Mason.

Halcyon Lodge sits on a ridge two hundred feet above the Pacific, on a parcel that had been logged in the 1920s and grown back into a coastal forest. Our client — a software founder with a deep dislike of glass houses on cliffs — asked for something that could sit through a winter storm without rattling.

The plan is simple: three volumes, each oriented to a different view, connected by a continuous spine that runs north-to-south down the contour of the ridge. The structure is exposed Douglas-fir glulam, the cladding is shou sugi ban cedar (charred in the field, by us, over four days in June). A single chimney — basalt, drystacked from a quarry seven miles east — anchors the living volume.

Eighteen months from broken ground to certificate of occupancy. The general contractor was new to the firm; he stayed on for two more projects after. We logged 64 site visits across the build, never fewer than two of us on site.

The lodge was awarded an ALA Honor in 2024. The owner's family spent Thanksgiving 2024 there. The chimney works.

A note on cost: this was not an inexpensive house. We are happy to share the line items with serious clients on the same kind of program. We try not to repeat the same building twice.