On the Beach
A new house on the dunes of Biddeford Pool captures the bright and breezy style of summer in Maine.
By Rebecca Martin Evarts
On the windswept spit of land separating Biddeford Pool from the Atlantic Ocean, houses are perched in a row like gulls on a boardwalk railing. But unlike the gulls, which come in more or less uniform feather and beak styles, these houses vary widely - one-story 1940s cottages to angular contemporaries to traditional shingle shacks on stilts.Designing a new house in such a visible spot can be tricky. It should fit in yet have its own identity, be striking yet not ostentatious, respect traditional styles but avoid cliché, as well as conform to the many regulations concerning construction on fragile dunes.
