VIA43

Located in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains, VIA43 represents over a decade of Studio MM’s design philosophy made tangible, proving that exceptional design emerges from thoughtful site response, craft-led collaboration, and the quiet celebration of daily life.

The project includes a private residence, an architecture studio, and a separate bunkhouse. VIA43 is a living design practice—a place where professional expertise and personal life converge. From the outset, the house was designed to balance multiple lives under one roof. As a place to live, host, and work, each function is supported by its own architectural rhythm.

Site Driven Design

Years before breaking ground, our client found a quiet clearing near the Catskills—a property anchored by an old stone firepit with a singular view toward the western mountains. The land stayed with her. When she and her husband decided to permanently plant their roots upstate, they returned to this place. The owner had long planned to hold onto the property, but when he learned that she was an architect planning to build with deep care and intention, he said, “If I ever sold it, it would be to someone like you.” That existing firepit became an anchoring element in the design—a decision that would shape everything that followed.

From the outset, VIA43 needed to balance competing activities: a place to live, host, and work. Rather than compartmentalize these functions, the home gives each program its own architectural rhythm while maintaining visual and spatial connections throughout. The home’s layout is long and low, hugging the site with horizontal gestures that tuck second-floor volumes back into the landscape rather than stacking them prominently on top—settling into the land rather than sitting apart from it.

First Impressions: The Glass Gallery as a Threshold

Upon arrival, VIA43 immediately reveals its primary organizing principle. Two wings—home and studio—are divided by a glass gallery. As you enter, the view carries directly through this transparent space toward the Catskills beyond, establishing a powerful visual axis from the very first step inside. The glass-walled gallery functions as a spatial threshold between public and private zones and as a rotating exhibition space for the couple’s growing art collection. The glass hallway allows art to be viewed intimately and in detail from the interior of the home and also from a distance from the central exterior courtyard.

Designing for Landscape

The old firepit’s position—nestled near a rock outcropping and oriented toward the mountains—inspired the entire siting strategy. It remains the best seat on the property. Around it, the landscape has been shaped as an extension of the architecture itself. The carefully planned gardens surrounding the home blend fruit trees, flowers and ornamental grasses. Plantings follow the rhythms of sun and shade, take cues from visual corridors inside the home, and evolve with the changing seasons. Grasses along the entry create screening between the house, the entry path and the surrounding trees.

Fruit trees are planted in the breakfast courtyard, which is partially shaded during the summer but sunny during colder fall mornings, creating the perfect spot to enjoy a morning cup of coffee.

At every turn, VIA43 is the product of close creative partnerships. Much of the home
was designed in concert with local craftspeople, allowing the process of making to shape the outcome and revealing the home’s deeper ethos: that architecture, art, and craft are all part of the same conversation.