Taking shape
Theater professionals build six-sided dream house
As a boy, John Sowle had a recurring dream about a hexagonal house. It was a fantastical place with six wings extending from the center and a secret door that went down to an underground lake with an island in the middle.
Decades later, when Sowle had the opportunity to design his own house, he brought the dream to life.
Sowle is a retired information technology professor, producer and director. Sowle and his husband, actor Steven Patterson, founded a theater company, Kaliyuga Arts in 1986. They specialize in avant-garde, edgy, experimental contemporary work. In pursuit of their art, they've moved around and rented a loft finished in redwood behind the San Francisco's first union hall.
When they moved east to a 400-square-foot apartment in a co-op in Manhattan in 2003, the men needed a place to store the accoutrements of their lives together making theater: numerous props, set pieces, an art collection, furniture and hundreds of books. Patterson, who was raised in
California, remembered fondly the time he spent in Lexington, Greene County, doing summer theater in 1977. He suggested looking in the area for a place to store their things. The couple found 10 acres off Route 47 in Catskill. The land had a shed, suitable for storage and sufficient for a few overnight stays. Like the apartment in Manhattan, it was 400 square feet but in a wildly different setting.
It was not Sowle and Patterson’s intention to move to Catskill full time, but the more time
they spent in the area, the more time they wanted to spend there.
“I love the country and it was always in the back of my mind to have a house in the country,” Sowle said.
Height would give them a layered view of mountains in the distance. They cut as few trees as possible. A couple of trees stand just inches away from the railing of the deck. Once, while Sowle was working at his desk, he looked up to see a black bear clambering onto it. The men
encourage bats to rest in the exterior nooks and crannies of the roof overhang.
The unusual design presented a challenge for local craftsmen – particularly drywall installers. No section of ceiling is exactly alike. Craig Nowak Contracting from Hudson was the general contractor.
The 1,800-square-foot house was built around 16 poles, with six in the middle extending into the tower. The wrap-around deck is cantilevered. The spiral staircase between the second and third levels of the home was a custom order, made in Wisconsin and delivered in pieces. There’s a 360degree view of the forest from the tower, where guests sleep and a dancing Shiva presides. Living space – a
kitchen, a bathroom and a bedroom are like spokes on a wheel on the second level.
The house took about a year to build. The men moved in 2008 and bought the building in downtown Catskill that would become Bridge Street Theatre in 2013.
“You do not build a hexagonal house to save money,” Sowle said.
When it was new, Patterson said, the bright color of the fresh cedar on the exterior made the round house look as though a UFO had landed in the woods. The cedar has since weathered and the house looks like it belongs nestled in the forest. The men share the home with Cleopatra, a large and shaggy cat with Maine coon lineage.
The men have tried and given up growing vegetables because it was an exercise mainly for the benefit of deer. They still grow flowers and bought another piece of property adjacent to theirs to expand their privacy. The water feature Sowle dreamed of as a child is there, too, but outside, where the men can listen to a gurgling waterfall from within their six-sided house.