Regional Work
The Hudson Valley
Houses that look like they grew where they stand.
The Berkshires
Rooted in the Land.
Hudson Valley houses share a quality that is easy to recognize and hard to manufacture. They are not simply placed on a site, but rooted in it. Houses that work in this region have a clear relationship to the land. Houses that simply happen to be here do not.
The Hudson Valley runs roughly from Yonkers in the south to Albany in the north, a corridor of around 150 miles that follows the river and the ridgelines on either side. The eastern side includes towns like Rhinebeck and Millbrook, with the Taconics rising behind them toward the Connecticut border. The western side takes in New Paltz, Woodstock, Saugerties, Kingston, and the Catskill foothills. In between, the river defines everything: the light, the views, the humidity, the way fog sits in the valleys on a November morning. Our work in the region includes the Rhinebeck Shingle Style Home, Country Lane Farmhouse in Millbrook, and Woodstock Farmhouse.
Country Lane Farmhouse
Gambrel Country Home
The gambrel roof is a focal point for the front elevation and fits in perfectly with the modern country design of this home.
The best homes in the Hudson Valley live up to what the landscape and the seasons demand of it.
Classical Addition
A Greek revival addition, in the vernacular style of the region, feels consistent with the age of the original home.
Early Houses
Built for Permanence and Cold.
The earliest European-settled houses in this region were built by Dutch colonists in the seventeenth century, and traces of that tradition are still visible in the landscape. Low stone walls, broad gambrel rooflines, and deep-set windows in thick stone or brick walls are the marks of that period. These were houses built for permanence and for cold. The walls were thick enough to hold heat. The entries were small and practical. The kitchens were the center of the house.
RIVER TOWNS AND UPLAND FARMS
An Expanding Architectural Vocabulary.
As the region grew through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the architecture followed suit. Federal and Georgian houses appeared in the river towns, many of them handsome and well-proportioned. Greek Revival followed, bringing gable-front facades and bold corner boards to both village centers and rural crossroads. Victorian-era houses brought more ornament: bay windows, wraparound porches, decorated gables, and the kind of confident detail that comes with prosperity and good local millwork. The farmhouses that spread across the upland areas were more modest, with connected barns, low ells, and practical additions accumulated over decades in response to the actual demands of working land.
THE COUNTRY HOUSE ERA
A Place to Draw Breath From the City.
By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Hudson Valley became a destination. Families from New York City built country houses along the river and in the hills, drawn by the landscape, the light, and the distance from the city. The architectural vocabulary expanded to include Colonial Revival, Shingle Style, and various interpretations of the English and American country house. These were houses designed for summer life and weekend escapes, but also for the specific pleasures the region offered: long views across the river, pastures and orchards, and an afternoon light that painters had been documenting since the mid-1800s. Westchester County, though geographically the southernmost part of the Hudson Valley, has its own distinct character and architectural tradition, and we have written about it separately.
That tradition of the house as a place to draw breath from the city is still very much alive. It drives most of the residential work we do in the region today.
SITE, SEASONS, AND MATERIALS
What the Landscape Demands.
What the landscape demands of a house here is specific. Views matter: across the river, up a hillside, over a meadow. A house that turns its back on them is a missed opportunity that is expensive to correct. The terrain is varied enough that siting requires real attention. A house on a ridge behaves differently from one tucked into a hillside, and both are different from a house in a river flat. The winters are serious enough to reward deep overhangs, covered entries, and mudrooms that are designed rather than improvised. The summers reward porches and outdoor rooms in ways that only become obvious once you have spent a July evening on a screened porch with the Catskills turning purple across the valley.
The materials that have always worked here continue to work. Local bluestone, fieldstone gathered from old walls, white oak and black locust, hand-split cedar shingles, and painted wood siding are not nostalgic choices. They are the materials that hold up, that respond well to this particular climate, and that age in ways that add rather than subtract from a house’s character.
Design Considerations
The river, terrain, and seasons shape every decision.
01 SITE AND VIEWS
Let the Site Organize the House
Views across the river, up a hillside, or over a meadow should guide siting and orientation. A ridge, a hillside, and a river flat each ask something different of a house.
02 FOUR-SEASON LIVING
Design for Winter and Summer
Deep overhangs, covered entries, and purposeful mudrooms support winter life, while porches and outdoor rooms make the most of summer.
03 MATERIALS AND AGE
Timeless Materials
Bluestone, fieldstone, white oak, black locust, cedar shingles, and painted wood siding belong to the region because they hold up and become more attractive as they age.
A Seriousness About the Site.
The best houses in this region share a common quality: a seriousness about the site, an honest use of materials, and a clear sense of what the house is for and who will live in it. That is where every project starts.
Projects in the Hudson Valley
A selection of Crisp Architects work in the region, including new homes, renovations, guest houses, pool houses, and accessory buildings.
Regional Work
Explore Other Regions.
Each region has its own landscape, history, and architectural traditions. Explore more of the places that shape our work.