Inspired by New England’s Coastal Vernacular

INTRODUCTION BY VICTOR DEUPI, PHD

A modest shingled building in a commercial district of Cape Cod houses the office of Polhemus Savery DaSilva Architects Builders (PSD) (1). The only hint at the creative work produced inside is the fanciful entry—an over scaled hood roof held up on emphatically stated cut-out bracket shapes and a sophisticated back-lit pattern made from the initials “PSD.” Inside, the company, led by CEO Aaron Polhemus and founded in 1996 by his now retired father, architect Peter Polhemus AIA, runs its architecture and construction practice as it has for nearly thirty years. In addition to the requisite drafting desks, computers, and bright lighting, are mock-ups of newel posts, balustrades, column capitals, parts of fireplace surrounds, and more. The conversations center on design (the best proportions for a window, the best approach for a driveway … ), construction (the best methods for waterproofing, the best options for sequencing … ) and, yes, how the Red Sox are doing, or where the fish are running.

Polhemus insists on a level of creativity, craft, and management professionalism that is unusual in design/build firms. In fact, the company doesn’t refer to itself in those terms, preferring to say “integrated architecture and construction” instead of “design/build” as the latter typically refers to a builder who employs a designer whereas PSD is a fully fledged architecture practice with rigorous academic training behind it. The architectural vision is provided by Design Principal John R. DaSilva, FAIA, and Senior Designer Sharon M. DaSilva, both exceptionally trained academic architects with experience at major twentieth-century architectural firms. Key employees studied at major institutions nationwide, and in some cases internationally.

Indeed, the firm is highly pedigreed, if you wish to accept Bernard Rudofsky’s designation of educationally trained architects from his groundbreaking book, Architecture Without Architects, which accompanied the 1964 exhibition he curated at MoMA of the same name. The subtitle, An Introduction to NonPedigreed Architecture, which he lays out in the preface and throughout the book and exhibition, refers to the vernacular, anonymous, spontaneous, indigenous, and rural buildings and monuments throughout the world that at the time had not been the subject of academic inquiry—at least not by architects.1 The work of PSD takes on Rudofsky’s challenge by learning from the vernacular architecture of coastal New England and re-presenting it as an intellectual exercise of modern residential design and construction, and in doing so they introduce profound artistic intent to their houses (2 and 3).

As John DaSilva believes, creating a place where dreams can flourish should be the aim of any creator of thoughtful and meaningful homes. He summarizes this goal with the term “poetic house.” 2 It is worth noting, however, that a house is not the same thing as a home, which is why we need the two words. Home is where we begin and end each day—it is a place of focus—and in that sense, it takes on much greater importance than the house itself. 3 As noted by DaSilva, “[u]sing the word and phrase ‘poetic’ and ‘house’ together involves the automatic transfer of familiar meaningcarrying associations invoked by ‘poetic’ (like artfulness, expression, intimacy, and emotion) to ‘house.’”4 The “poetic house,” then, is a place to dream and get lost, the perfect way to rediscover the simple pleasures of being at home, and this tends to be the central tenet—if not defining characteristic—of PSD’s work.

So, where does the ambition to create such houses come from, and how does PSD translate that into intentionally built form? The answer, for one, is simply in New England’s coastal vernacular architecture. 5 More specifically, the regions of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket have provided an extraordinary richness of built form that responds to such natural qualities as the omnipresent New England coast and the unique temperate micro-climates and reflected sunlight that it creates, or expansive views to the horizon over endless, scaleless dunes and marshes. There are of course historical qualities as well; for example, the many charming towns and villages where the whaling industry prospered, full of weather-beaten houses and curious public buildings such as the 1887 Chatham Depot, a whimsical neo-Gothic railroad station that is right down the street from PSD’s previous office (4). But what makes the coastal vernacular architecture of New England so powerful is not just its environmental response or obvious charm, but rather that, in the words of the noted American architectural historian Richard Guy Wilson, it is “both conservative and radical, pragmatically based in experience but [also] a source for new architectural solutions.”6 In that sense, the coastal vernacular architecture of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket offers ordinary solutions that transcend their familiarity by allowing clever and unique inventions that are not only infinitely variable, but also clearly identifiable within a rich tradition of building that encompasses the past, present, and future (5). It should come as no surprise, then, that Richard Guy Wilson is also one of the many writers on architecture who have shaped the firm’s thinking, which brings me to the next important point about PSD’s work in relation to what inspires it.

There are several late-twentieth-century architects and writers on architecture whose works, driven by their interest in history, the vernacular, or simply the ordinary, have contributed to the intellectual basis of PSD’s work, and many of them were important teachers, mentors, and friends. The debt to Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Charles Moore, both in their professional work and in their writings, has been explained at length in the firm’s previous books. Other influential figures include Cesar Pelli, Michael Graves, William Turnbull, and Turner Brooks, all successful practicing architects who experimented with various forms of postmodernism, and, in the case of Brooks, with integrated architecture and construction. These are traditions that are critical to the success of the firm’s work. In fact, the late Charles Jencks, about whom John has written extensively, designed a notable house on Cape Cod.7 He transformed an off-the-shelf garage kit into an ad hoc studio/guesthouse, renaming it the Garagia Rotunda—a combination of vernacular, shingle, and modernist grids with whimsical classical references—and it has since become an icon of postmodern architecture (6). 8 Jencks was particularly important in bringing postmodern architecture to the masses. It would not be an exaggeration to say that John DaSilva is one of the few beneficiaries of the intellectual tradition of building for the masses. DaSilva has carried it forward with such conviction and creativity, reminding us of how important the postmodern debates on architecture were in the late twentieth century, and how meaningful they remain today.

It should be noted that stylistic matters are not the primary concern to the work of PSD, as John would continue beyond those