Situated on nine acres of beautiful rolling meadow overlooking Crab Creek near Annapolis, Maryland, the clients' desire was to create a new residence with an English influence in the manner of the traditional, picturesque American country house. The clients also wished to evoke an aura of age and hand craftsmanship as a backdrop to their growing collection of antique English furnishings. The site was previously developed, and a severely neglected 1940s "Coca-colonial" was razed to make way for the new house. In addition to the many mature trees on the site, an existing tennis court, large free-form swimming pool, and boat house were retained, renovated, and incorporated into the overall site planning scheme.

Resolving the clients' contemporary functional requirements, living patterns, and ubiquitous desire for maximum openness to water views offered by the site, without corrupting the scale and character that define the English type, was a primary design challenge. Cost-effective techniques were devised to achieve a high level of hand detail in the woodwork. A study of furniture of the period provided inspiration for the resolution of many architectural design problems. For example, the floor-to-ceiling windows of the great room, recessed behind the stone arches of the waterfront loggia, were inspired by an early, glazed, breakfront china cabinet. The details of the entry porch columns were inspired by simple, decoratively chamfered table legs in a "cupid's bow" motif.