THE DESIGN OF A COUNTRY ESTATE

PURPLE CHERRY SHARES ITS DESIGNS IN A NEW BOOK.

- NANCY A. RUHLING

Whether you're designing a home or merely dreaming of doing so, one of the best ways to get ideas is to tour the world's grand houses and landed estates.

Building by building, room by room, Annapolis-based architect Cathy Purple Cherry, principal of the firm that bears her name, takes us on an intimate tour of a newly constructed working farm that she designed on Maryland's Eastern Shore.s It makes us feel that we are not mere visitors but privileged guests.

In this, her first book, she gives us what we long for: delicious details of every design decision, something that cannot be conveyed in a short magazine article.

She reveals each structure-the main house, guest cottage, entertainment and sports barn, pool house, art studio, garage, carriage house, three-sided sheep shed, and boathouse as if she were unwrapping a beribboned Christmas package.

Seeing the 152-acre estate through Cherry's architecture and eyes, Durston Saylor's photographs, and Campion Hruby's landscaping, we become partners in the design process.

With narrator/guide Cherry at our side, we are welcomed to Northwest Point Farm and introduced to its visionary owners, David and Kathryn Williams.