JULY 2009 » book review

Shingling Inventively

Architecture of the Cape Cod Summer: The Work of Polhemus Savery DaSilva
by Michael J. Crosbie
Images Publishing Group Pty. Ltd., Victoria, Australia; 2008
264 pages; more than 400 color photos; $90
ISBN 978-1-86470-280-4

Reviewed By Eve M. Kahn

Here are adjectives that the leaders of Polhemus Savery DaSilva Architects Builders (PSD) would not apply to their work: nostalgic, polemical, antiquarian, sentimental, overbearing and ironic. They would describe it as "an eclectic and evolutionary use of architectural history," as well as a "broad, inclusive 'Classicism' that favors eclectic hybridization over narrow adherence to rules," thereby reflecting "the fundamentally pluralistic nature of contemporary society."

This sounds ambitious for a practice of about 40 staffers in Chatham, MA, mainly building shingled houses on and near Cape Cod. But Architecture of the Cape Cod Summer, a lavish new monograph from Images Publishing Group's New Classicists series (which has previously covered Ken Tate, William T. Baker, Marc Appleton and Wadia Associates) makes a convincing case that the firm is achieving its goals.

Peter D. Polhemus, an MIT-trained alum of Ann Beha's Boston office, is PSD's "Mr. Outside"; he specializes in dealing with clients and government review boards. Leonard H. Savery is the principal builder and John R. DaSilva, a Yale-trained alum of Cesar Pelli's office, is the design principal. Their design/build work has spanned in scale from a park restroom to mansions. Their stylistic inspirations range from Massachusetts vernacular takes on Gothic and Greek Revival to the Shingle Style phase of McKim, Mead & White and the erudite Arts and Crafts of Bernard Maybeck in California and C.F.A. Voysey in Britain.

There's no typical synthesis of historical references in PSD's work. Eaves can be flared nearly to the ground or angularly cantilevered, and stair and balcony railings can squiggle like eelgrass blades or come pierced with formal quatrefoils. Oculi can be centered or asymmetrically crop up in corners, and dormers can have traditional gables, jerkins, gambrels or eyebrow forms, or else whimsically pointed arches and elongated slopes.

Yet consistent strains persist amid PSD's variety. Shingles smoothly cover volute-shaped brackets on porches and bays. Living areas are often double-height, with gathering spaces lacily partitioned by piers, columns and two-sided fireplaces. Muntin-divided windows reach floor to ceiling in snug seating areas. Children's bunkrooms are modeled after ship cabins, and staircases curve sensuously and tightly, saving space in house footprints often restricted to the size of previous buildings on the property.

The book provides in-depth profiles, up to 18 full-bleed pages apiece, of 22 single-family homes or compounds plus additions to a resort and a museum. There's also an especially charming restroom, which PSD designed and built pro bono for the town of Chatham. Four rectangular piers support its shed-roof porch with standing-seam roofing, and its tympana vents have either pointed-arch or undulating eyebrow silhouettes. "This might have been nothing more than a drab lean-to," writes Crosbie. "But instead, it juts out its chest, thrusts out its chin, pulls itself up, and stands tall in the context of Chatham history." The architects in fact gave the plinth-mounted structure enough tongue-in-cheek dignity and grandeur that on opening day in 1999, a prankster hung a toilet-paper banner on the building that read "Acrapolis." PSD has enough of a sense of humor about their work that the reaction at the office amounted to, "What a compliment!"

This volume's page layouts, in keeping with Images' usual high standards, amply supply site and floor plans, axonometrics and aerial views. Alongside well-reproduced overview photos and glowing nighttime scenes, there are portraits of owners as well as detail shots revealing the likes of wavy stone grains on fireplace surrounds and stained glass depicting fish or flora. There's a thorough chronology of projects both realized and not built, plus meticulous renderings and models of half-a-dozen houses in progress.

A captivated reader could nonetheless quibble about too short or fuzzy captions, like "A welcoming spot" or "Stairway offers opportunities for detailing." The project profiles have a tendency to fall into the passive voice – "By maximizing the house's stature, special views could be captivated" – and into shelter-mag speak about "an unmistakable gesture of hospitality" or "a coveted setting for happy getaways." The somewhat frustrating forewords, by Cesar Pelli and Robert Venturi, run just a few sentences apiece. Moreover, any architecture critic with strong Classical leanings could find fault with parts of the PSD designs themselves: muntins are sometimes lacking on broad windows, trim is flattened jokily and columns have vestigial capitals or swollen profiles in a Venturi vein.

But the overall high quality of the monograph still fully conveys what Venturi calls "architecture sublimely contextual within the natural-rural, cultural-historical place that is Cape Cod." The book was clearly worth the architects' investment in publishing.  

«BACK TO JULY 2009 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Have something to say about this article? Feel free to comment!

Comments feed