A building site always influences the design of a home. But rarely does the location pose as many challenges as did the small waterfront cottage on Long Pond designed by architect George Gekas for a couple from Boston.

“It’s a very site-driven design,” Mr. Gekas said during a recent tour of the nearly completed home.

The cottage, dubbed K-2, is built on land on Northern Neck that has been in the family for 60 years. The lot carved from this property for the cottage provides a spectacular view of the pond but is extremely narrow and steep.

Mr. Gekas first saw the site two-and-a-half years ago, during his initial meeting with the couple who would later become his clients. Between the topography and the setback restrictions required by the town of Mount Desert’s zoning ordinance, he quickly realized a successful design would result in a home that was anything but ordinary.

“A conventional building would not have worked here,” Mr. Gekas said.

Fortunately, his clients were of a similar mind. After all, they found the Bass Harbor-based architect on a website in which he welcomed clients who are “brave and thinking outside the box.”

“These clients are the closest you can come to designing a place for yourself,” Mr. Gekas said.

The lot restrictions also limited the size of the home. Mr. Gekas, who has spent 30 years designing homes, again was undaunted.

“I’ve always done small houses,” he said. “It’s a niche for me.”

The owners were on board with the design from the minute that they saw Mr. Gekas’ first sketch. A year later, the plans were completed.

The result is a 1,400-square-foot, three-story home built into the hillside, a contemporary structure that wraps along the site to conform to the required setbacks. The two-bedroom, two-bath home is 71 feet long; the width varies, ranging from 22 feet to less than 8 feet. Mr. Gekas refers to the home as a “origami treehouse” because of the verticality of the building and its interior twists and turns.

The exterior is sheathed horizontally in Atlantic white cedar coated with a light stain and bleaching oil mixture. Two rooflines are incorporated, a flat roof covered with rubber roofing and an aluminum pitched roof with standing seams.

Because the home sits just off the gravel road that provides access to other homes on the peninsula, privacy was an issue. Mr. Gekas solved the problem by keeping the windows on the roadside to a minimum and high enough off the floor to hide views of the interior. From the road, the home is basically an unadorned flat plane, the austerity of which only amplifies the expansive view that greets the visitor once inside the front door.

The front entrance leads into the living room and kitchen area on the second story. A wall of south-facing windows looks out onto the pond. Also on this level are the master bedroom with its own balcony and the master bath, which, along with the upper-level bath, is one of the only two rectangular rooms in the home. Interior walls are few.

“There was really no choice but to do an open plan,” Mr. Gekas said.

Interior walls are natural pine boards, installed horizontally. The drywall ceilings are painted battleship gray to cut down on glare. The floor is ceramic tile.

The kitchen area, though small, is designed to be as useful as possible. “The clients love to cook so we had to cram as much as we could in a small space,” Mr. Gekas said.

Off the kitchen is a stairway leading to the uppermost level where there is a guest bedroom, bath and 225-square-foot deck.

Access to the ground level is by a spiral staircase located at one end of the living area. Here, there is a laundry area, utility room and a door to the backyard and the path leading to the pond.

Construction materials and appliances were chosen to keep the building as “green” as possible. The gas-fired boiler is rated at 95 percent efficiency and contains an on-demand hot water heater. A freestanding low-emissions wood stove from Belgium provides backup heat. Lighting is “dark sky” friendly using compact low-voltage halogen and LED lights.

In designing the structural elements of the home, Mr. Gekas first considered using engineered wood joists and beams. However, a structural analysis proved this arrangement to be insufficient to support the loads. He turned to Dennis Riley of Surry, a professional engineer who designed the structural steel work and foundation.

For such an unusual home, Mr. Gekas knew he had to find the right contractor.

“I knew this was going to be a project where I had to work with somebody I could communicate with,” he said. “There was going to be a learning curve.”

After discussing the project with several contractors, Mr. Gekas chose E. L. Higgins of Tremont, run by brothers Keith and Heath Higgins.

“They definitely wanted to do this project,” Mr. Gekas said. “I knew they were capable and willing to try new things.”

Construction began in the fall of 2007. The site not only posed problems in designing the home but also in building. Mr. Gekas even had to design a staging system that would allow the building crew to safely work from the steep terrain on the waterside of the home.

As the building began taking shape, Mr. Gekas became aware of an unusual number of visitors to the home, apparently attracted by the structure’s atypical design.

“We had a continuous flow of people coming to the house,” Mr. Gekas recalled. “I never had that happen before.”

The house is nearly complete and lacks only a few finishing touches. The owners arrived about a month ago and plan to spend the summer in their new home. They adore the place, Mr. Gekas said. But even their enthusiasm falls short of that of the designer.

“Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so good about a project,” Mr. Gekas said. “Both adults and kids love the place. That, to me, is the measure of success.”

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