janson Goldstein’s scope. Goldstein says the clients were drawn to his firm’s work after seeing a similarly geometric and relaxed house they designed in East Hampton, New York.
Clad in charcoal-coloured vertical cedar boards, the concrete and wood structure’s opacity gives way to striking transparency at its centre
A window-walled enclosed breezeway provides views and connections to the surrounding meadow
The architects cut away a rectangular notch, leaving the framing members intact to create a sort of trellis or pavilion and emphasising the verticality of the cladding
The intent was to highlight the transition from outside to inside and make an ‘exterior foyer’, says Goldstein. Large picture windows frame the landscape
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Janson Goldstein website
Photography: Scott Frances
ADDRESS
Janson Goldstein
180 Varick Street Suite 1414
New York, NY 10014
-
Rachel Whiteread creates silver collection for Puiforcat inspired by corrugated cardboardThe Turner Prize-winning artist reinterprets imperfection in a new silverware collection with French maison Puiforcat
-
Meet Malak Mattar, the Palestinian artist behind the 'Together for Palestine' concert at London's Wembley ArenaThe London-based artist curates a landmark concert of music and art in support of Gaza, alongside Brian Eno, James Blake, Jamie xx, Neneh Cherry and more
-
A new coffee table book proves that one designer’s trash is another’s treasureThe Rizzoli tome, launching today (16 September 2025), delves into the philosophy and process of Retrouvius, a design studio reclaiming salvaged materials in weird and wonderful ways
-
Herzog & de Meuron and Piet Oudolf unveil Calder Gardens in PhiladelphiaThe new cultural landmark presents Alexander Calder’s work in dialogue with nature and architecture, alongside the release of Jacques Herzog’s 'Sketches & Notes'. Ellie Stathaki interviews Herzog about the project.
-
Meet Studio Zewde, the Harlem practice that's creating landscapes 'rooted in cultural narratives, ecology and memory'Ahead of a string of prestigious project openings, we check in with firm founder Sara Zewde
-
The best of California desert architecture, from midcentury gems to mirrored dwellingsWhile architecture has long employed strategies to cool buildings in arid environments, California desert architecture developed its own distinct identity –giving rise, notably, to a wave of iconic midcentury designs
-
A restored Eichler home is a peerless piece of West Coast midcentury modernismWe explore an Eichler home, and Californian developer Joseph Eichler’s legacy of design, as a fine example of his progressive house-building programme hits the market
-
How LA's Terremoto brings 'historic architecture into its next era through revitalising the landscapes around them'Terremoto, the Los Angeles and San Francisco collective landscape architecture studio, shakes up the industry through openness and design passion
-
Inside a Donald Wexler house so magical, its owner bought it twiceSo transfixed was Daniel Patrick Giles, founder of fragrance brand Perfumehead, he's even created a special scent devoted to it
-
The Pagani Residences is the latest ultra-luxe automotive apartment tower to reach MiamiRising up above Miami, branded apartment buildings are having a renaissance, as everyone from hypercar builders to crystal makers seeks to have a towering structure bearing their name
-
A modern cabin in Minnesota serves as a contemporary creative retreat from the citySnow Kreilich Architects' modern cabin and studio for an artist on a lakeside plot in Minnesota was designed to spark creativity and provide a refuge from the rat race
