The setting for this project is a quiet residential neighborhood in the largely traditional town of Old Lyme, Connecticut. A small, heavily wooded site, choked with invasives and sloping steeply down from the street, had scared away would-be buyers and the lot had languished for some time. The buyer of this lot had a vision for a building that would address the street, despite the sloping terrain, and take full advantage of the southern exposure and distant water views to the rear. It would require a custom design with a great deal of finesse. By creating a three-story structure with a flat roof, stepping down to two and then one story in the rear, we were able to address the street on the front, create a human scale on the rear, and all the while stay within the restrictive height limitation imposed by the zoning regs. The composition of this project (GREYTSTONE) is a bold assemblage of forms that represent the timeless elements of construction in Connecticut and throughout New England. It is also a commentary on how those forms are deployed on a landscape. The classic New England barn is built on a slope enable two walkout levels upper and lower, with for example, horses below, and hay above. Greystone takes advantage of its sloping terrain to provide privacy above and indoor-outdoor below, in the rear. Familiar forms are seen throughout the building. Stone walls, the ubiquitous human element marking human inhabitation of the state. Storage sheds, typical of the agrarian history. A virtual sliding barn door, and a simple wooden volume behind, simple and evocative of early times. Stone and wood. Simple forms and natural materials. Composed in a unique, fresh way to respond to the needs and wants of today while hearkening to the past.