Provincetown Residence Wins National Design Award

Residence in Provincetown Evokes Historical Past of Piers and the Town’s Boat Building Past

OLD TOWN, ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Michael Winstanley Architects & Planners is pleased to announce that they have won a second national design award from the Society of American Registered Architects (SARA) for their Private Residence in Provincetown, Massachusetts.  The Design Award of Honor was announced at SARA’s 55th Annual National Conference in San Diego, CA, late in 2011.  This was the firm’s second award from SARA at the event.  The first award was a Design Award of Recognition for 107 North West Street in Alexandria, VA; the firm’s offices.

The 3,000 sf wood frame residence was designed to evoke the historical memory of Provincetown Harbor, whose shorelines once boasted hundreds of piers jutting into the water, through the expression of the wood pier structure of the house.  The massing on the second floor is set back reminiscent of the industrial fish and storage sheds that sat on top of the piers.  The materials are predominately wood and copper sheet metal with stainless steel cables and couplings that are detailed with a nod toward the boat building industry that so dominated the fishing village at the turn of the century.

“We are very happy to be recognized by SARA with this design award and even happier that it was our second award,” says Michael Winstanley AIA AICP.  “The Provincetown residence was a great platform for us to express our design ideas.”

The Provincetown Residence also boasts numerous environmental attributes.  The south façade is predominantly glass and capitalizing on the passive solar gains in the winter while shaded by the second story sunshade in the summer.  Additional energy conservation design considerations include natural daylighting and natural ventilation.  The pier structure, much like its precedent, allows tidal surges, windblown sand and natural vegetation to migrate under and around the house without disturbing the natural ebb and flow of these systems.

The Society of American Registered Architects was formed in 1956 in Atlanta Georgia by Wilfred J. Gregson and is open to anyone who carries an architectural license.  The Credo for the organization is “Architect Helping Architect.”