Perched on a Rocky Overlook, This Home Offers Striking Views in Bedford, New York

2022 Best of Year Winner for Large Country House

Talk about a drop-dead site. This 6,900-square-foot home perches, Fallingwater-style, on a rocky promontory overlooking a lake—actually a decommissioned early 20th–century quarry—bordered by a dense forest and a newly created waterfall.

Interior Design Hall of Fame members Steven Harris and Lucien Rees-Roberts, founders of their respective eponymous firms, made the most of the location with stacked glass-box volumes that intersect perpendicularly and cantilever out over the cliff. Rooms are designed to maximize views through mahogany-framed windows, while finishes and furniture were curated to connect thematically and palette-wise to the structure’s surroundings. Note the double-height entrance hall, with Ceppo di gris limestone flooring, a custom mottled-brick accent wall, and a sculptural spiral staircase that corkscrews down to the lower level, partially embedded in the bedrock. Stone also features in more intimate spaces, like the primary bath, with a Cristallo marble–topped cerused-oak vanity and Perla Venata marble flooring. The cantilever itself is given over to the living room, where floor-to-ceiling glass and an extended roof plane (planted with sedum) accentuate the floating quality. Here, a custom “smoke” resin coffee table, an Isamu Noguchi Akari light sculpture, and Franco Albini’s Tre Pezzi chair jibe with the surrounding landscape, upgraded with bluestone terraces and a free-form pool that nods to the lake.

Steven Harris Architects: steven harris; john woell; kevin blusewicz

rees roberts + partners: lucien rees-roberts; david kelly; deborah hancock; jaclyn cirasola; regina cassorla

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