At the end of a long, lower-floor hallway, a dramatic view of exposed rock connects the home to its surroundings.

The sky is not the limit for GarretWerner’s nestled-in-natureWaterfront Pavilion, a homewith stunning attributes thatarise from the constraints ofthe property’s extreme terrain.When the owners purchased this rockyoutcrop of land off a stretch of coastlinebetween Vancouver and Whistler, BritishColumbia, it was home to a rundown 1950sshack set back into the forested plot. Castinghis doubts about the feasibility of the siteaside, Werner—the founder of Seattle-basedfirm Garret Cord Werner Architects andInterior Designers—took on the challenge with

an ambitious vision to build a Bond-worthyretreat perched above the Pacific Ocean.

The resulting home’s 12,000 square feet ofmodern living space includes an open-planupper floor and a primary suite, five guestbedrooms, craft room, media room, bar, andviewing room all built into the blasted rockbelow. The structure is Werner’s mostelaborate home to date, a claim made credibleby the subterranean, eight-car stacking garagethat connects the home to a detached carport.The home’s namesake feature is the glasspavilion centered above the top-floor livingspace. “This grand pavilion is a rare thing tosee in a house,” Werner explains. “It takes thatgreat room concept to a whole new level.”

From a bird’s-eye view, the home blends inwith the plot’s native cedar, pine, spruce, andevergreen trees, thanks to a green roof thatpartially covers the above-ground footprint.

Emphasizing nature, around and from withinthe home, was a priority for Werner, whosemeticulous and detail-oriented design isinspired by Japanese architecture and 1950sPalm Springs.

Pared backmaterials like steel,wood, and concreteaccentuate thehome’s architecturalelements.

A concrete bridge over a reflection pondleads to the home’s front door, which opensto a modern interior outfitted with wood,concrete, and steel, and 180-degree views ofthe Strait of Georgia. The backyard’s infinitypool showcases the site’s steep, cliffsideterrain. “That kind of atmosphere is almostimpossible to find,” Werner says.

Careful blasting of the site’s exposed rockpreserved as much of the surrounding forestas possible. When you’re designing a site-specific home, Werner explains, “you have towait until the site is blasted to see what’s leftof the rock outcroppings and then massagethe plan around it a bit.” With an exactingeye, Werner repositioned his original designsagainst the freshly revealed natural features.The front door was centered to frame thevertical crack on a large boulder directlyacross from it; the primary bathroom’sfreestanding tub soaks up views of thesurrounding forest, with a towering cedarthat appears aligned through the center ofthe tub as you approach the bathroom; aglimpse of exposed rock is a dramatic endpoint to a long second-level hallway. Movingthrough the home, one’s attention flows fromforest to water to rock.“It’s walking the linebetween the house seeming to disappear, andthen reappear,” Werner explains. He foughtto keep a single angular pine outside theprimary bedroom. It wasn’t until the clientssaw it with the finished building that theyunderstood his vision.