An eco-friendly version of the New England saltbox. Wood clapboards, double hung windows, and gables to maximize second floor space are contextual features of this uniquely New England design. Colors come from nature. Natural cedar stain on clapboards, leaf green for trim. A garden room, located on the southwest corner of the house, is a two-story passive solar space with about 90 square feet of south-facing glass and a crushed stone/bluestone floor (which, as thermal mass, absorbs and stores the sun's heat, then slowly disperses it at night). On the second floor, the master bedroom features a whirlpool bath surrounded by windows.

Though the floor plan is open, it allows for intimate spaces, with bumpouts for a piano nook and a reading alcove off the dining room. Varying ceiling heights and planes make each space different. The kitchen, for example, has a low ceiling of tongue-and-groove 1x6 pine and is open to the living room with its pine cathedral ceiling. An upstairs mezzanine overlooks the living room. A brick masonry woodstove provides most of the heat for the house. Not only does it burn efficiently and cleanly, the brick acts as thermal mass retaining heat to release throughout the day and night. Passive cooling is provided through a combination of ventilation and shading. The roof's large two-foot overhang provides summer shade, as does a large screen porch on the west. Along with operable skylights in the cathedral ceilings, a turret above the second floor expels hot air at the high point of the house.

When it was built in Massachusetts in 1988, construction cost for "Shaping The Seasons" was $75 a square foot.