Aside from its striking contemporary design, a suburban Boston house is also notable for the wealth of natural amenities it has access to, including a pond, more than 100 acres of conservation land and a river, as well as the fact that former professional basketball star Kevin Garnett once lived there.
The roughly 11,000-square-foot home at 75 Buttricks Hill Drive in Concord, Massachusetts, was built in 1992 from a design by Machado Silvetti, a firm behind numerous public projects such as expansions of the Getty Villa in Los Angeles and the Denver Art Museum. The L-shaped house is set back from a private drive shared with one other residence; the pond, part of which is on the property, is behind the back yard. The property includes 13 acres.
A trail from the house leads to the Concord River, where residents have access to a wooden dock from which they can set out in a canoe or kayak. Across the river is the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. The Massachusetts Audubon Society owns a 130-acre property with numerous walking trails close by. One of the sellers spent a fair amount of time on work calls while enjoying these wooded paths, according to Devin Singleton, whose firm, Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty, listed the property for just under $6 million. She and fellow agent Colin Boylan listed the home with Gibson executive vice-president Michael Carucci.
The house is designed to immerse residents in this natural environment, with tall windows in the main living room and kitchen that provide plenty of natural light and views of the pond and woods. The current owners found the kitchen and dining area especially attractive, Singleton said in an interview.
“It feels a little bit like you are in a snow globe, in a sense, because it’s surrounded by windows on three sides, so you really have full exposure to the exterior, the amazing light, nature, the beauty of the pond,” Singleton said in an interview.
The house's contemporary style "is a strong draw for many buyers who appreciate clean lines and minimalist design," she said. "For those who prefer a different aesthetic, this particular home may not be the right fit."
The living room and the foyer one passes through to reach it have ceilings of about 25 feet, allowing more natural light to come in, Singleton said. Other parts of the first and second floors also have somewhat above-average heights, she said. The ground floor also has an office, a second, more informal living room, and a screened-in porch that juts out toward the pond from the main part of the house. All five bedrooms are upstairs. In the basement, there’s a living area suitable for watching TV, a sauna and two exercise rooms.
Garnett, who helped the Boston Celtics win the National Basketball Association championship in 2008, lived in the house from 2007 to 2014. During his time there, the nearly 7-foot-tall player spent a lot of time in the basement with teammates and friends watching clips of Celtics games, Singleton said.
“They’re not the tallest ceilings, so every time I go down there it’s funny to picture him,” she said.
The other mark Garnett left on the house is in the primary bathroom, where Singleton said there are two hooks for bathrobes, one markedly higher than the one presumably used by his wife.
The house’s location, set back from the road and on such a large piece of land, helps maximize the sense of being well away from suburbia, Singleton said.
“It’s really beautiful in person, serene and private,” she said. “You hear all the sounds of nature — the birds chirping, the peacefulness of being set back from any other homes or roads nearby.”