Bear Pond Rebuild
A Four-Season Lakefront Retreat in Turner, Maine
The Challenge
The clients—a young professional family with kids in Turner, Maine—owned an old, dilapidated camp on the edge of the water. It wasn’t big enough for their growing family, the space felt awkward, and the main living area didn’t take advantage of the lake views. Overall, it wasn’t what they were looking for. What started as a remodel conversation quickly became clear: we needed to tear it down and rebuild.
The design challenge was rebuilding within the identical footprint while adding usable space and bringing the building up to current code. The right site, with an existing deck, septic system, and preserved stone fireplace and chimney, left little room for error. Any foundation work risked disturbing the neighboring property or the lake’s edge, and therefore, margins for change were extremely thin.
The Design Solution
I designed the new structure to fit the exact same footprint but reorganized the interior spaces for better flow and integration with nature. I added a loft with a spiral staircase to create an additional living space, all while maintaining an intimate scale perfect for a lakefront camp.
The key innovation was specifying helical piers for the foundation instead of traditional concrete. This minimized site disturbance, avoided complications with the neighbor’s property and the lake edge, and significantly reduced the use of energy-intensive concrete.
The tall, vaulted space connects the back of the loft visually to the edge of the water, creating an airy, light-filled interior. The lakeside features an expansive glass porch that maximizes the connection to the water. The glass wall is composed of a series of traditional double-hung windows—a contemporary approach to views grounded in regional vernacular that makes the design feel both fresh and timeless.
Energy Performance
The rebuild transformed a drafty three-season camp into a high-performance four-season retreat.
What Makes This Project HellBent
The clients for this project had clear requirements—preserving the footprint of the building, keeping the fireplace, adding space, maximizing views—and I worked within that framework to create something better than we both imagined.
The helical pier foundation is a perfect example of finding innovative solutions where site constraints are concerned. A typical architect might have defaulted to traditional concrete despite the tight site. Instead, after researching alternatives and consulting with the builder on constructability, we decided that this foundation was better for the site, more sustainable, and easier to execute.
The integration of contemporary elements—the expansive glass, the soaring vaulted space—tied together with traditional details like the double-hung windows and the preserved stone chimney, creates a design that feels rooted in Maine lakefront vernacular while being unmistakably new and unique at the same time.
Details
Project size: 1,000 sf
Building shell: R-30 floor over unheated crawlspace, R-25 walls, R-50 roof, double-glazed windows
Systems: aerothermal heat pump system, heat pump water heater
Architect: Hellbent Design Studio
Builder: Grady’s Carpentry
