This Hudson Valley Home Bridges Brooklyn Vibes and Barn Traditions

Architect Brent Buck first met Whit Bernard and Freya Zaheer in a cornfield wearing a flannel shirt. The Brooklyn-based couple wanted his opinion before purchasing the 20-acre property in Millerton, New York, where they envisioned building a weekend retreat for themselves, their three young sons, and their frequent guests. On that Sunday, Buck’s “upstate dad” look (in his words) made a good impression. “We thought Brent was this low-key local talent,” says Bernard, who had been referred to the architect by a Connecticut-based friend whose house Buck had designed. “We had no idea he was this rising star from the city.” The couple were sold, tapping Buck without interviewing anyone else.

Granted, their assumptions weren’t totally off: Buck and his own young family split their time between Litchfield County and Brooklyn, where he launched his studio in 2018 after a decade at Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. In the eight years since, Brent Buck Architects has built its name renovating town houses across the borough. Today, the team of eight is working on several new ground-up residential projects.

In Millerton, the hill’s peak might have seemed like the obvious place to build, taking advantage of the spectacular views of the Catskill Mountains. But, as Frank Lloyd Wright once said, “Hill and house should live together, each the happier for the other.” Buck and his clients agreed. “We wanted to make the home feel like it was coming out of the land, not set right on the ridgeline,” explains the architect, who settled on a barnlike gabled structure given the couple’s desire for “something appropriate to the place.” Dug into the terrain, the 4,400-square-foot house presents as a single story from the front but descends to a lower level. The sweeping great room and six bedrooms (three upstairs, three down) all look out across the landscape.

Materials take inspiration from agrarian architecture, with exposed Douglas fir beams, reclaimed barn siding, and hand-laid local fieldstone masonry. Broad windows, strategic skylights, and deep overhangs optimize vistas and weather exposure, keeping interiors light and warm. And spare furnishings spotlight craft—from the dining area’s custom walnut table to the stairwell’s Isamu Noguchi pendant. If the upstairs is all about wood, downstairs Buck created a more monastic experience with arched hallways clad in Roman Clay from Portola Paints. Throughout the home, meanwhile, the clients layered colorful Malkha textiles from India alongside antiques from their travels in Asia and Europe. Overall, Zaheer notes, the palette remains in “tonal alignment with the environment.”

She and Bernard, as envisioned, now regularly host friends and extended family, expanding sleeping capacity with tents on the grounds, which were designed by the landscape studio Eponymous Practice. A swimming pool, firepit, and wraparound deck allow for seamless indoor-outdoor living—perhaps especially so for the kids, who spend much of their time flying kites, playing hide-and-seek amid the cornstalks, or scouting for fossils. Despite this steady stream of activity, the house’s meticulous design makes it a calm sanctuary. “There’s this understated beauty,” notes Bernard. “It’s a great place to just sit, stare at the view, and relax a little bit.”

This story appears in the November issue. Never miss a story when you subscribe to AD.