Set on a rise of nearly 300 acres of rolling meadows, ponds, forests, and river frontage, Vergelegen is a Berkshire estate without parallel. Developed by two art historians in collaboration with an award-winning creative team composed of world-class American architect Tom Kundig, acclaimed British landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith, and a Berkshires-based master builder. This is an iconic modern house that affords vast vistas of the Berkshire Hills and Taconic Mountains. With cantilevered decks and entire walls of glass that open mechanically, the house offers matchless indoor/outdoor living.
Built around a central fireplace, the living area is open plan with an adjacent dropped-ceiling music room and an innovative public/private kitchen with a hidden galley butler’s pantry. A long straight hallway runs the length of the upper floor, leading from the living room at one end, past the dining room, kitchen, a sound-proof office, two bedrooms (bathrooms en-suite), finally to the primary suite at the far end. The ground floor consists of a double-height entryway, heated garage, mudroom/tv room, wine storage, and laundry.
The property also includes a newly renovated 1840’s farmhouse and bank barn, two charming full-season guest cabins, an art storage building, state-of-the-art equestrian facilities (including indoor and outdoor arenas, a 6-stall barn. 11 paddocks, and miles of trails), a lined spring-fed swimming pond and docks, a heated two-car garage, river frontage, and a covered bridge. Over five miles of estate roads, bridle paths, marked and groomed footpaths and destination sites for picnicking and cookouts make the entire estate and a lifetime of outdoor activity accessible.
What’s the most compelling thing about this property?
For a modernist building built within the last 10 years, the textures of the house are earthy, and you have an immediate sense of time passing. The steel shows the markings from its industrial beginnings, and features like the leather-wrapped desks in the offices are luxurious and understated. Surfaces inside are matte, so the sky and the water outside really bring the sparkle. The vision for this property is to strike a balance between refuge and prospect.
For whom is this house perfect?
This house is for lovers of land, and of art, and of architecture in equal measure. This undulating piece of New England property has woodglens, meadows, a meandering river, swimming lake, giant views, and forest in proportion to the buildings and farm activity.
What’s the most fun thing to do within five miles of this house?
Within five miles you can pick up a copy of “The Five Village News” or the “NY Post”; buy a styrofoam container of nightcrawlers or a French tarte au citron. The Berkshires is known for its blend of art and culture.
If this house could talk, what secret would it tell about its history?
The secret of this property is that its topography—once slated for a 16-parcel development—is, in its current iteration, land greatly loved, revered, and cultivated in organic simplicity. If the house and land could talk, they would impart a message of peace and balance.
