Peter Bohlin’s Forest House is Reimagined

The home’s exterior is a rhythmic interplay of cedar and expansive glass. Its vertical siding is meant to mimic the surrounding hemlocks and oak trees.

The entrance to the linear structure serves as an unfolding reveal to a property perched on a steep, boulder-strewn slope that blends into the landscape.

The landscape design employs a processional approach where a dirt path leads to a wood bridge and down a few steps to a covered breezeway.

“It feels like you’re suspended within the woods outside,” homeowner Brian Martin says of the soaring ceiling and walls of windows that define the living room.

When architect Peter Bohlin designed a forest retreat for his parents in the rural northwest corner of Connecticut in 1975, he had sustainability and the environment in mind.

Sited between the dense evergreens and bright woodlands of West Cornwall, the linear structure employs a palette of natural materials that rests on slender
concrete piers to minimize its footprint on the fragile forest floor. Just sixteen feet wide, the property’s slim profile is camouflaged among the trees.

“The house was meant to reconnect my parents to the landscape they loved,” Bohlin says of a project he dubbed Forest House. “I wanted the architecture to elevate that experience.”

Maintaining that connection to the surroundings is what architect Beth Wells focused on last year when she was hired to renovate the fifty-year-old residence.

“I was struck by how the original design not only respects the landscape but also enhances it,” Wells says of the 1,880-square-foot home. “We wanted to disturb as little
as possible of the core design but also restore some of the aspects that were lost over the years.”

That restoration focused on the home’s bathrooms and windows. Prior owners extended the two baths with an addition that jutted out from the main facade. The extensions were demolished and the baths rebuilt to their original design. New windows adhere to the dimensions and style of the original ones.

The heart of the home features a living room with a double-height ceiling and a dramatic wall of glass that frames the Litchfield Hills like a living canvas. Bohlin chose a warm, monochromatic scheme of natural wood punctuated by industrial steel connectors. The home’s most poetic feature is the interior catwalk. Suspended above the living area, it connects the private sleeping quarters, offering a bird’s-eye view of the forest floor through the glass facade.

It was that dialogue between living space and nature that caught the eye of Brian Martin, who purchased the property in 2019. Initially used as a weekend retreat, he now lives there year-round. “I just love how the design complements the surroundings without imposing on it.”

Project Team
Architecture: Bohlin Cywinski Jackson; Beth Wells Architecture + Interiors
Interior design: Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
Builder: Richard E. McCue