Cove House
On a five-acre coastal parcel in Edgartown, Massachusetts, MVVA has situated a one-story farmhouse, garage, and pool house designed by Maryann Thompson Architects within a pastoral garden landscape. MVVA’s design paid close attention to local microclimates, installing meadows of native grasses, flowers, juniper, and sassafras on the windiest parts of the site, allowing open views to the water and surrounding pastures. In the sheltered areas closer to the house, denser plantings of evergreen and deciduous trees, perennials, and shrubs are organized around curving stone paths that link the main farmhouse to its two outbuildings.
The paths and planting were designed to envelop the house, gradually revealing the forms of buildings, terraces, and decks as one strolls the garden path.
At the pool house, a sunken garden adjacent to a sauna provides a cool respite amidst moss-covered boulders and the shade of gray birch and Japanese maple. Above the sauna garden, a small woodland of beech, magnolia, and catalpa thrives within an encircling landform. A path of black locust planks meanders through a tapestry of shade-loving perennials that flower throughout the year.
On the other side of the property, an orchard of apple, pear, and plum trees gives way to patches of raspberry and blueberry, and finally to a 250-foot-long allée of closely spaced London plane trees that shelter a grass path leading to adjacent properties.
