The Ultimate Guesthouse

Pictured at right, in a photograph by Chris Kendall, is the guesthouse recently constructed at Edgewater, Richard Jenrette's property along the Hudson near Barrytown. Designed by architect Michael Dwyer and built by Mike Pelletier of Germantown, this Greek Doric structure was inspired by a building Mr. Jenrette saw while traveling in Paris. Dwyer strove to create an architectural effect similar to the original while maintaining continuity of scale and look with the main house at Edgewater—by adding, for example, near replicas of such elements as doors and windows.

The guesthouse started out more or less as a folly, and through the design process it became grander, both beautiful and usable. Everything was fabricated on site, including the bricks; the columns are masonry. Modern materials were used for the structure, and the outside of the building was covered with a stucco that was "rusticated": finished with a coating based on reddish sand that builder Pelletier first happened upon on a trip to Mystic, Connecticut and then purchased in bulk from an "aggregate" broker in New Jersey, and then scored with lines to make it look like granite blocks.