BUILDING ON A guide to using natural beauty and traditional to your greatest advantage.

Origins of the Adirondack Style

In the late 1870s, , son of a railroad tycoon and the first Adirondack developer, built the first "Great Camp" on the shores of . was a collection of rustic dwellings that resembled European Swiss chalets, but with a primitive, naturalistic flavor that inspired a new architectural style. Durant was followed by William L. Coulter, who designed many camps, including Prospect Point (now Young Life), Eagle Island (now a Girl Scout Camp), and Moss Ledge, all on Upper Saranac Lake.

Today, Great Camp innovations permeate the Adirondack building style. This brochure will guide buyers of undeveloped lots, and those who wish to renovate or add onto camps, as they join the historic building tradition of the Adirondacks and bring their own creativity to their future Great Camp.

Three characteristics distinguished Adirondack camps: 1. Camp buildings were closely integrated with the landscape 2. Each camp had a distinctive compound plan with separate buildings for separate functions 3. Camps represented the first and fullest application of a rustic aesthetic in America

Start with a Tour of the Lake by Water

Adirondack architecture strives to harmonize with the surrounding scenery. Prospective camp owners should tour the lake slowly by water. Note the architectural features of the "Adirondack style" and, just as important, the placement of structures within the landscape.

During your trip, consider how the following guidelines enable both old and new structures to blend in: 1. Use of nature's textures and colors 2. Harmony of structures with contours of the landscape 3. Use of natural building materials 4. Preservation of natural vegetation and trees to ensure privacy 5. The absence of "suburban landscaping"

Use Nature's Textures and Colors

Nature offers you a rich spectrum to choose from: white pines, colorfully barked red pines, the balsam, dark green soft-needled hemlocks; yellow, paper and gray birches; sugar, red and striped maples; blueberry bushes and alder, native grasses and plants. Along the shoreline, they tie the lichen-covered boulders and ledges together in a necklace of green that lifts the eye up to the forest, then to the blue high peaks.

For textural ideas, search for natural rustic materials. Understand that hues will change with the seasons, light conditions and orientation. Observe the natural surroundings for dark browns, blacks, madders, grays, blues and earth tones.

“Before” “After”

For exterior colors, think brown-grays, brown-blacks, and subtle blue/greens, those used by the old caretakers. Pair it with the hues of old barn red., or black, or dark green.

On the other hand, avoid bright varnished yellows and oranges - they reflect and create glare in the sunlight and clash with natural forest colors and environment.

Take time to observe your surroundings at all times of day, in changing weather and during all seasons. Nature will provide you with all the notes and hues that you need - those that blend with your environment, that are sympathetic to it and retreat into the forested shoreline, unobtrusive to neighbors and paddlers alike.

Harmonize with the Landscape

Landscape features and humans scale are clues that define the elements of your camp. Like nature herself, compose your buildings with variation, but with careful understanding of their relationship to the shore, the Lake and the forest around you. Also, build with sympathy for your neighbors - not just those nearby but also those across the water. Residents on all sides of the lake should be able to view a natural and pristine shoreline.

Look at your property from every angle, from out on the lake itself, and consider how it will appear to others who pass by, who enjoy the forested shoreline, but welcome a home that blends seamlessly with the land, forest and water around it. Upper Saranac is unique in this regard. Consider that there are over 500 camps around its shores, yet few can be seen in their entirety - a testament to those who designed, built and enjoy them.

Use Natural Building Materials

Materials and designs should link to nature and local building traditions. There are several styles of architecture that characterize our Lake: the Shingle Style, the Swiss Revival, The Simple Victorian, the Chalet and the Log Lodge. All are truly "Adirondack Style" as it has developed over years. They all meld with their surroundings and with one another.

In addition to a Lake tour, we recommend you spend some time with some of the many books on Adirondack architecture and history; they are filled with good ideas. Surveyors, arborists, architects and builders can also assist and advise you as you plan your camp. Specifically, local architects and builders understand the practical aspects of "Adirondack architecture" - how roof overhangs, covered walkways, steep gables, rough board and batten, or "brainstorm" siding stand up to our heavy snows, high winds and hard rains.

Preserve Natural Vegetation and Trees

Natural greenery adds an important buffer to protect our Lake, its views, especially from the water to the shore, and the ecosystem that is its very life. The Agency (APA) has set legal shore line vegetation requirements, and rules regarding the cutting of larger trees, but you can work within these regulations with beautiful results.

Even within the rules, think a long time before you cut. If it is helpful, take a moment to compare the Saranac Lake shoreline with your experience of other populated lakes - lakes whose shores are shorn of trees and lined with homes. Consider how many years it will take for a shoreline cedar to re-grow; how many generations before a towering white pine or poplar will grace your property if cut.

Consult with an experienced tree surgeon, who will show you how limbs can be pruned to fashion "windows" to open lake views, but will .prevent your camp's lights from piercing the Lake's quiet solitude, frightening the loons away and perhaps shining directly onto a neighbor across the way.

Landscaping

There is no need for "designer" landscaping. Nature has already done that for you. It comes with your deed - your forest, the moss-covered rocks, the natural undulations of the land. Use the landscape for inspiration and creativity. Look at what grows naturally along our Lake shores - it flourishes and requires no maintenance as it is part of the ecosystem that makes Saranac so pristine.

Large sweeping lawns are not appropriate to the Lake; they disturb the natural surroundings and are not kind to the environment. They alter the run-off of groundwater and infuse the lake water with undesirable nutrients. Avoid the use of asphalt and unnecessary paths near the water. Pine needles and duff that are thick and springy to footfalls, lined by White Birch logs, provide a pleasing and safe alternative that requires little maintenance and no path lighting.

Avoid at all costs "broomsticking" or "limbing up" the cedars and evergreens on the shoreline. (Doing so places you at risk for APA fines and expensive restoration.) Instead cut "window" views to the lake by purposefully removing a branch here, or there.

Remember: You can see the water from your camp with a filtered view that gives you privacy, maintains the uninterrupted cedar-lined shore, and preserves the view for passing canoeists, kayakers and others.

Protect the Lake

Upper Saranac Lake is a pristine Adirondack lake and its preservation has been paramount for generations. More than 47 percent of the shoreline is a Forest Preserve and these "Forever Wild" state lands today offer the same beauty to us that Native Americans and the earliest visitors saw as they first walked its shores or canoed quietly by.

Today, there are many things we can do to preserve this legacy.

Avoid the use of fertilizer. It is harmful to shore vegetation. More importantly, the Lake suffers mightily from products that contain phosphorous - the single most destructive nutrient that humans add to lakes. It causes vegetation "blooms" and kills aquatic habitat.

Be sure your septic system is adequate and properly maintained. Periodic pumping is a crucial part of normal maintenance that helps to preserve the delicate balance of this ecosystem. As your system ages out, learn about and install the newest technology that requires less open space, preserves your mature trees, and is less expensive than old style leach fields.

We are all caretakers of this unique lake and land. Living here, you will absorb its distinctive culture, the generational appreciation of its serenity, its rejuvenating qualities. We trust that you too will share a determination to protect, cherish and care for your living treasure, endowing it to future generations.

For More Information, Contact: Adirondack Furniture and the Rustic Tradition Craig Gilborn Adirondack Style Ann Stillman O’Leary American Country Houses of the Gilded Age Arnold Lewis Cabins and Camps Ralph Kylloe of the Adirondacks Harvey Kaiser Rustic Style Ralph Kylloe Shingle Styles Leland M. Roth Studies in Design Charles Dresser The Adirondack Cabin Robin Obomsawim The Houses of McKim, Mead, and White Samuel G. White