Lopez Island Retreat
For many years before building their vacation house the owners camped on the property, sunning themselves after swimming on the stone outcropping dubbed “elephant rock,” making s’mores around a campfire on rock’s edge as dusk fell. When it came time to build we spent a beautiful fall day on the property and decided two things above all: that elephant rock would remain as it was and that a new fireplace anchoring the house would be built in the spot of the old fire ring.
The house is simple: a great room in the middle with a bedroom suite on each side, all anchored to the site by fireplaces inside and out with a stone chimney rising from native rock. A path through the forest leads from a carport to the house which sits at edges of the trees and opens out to elephant rock, the shore, and views beyond.
Marvin was designer and project architect of the Lopez Island Retreat while an employee of Stephen Sullivan Architects.