The Floor Plans

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The lower level layout under the master bedroom suite only seems a separate structure, but the note reads: below master suite. Although it has no access stairs inside the house, we eventually will build a set of stairs down from the gallery, on the outside of the house, against the East wall of master bedroom. For now the lower room will serve as our safe room, for use when a hurricane is passing through and eating the main house bit by bit as it proceeds to jettison everything we own into the swimming pool. In the plan this space is set aside for use as an efficiency apartment with a small kitchen and full bathroom, the notion here is that we could rent out the apartment to a caretaker, with free or lower rent in exchange for the added peace of mind. But that is the apartment - for now a great place to store our valuables - out of sight - for additional security when we are off-Island.
Throughout the process the design for the house was a product of our own ideas and an extensive collective wish-list was developed from what I will term numerous discussions. We wanted two things in this house - first and foremost was the concept of everything on one level, no stairs anywhere. This meant no sunken living room, no roof walks, or porticos, or spiral stairs, not even a full step above grade; luckily ramps are OK as long as they aren't too steep!
The second request, once we'd picked out and purchased the lot, was that the house be aligned to the north and south, with our gallery facing due east, out over the approach to Christiansted Harbor to Buck Island, some seven miles distant.
For good reason the house in Harwich, which Debbie and I designed and built ten years ago, is aligned in the same manner, although for an altogether different reason. In Harwich, Massachusetts, in the northern hemisphere, where the winters are long as the December shadows; the solar radiation streaming in those south-facing windows and doors add up to passive solar / supplemental home heating method. In Harwich, the window size and placement had more to do with function as opposed to design considerations.
In St. Croix we don't have a heating system of any kind, and we may or may not have air conditioning, therefore aligning the house in any manner to take advantage of the sun and it's effects are not a priority. Shade from what the locals refer to as the "relentless sunshine" however, is a consideration. Again window size and placement came into play when we considered the type of window, the size and placement. Plot 71 in Estate Concordia, Queen's Quarter, Northside "B" forced a new set of priorities upon the design. Sunlight in the morning, streaming across the great room floor, from stem to stern thirty six feet of house, was OK, but only for a short while. That is until the flaming orb was high enough in the sky for the gallery roof to proffer some shade and cast the room with cool shadows.
Coupled with the trade winds from the north east, this will be an extremely comfortable room. Notice the three out-swing french doors, exiting the Great Room onto the Gallery, these will be open all day; protected, even if it rains it will be dry under the cast-concrete Gallery roof.
Windows on the south-facing facade (see south elevation plan) are few, to keep the solar gain down and thereby keep the rooms themselves cooler. Windows facing north are many, as are the glass in the east wall of the Great Room, there is also a full-size single french door in the east exterior wall of the north guest bedroom, which is a separate entrance for the guests who occupy that room. We haven't yet chosen rates for the rooms (just kidding, guests will pay in other ways) but this is the best of the two, make your resevations early. One friend mentioned that she would use the outside shower and bathroom entrance from the patio, rather than walking all the way around through the hall, inside the house! Whatever!