LIVING LEGACIES: “WHERE GENERATIONS CAN CONVERGE”

The desire for homes where generations can gather wasn’t the creation of Covid, “but it did amplify it,” writes Homestead in its summer issue, turning for insight to JLF Architects, with its reputation – with design-build partner Big-D Signature – for creating iconic, award-winning examples of these legacy homes. “People started thinking in more depth about changing their lifestyle and raising and gathering their families in places that are less encumbered with all the world’s noise,” JLF design principal Paul Bertelli tells the magazine in the article Family Ties. “They come to us looking to build homes where multiple generations can converge.”

While the pandemic’s “urban exodus” may have contributed to an uptick in desire for such multigenerational escapes in the West’s wide-open spaces, the legacy home concept is foundational to JLF, known for its nearly 50 years of intentionally creating timeless houses of weathered fieldstone and hewn timbers that feel at one with their stunning settings.

Beyond beauty and sense of place, constructing homes for a future that may extend a century or more presents special design challenges. From the beginning, JLF works up masterplans that include where an addition or guesthouse might be built in 15-20 years. “It’s not built until it’s needed,” Bertelli says, “but from the beginning, we already know where it would go,” allowing later construction to retain an integral connection to both the landscape and the original house.

In addition to those long-range plans, legacy homes also require right-now, right-size planning that can feel comfortable and intimate for a couple on their own, yet graciously welcome large numbers of extended family and friends. One way that JLF meets that required flexibility is by shrinking bedrooms – “realizing that you’re only sleeping in that room,” says Bertelli – while expanding public spaces. And the convenient flow of an open plan fits most. “We haven’t done formal dining rooms in more than three houses in 15 years,” says Bertelli. Instead, dining areas are open to kitchens and great rooms in what he says has become a “consistent and successful combination” that serves to bring the whole family together even as they pursue separate activities.

Those activities can also warrant their own customized spaces – a dream list of amenities that can include game rooms, exercise rooms, ski and gear rooms, home offices, kid spaces, home bars and more, like the children’s loft, LED-lit wine cellar and home bar, shown above, from the True North project.

Equally important – and integrally tied to the deep connection of JLF designs to their surrounding landscape – are substantial outdoor living spaces that may include full outdoor kitchens, expansive alfresco dining and multiple gathering areas, often with a central fire pit, and always positioned to experience the impact of the natural setting.