There Are Two Ways to Reach This Island Retreat
By boat or by setting across the frozen pond on foot.
TEXT BY SARAH STEBBINS
PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFF ROBERTS
When Portland architect Will Winkelman’s clients purchased Wood Island in Denmark’s Moose Pond, they thought they’d build a classic gabled camp. Winkelman drew them a trio of peaked, connected structures that nestle, like a paper chain, among the island’s pines and oaks, plus another iteration: three shed-roofed “pods,” with glass walls and ceiling panels, linked with flat-roofed screened porches. “We weren’t trying to be contemporary, more just responding to the landscape,” says Winkelman, noting that the kitchen sink aligns with a sill at the base of an 18-foot-tall bank of windows that immerses dishwashers in the forest. After the clients greenlighted his design, he and former colleague Melissa Andrews worked with Denmark builder Henry Banks to erect a structure as quiet as a shadow. Western-red-cedar shingles are stained the color of pine-tree bark, and heart-pine fascia and framing, reclaimed from a local mill, blend with fallen needles. Island comings and goings are similarly inconspicuous. When the owners can’t travel by boat, they set off across the frozen pond on foot.
