Up to the Challenge
The full impact of the home’s unique floor plan is revealed in the main foyer that ascends three stories from the basement-level entry to the loft high above it. The tile floor in this high-impact space features radiant heating panels underneath it. This provides a practical method of temperature control in an area of this volume. Both the main floor and the secondary bedroom levels feature a number of overlooks down into this dramatic space.
Creating a spacious high-end production home for a tricky uphill site may have given a different builder reason to pause, but it didn’t trouble Jim Cimbalista, custom home director for DeLuca Custom Homes, Newtown, Pa.
Using his design and market savvy and the firm’s vast residential construction expertise, Cimbalista created the Sienna, a 6600-square-foot, multi-level home that serves as the model at Stone Ridge Estates in Buckingham, Pa. The $1.6 million, European-style residence features an exciting, three-level floor plan that capitalizes on the wooded site’s spectacular views.
"We like to challenge ourselves," says Cimbalista. "This lot was very tough to build a large home on. You really need to have a lot of engineering experience, as well as experience in how to create a floor plan that functions well."
Developed as a model home for luxury builder DeLuca Custom Homes, the $1.6 million Sienna attracted buyers with its eclectic European-style exterior, a departure from the traditional architecture more typical for its Bucks County location. "The tallness of the house reflects the height of the trees around it," says architect Jim Cimbalista. The home’s low-maintenance exterior features a combination of locally quarried stone, stucco and an asphalt roof. The Sienna’s floor plan is similarly untraditional. The steep slope of the site dictated that the home’s main entry be on its basement level.The home’s layout is actually the reverse of the more common hillside configuration in which the walkout lower level opens off the back. In this case, the site dictated that the walk-out opportunity would be oriented toward the front rather than the rear.
Cimbalista came up with a masterful design that overcomes the possible pitfalls of this configuration by creating a distinctive entry on the home’s lowest level, topped by two more floors of well-planned living space above it. The design turned what might have been a major drawback for the home, a reversed hillside site, into its most compelling feature.
The plan’s entry is so architecturally dramatic, inside and out, that it virtually eliminates any objection a homeowner might have to what is essentially a basement entrance, according to Cimbalista.
"This home has a really great entry sequence," he says, referring to the covered entry portico that spans halfway across the home’s front facade. A combination of materials and textures such as local fieldstone, bluestone, brick and cedar gives this indoor/outdoor space a warm and rustic appearance. Because of the topography of the construction site, this level of the home is already 15 feet above the street.
The Sienna’s entry portico is as inviting a front porch as one will ever find. Finished in a variety of materials including Bucks County fieldstone, brick, bluestone and a tongue-in-groove, cedar-paneled ceiling, the design of the porch bids guests to linger here and enjoy the view or the babble of the built-in fountain. In addition to recessed lighting, the porch ceiling includes hidden speakers that are connected to the home’s sound system.Once inside, the ceiling in the foyer soars three stories high. A stacked tower of windows, punctuated by an arched dormer at its apex, fills this key space with both natural light and a view of the home’s heavily wooded surroundings.
The spacious lower level includes a wet bar and home theater, and provides the homeowner with the option of limiting entertaining to this floor. There is even room enough for a grand piano. "Guests can come in to the home directly from the motor court and spend their time on this level," Cimbalista says. "There’s no need to even bring them upstairs unless you want to."
The kitchen, formal entertaining space, family room, master suite and den on the main floor revolve around a central staircase that gives the house a 360-degree orientation. This design incorporates a walk-through wet bar into this circulation hub, making it easily accessible from any area of the main floor.
With the push of a button, a movie screen descends from the ceiling in the home theater, located on the entry level. The coffered ceiling is created using a combination of drywall and suspended panels accented by wood trim. Recessed lighting designed into the ceiling allows the homeowner to custom program lighting sequences that automatically dim the lights as a movie is projected onto the screen.Three comfortably-appointed bedrooms and a versatile loft are featured on the home’s uppermost level. Each bedroom features plenty of space for a sitting area, as well as its own full bath. The central loft, which overlooks the family room below on one side and the foyer on the other, is designed so that older children can have their own space for studying, entertaining friends or using the computer.
"People love the openness of this plan," says Cimbalista. "But while they say that they like an open plan, they don’t love the echoes typically associated with one. You have to be very careful when designing a home of this size to consider that." With the Sienna, he paid close attention to the relationship of spaces, ceiling heights and sound control throughout the interior in order to eliminate excess noise.
The Sienna was built as a spec home and was sold after completion.
Project Features
Builder/Architect/Interior Design: DeLuca Custom Homes, Newtown, Pa.
Major Products Used:
Appliances: General Electric
Cabinetry: Kale
Countertops: Suburban Marble
Exterior Finish: Bucks County Field Stone, Stucco
Plumbing Fixtures: Delta
Windows: Andersen
Home Theater: Sony, Meridian.
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