Still life
Once an undeveloped horse farm, 24 acres of open land gave Tal Schori and Rustam-Marc Mehta of GRT Architects plenty of inspiration: light shifting throughout the day, the pond’s reflections changing by the hour, a season turning almost imperceptibly. They designed this bucolic home and painter’s studio around that idea of discovery – as its own kind of wellness – which now sets the stage for our new arrivals.
Design your own retreat
Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman
Famously described as “a special refuge from the strains of modern living,” the Eames Lounge Chair from Herman Miller® defines relaxation with its embracing seat and perfect pitch.
Atlason Americano Sofa
Americano starts with a simple premise: more room to be yourself. Designed by Hlynur Atlason in collaboration with DWR, it’s “luxurious,” he says, “in a way that you can spread out and find your own place.”
Perron Pillo Bed
Willo Perron doesn't believe in rules. The Pillo Bed – low, fully upholstered, with every edge rounded into the next – is proof. “I grew up with a futon on the floor,” Perron says, “so low beds feel natural to me.”
Vipp720 Open-Air Sofa
Danish maker Vipp built its name on industrial simplicity, and the Open-Air Sofa carries that restraint outdoors. Comfortable, quick-dry cushions make it easy to slow down and enjoy the view.
Your move
“Americano explores scale, composition, and ways of lounging in luxury,” notes designer Hlynur Atlason. With its striking proportions, his Americano Swivel Chair shapes a room – and the feeling of deep comfort. Its movement also gives you options, he notes. Set on a 360-degree rotating base, it invites you to turn toward the conversation, the scenery, or away from it all.
In plain sight
For Tal Schori and Rustam-Marc Mehta, founding partners of GRT Architects, it was a sense of discovery that shaped their every decision in a weekend retreat and painter’s studio made for a Manhattan couple. They designed the home to reveal itself slowly, as its own kind of wellness.
The first things you notice are the light and land: expanses of blue sky, a sparkling pond, rolling green hills. The main house sits low against the earth, nearly invisible from the road. Inside, the architecture pulls you gently down and in. Shallow grading allows the bedroom level to be tucked into the earth, where trapezoidal windows trace an ever-changing view: water shifting with the hour, the season, the weather. “Each window frames a specific view and creates a different relationship with the landscape,” Schori says.
Just a short walk away sits the painter’s studio: a pinwheel-shaped space that fans out in three cedar-and-brick wings, each angled to face something different: water, forest, open field. Mehta notes, “It’s unapologetically a spatial, joyous exploration of geometry and light.”
The material palette was chosen for ease and longevity. “We used materials that are rot-resistant and weather beautifully over time,” Schori says. Cedar boards clad the main house’s upper level; brick anchors the bedroom wing buried into the hillside. What reads as a standard cedar-shingle roof in fact comprises solar shingles, generating power for the house and feeding any excess back to the grid. Still, restraint doesn’t mean the house holds back. “The indulgence, if you will, is the geometry,” Mehta says – and the view earns its keep the same way.
