For one upstate New York family, any day is a good day to enjoy a swim in the backyard pool. That's because the pool is inside a 2,000-sq.-ft. metal-clad structure that features a double-glazed glass designer bifold door from Schweiss Doors at one end. During the summer the door can be opened to welcome in the warm weather, but even in the closed position, the door allows abundant natural light and offers pleasant views of the surrounding woodland area. 

The pool house is located in Accord, NY, and was designed by Gauthier Architects of Brooklyn. The Schweiss Doors bifold double-glazed glass designer door, measuring 34 feet, 4 inches wide by 13 feet tall, takes up most of one entire wall. It has an automatic latch system, electric photo eye sensors and black liftstraps. The glazed designer door, trimmed with neoprene and mahogany, offers a pleasant view of the wooded area outside the pool house. The steel is coated with a rust-retardant enamel oil base paint.

“Built jointly for a family originally from the Czech Republic and India, the pool house is part of their American Dream,” says Doug Gauthier, principal architect. “They have named it the ‘Gray Niva-Natatorium,’ which is a proper architectural term for a pool house. The homeowners have been using the door for months and absolutely love it. They like the ‘muscle of the machine’ – the motors and the steel. It’s kind of cool, sort of an industrial pool house look. The pool house is a year-round play, swim, exercise and recreational sanctuary.”

This super-insulated, hydronic, geothermal pool house, originally designed as a concrete structure with a roof of glulam diagrid and structurally insulated panel, has been re-imagined and built using industrial construction materials. Structurally insulated panels over steel joists and decking with corrugated galvannealed siding are supported with triple-galvanized steel stud construction. This industrial chassis is then brought to life with limited finish materials of rough-cut 18-inch by 30-inch bluestone flooring, marine-grade teak wall panels, raw porcelain 1-inch hexagonal tiled walls and a ceiling of exposed steel work finished with baby blue epoxy paint.

Facing south, the bifold door brings warm winter sunlight deep into the space, while in warmer months, the door opens to provide a canopy and extended space into the landscape. Additional light is provided with large ellipse skylights over the pool and spa.

“In the winter, the pool house is kept at 85 degrees,” Gauthier says. “It’s a full geothermal hydronic project that heats and cools the pool house and the pool. Then it’s got a sophisticated reclaiming hydronic dehumidifying mechanical system that sucks all the moist hot evaporating air and puts it back in the pool to heat it.

Other exterior amenities include a seating area around the corner to the right of the teak-covered wall with a span and window. Inside the tall beige tile wall is a bathroom and changing area with a small entrance door and a larger teak wall and equipment door that opens to where the geothermal and pool equipment is stored.

Programmatically, the pool is served by a reticulated exchange entrance, east terrace, changing room, bench seating, spa, steel wood-burning grill, double interior showers and an exterior gathering and meeting space looking out onto the field that slopes into an aerated swimming pond on the property.

An outside corrugated galvanized panel wall was constructed just to the left of the bifold door and galvanized panels surround the rest of the glass bifold door. The wall is an extension of the rear wall that makes the terrace more spatial and more like a room when the door is open.

The pool house is situated about 300 feet from the owners’ new 4,000-square-foot home, on 35 acres. It has concrete walls with a Structural Insulated Panel (SIP) roof. Structural insulated panels are high-performance building panels used in floors, walls and roofs for residential and light commercial buildings. The panels are made by sandwiching a core of rigid foam plastic insulation between two structural facings, such as oriented strand board (OSB). The pool house is super-insulated to about R-50 on the roof and walls. The walls are spray-foam insulated. Its steel constructed and the roof slants from 21 feet to 10 feet.

Gauthier says he went back and forth on his decision to use a bifold or a hydraulic one-piece door on this project. Because it is a high wind area, he decided to choose the Schweiss bifold door. He was familiar with the bifold design, having used it on a couple of other projects. He said he didn’t contact any other door companies to compare products.

“I wouldn’t bother with anyone else,” he said. “You know what you are getting, you know the delivery cost and it shows up on time, not a day early. The Schweiss Doors ordering process is the easy part, the infrastructure we use on the door is really wonderful. The expensive part is building the mounting frame to hold it up and putting the skin on it.”

Others who worked on the project included:

• Project Architects: Randy Armas, Michael Hoehn, Mel Loyola Agosto, Christopher Tomasetti
• Counseling Engineers: Buro Happold Cristobal Correa, Ana Serra
• Landscape Architect: Hoffmann-Brandt Projects
• Construction Manager: John Gates
• Construction Team: Build Green SIPs; Geothermal Options; MJS Electric; Day Heating & Plumbing; Wadell Construction; Smith Construction; AJS Masonry; Millennium Steel Fabrication; Fall Fittings Steel; Buena Vista Masons; Poughkeepsie Custom Woodworks; European Décor; Schweiss Doors, Standard Glass; Apuzzo Kitchens