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"View Slideshow\n\nArchitecture is hard,\" says Wendy Evans Joseph\u2014even if your client happens to be your spouse. When her husband, Jeffrey V. Ravetch, a scientist who heads the Leonard Wagner Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Immunology at The Rockefeller University in New York City and for whom she has created four other projects, including a home observatory and a humidor, asked her to design a studio for him on their weekend property in upstate New York, Joseph approached it the same way she tackles all of her projects. She began with \"a bold idea,\" something, says the architect, \"that can easily be understood and will soon gather and maintain the interest of the client. Then,\" she continues, \"I am able to go ahead and continue to work on the program and develop the details.\"\n\nIn the case of Ravetch's studio, intended solely as his private refuge for reading, writing and thinking, she wanted the structure to be as open to its setting as possible. Located near a cliff above a large pond, it is surrounded by woodland and meadows. Although the site offers fine views in all directions, Joseph never considered doing a transparent glass box. \"Instead, I wanted the building to have a presence that would relate to the landscape in clear and specific ways.\" So the bold idea the couple conceived is a simple, 525-square-foot rectangle with an 11-foot ceiling.\n\nThe skin of the building consists of smooth cedar panels accented by cedar slats, all stained matte black, a material chosen because of the first-rate wood craftspeople available in the area. (She opted for walnut for the interior walls and floors and installed it in horizontal strips that seamlessly echo the slats on the exterior.) Copper coping and scuppers and blackened steel provide textural contrast, as does the border of boulders, excavated from the property, around the site.\n\nSeated at his desk, Ravetch can enjoy a view of the woods framed by a square window to his left. More views are offered through three of the four sides of the building that consist of sheets of plate glass stitched together by pencil-thin strips of sealant. Hidden wood trusses form the cantilevers made necessary by this non-weight-bearing glass.\n\nOn the south fa\u00E7ade is the only entrance: a glass door that opens onto a small vestibule with an adjoining bath. She paneled it in walnut, as in the rest of the interior, and a window in the shower offers a view down to the pond. Just beyond, in a spare and uncluttered space, is Ravetch's desk. Designed, along with a side table, specifically for the project by Joseph, the pieces are a riot of triangular and trapezoidal planes, providing an intriguing geometric counterpoint to the rest of the studio. Behind the desk is a little kitchen concealed by a sliding door, containing a sink, refrigerator and espresso machine\u2014just the bare essentials for a space intended for study. Two lounge chairs in black leather face the fireplace, which is covered in small river stones, flanked by windows and centered on the north wall. A window seat occupies the northeast corner, and bookshelves form a portion of the east wall.\n\nA technology-packed basement gives no hint of its existence. Accessible only via a trapdoor hidden under the rug, it contains all the equipment necessary to connect Ravetch to his work in the city. Even in the woods, he has easy access online to many of his professional resources.\n\nAs Ravetch had hoped, the days spent away from his large, busy and well-populated university laboratory are more contemplative and productive than they were before. \"My weekends are the only times I get to be alone with my thoughts,\" he observes, \"and I now have an environment that allows me to more readily formulate the questions I want to address scientifically.\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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