Northshore Magazine

in a quaint New England town, the last thing you'd want to do is build a contemporary contraption that disrespects the local architectural flavor. That sort of behavior might fly in the Hamptons, but it's not at all advisable if you want to preserve neighborhood harmony. Understanding this unwritten rule, a couple set out to find a vacation home where they could while away summers on the coast. The wife, Amy Huber, is familiar with the territory: Her father grew up here and his family is originally from Rockport, descended from the original settler, Richard Tarr. Additionally, her grandmother, Marion Dodge Clark, lived in Rockport when Huber was a child. "We used to take early [morning] walks around the town as little children and [our grandmother] would show us all of the secret paths and tell us funny stories," Huber says. Besides the fact that Rockport is stunningly beautiful, these memories have always drawn me to Rockport." Now married with four sons of her own and living in the United Kingdom, Huber and her Austrian-born husband wanted a summer place in the area. They settled on a house on Gap Head Road without even seeing it in person. "We sent my dad to check it out," she says. "I knew the exact house and location." Buying the house was the easy part; the tough work lay ahead. Nestled among granite outcroppings near the water, the home had seen better days. Years of neglect and exposure to the salty New England air had left it weathered and tired. But there were other problems. "It used to be somewhat of a rooming house and was divided up into apartments over the years," says the couple's architect Colin Flavin of Boston-based Flavin Architects. "It had been dramatically reconfigured. There were two bedrooms on the first floor and two or three on the second floor." The result, he continues, was a dark warren of spaces. 168 KJ NS Mar14 FEFlavin.indd 168 1/16/14 3:22 PM

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