Battery Backus 2018-19_50wks
Daniel Snyder Architect P.C._Savannah, GA
During my time with Daniel Snyder Architect P.C. I had the opportunity to work on Battery Backus a 1100 sqft dwelling atop a historic gun battery on Tybee Island in Coastal Georgia. I worked with Dan, the principal, to fulfill most phases of the project. The project was prepared on a very tight budget and required tremendous effort by Dan and me to strip away all extravagances. Still the architecture is not timid, the rigorous design and detailing pushes wood studs, CDX plywood, and Hardie Board panels to become aesthetically significant. The dwelling takes a defensive position atop the Battery, the street side is protected by a high parapet wall, beyond it the Hardie is peeled away exposing a skeleton of wood sticks and glazed openings presenting the Atlantic Ocean beyond. The beach front site made the entrance sequence especially important; the occupant’s arrival is elongated through a series of constricted apertures, turns, pauses, and assents the tremendous view is held until the occupant enters the living quarters. The constraints of the historic battery required tremendous accuracy in the drawings, precise placement of each member was critical in order to sympathetically install the new dwelling into existing structure.
