Tent Deconstructed

It begins—and ends—with a campsite. Manhattan-based architects David Leven and Stella Betts were building a home for a client in Ancram when a local friend told them about 10 untouched acres nearby. “It was barely for sale,” explains Betts. “But we knew someone was thinking about selling it.” The husband-and-wife design partners had been coming to Columbia County since the late ’90s and had found the Hudson Valley a perfect canvas to explore many of the themes that recur throughout their work: the interplay between architecture and geometry; the hierarchy of spaces; the artful possibilities in the design of doors and windows; and, most especially, how far they could meld indoor and outdoor living within the framework of a design.

Hoping to build their own retreat, they looked at various properties in the area but always came back to the privately sited meadow in the middle of woods. “It always just sucked us back in,” explains Betts. “Other properties had huge soaring views of the mountains, but we loved the privacy of being tucked in the woods. I mean, talk about outdoor domestic space—it felt like a room with trees surrounding it. We just fell in love.”

Photos by Deborah DeGraffenreid