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Home Types

The homes in Great Island can best be described as Contemporary style. There is a mix of detached single-family homes and side-by-side, attached duplex homes. Del Webb (the developer) carefully distributed the models and varied the front architecture of the homes so as to maximize the visual diversity of the community. Here are two of the front 'elevations' of the single-family Redbridge model that illustrate this effect;

Driving through the community, you would swear that no two homes were alike although there are actually only seven or eight models.

Buyers have no choice over which model, color, basement 'condition' (bulkhead or walkout), orientation (left or right hand garage) or front 'elevation' sits on which lot.

Home Sites

In accordance with the open space plan, the lots in Great Island are narrow to allow the homes to be built in tight 'clusters'. The single-family homes generally have 60' of frontage and the attached homes have 40' of frontage although the actual amount varies depending on the lot characteristics. The separation between houses is only 10 - 15 feet, grassed backyards are generally very small and at least 10' of undisturbed land is required in the rear portion of each lot. Virtually all of the lots also back up to open space (undisturbed forest) that is part of the common area.

This site plan shows the narrow setbacks between the homes and the open-space designations at the front and rear of the lot. Note that the elevation change between the front and back of the lot is over 18 feet.

Pond Views

Because the homes that back-up to Great Island Pond are set back 100' from the shore and the elevation generally rises about 50' from the pond to the homes, none of the homes in Great Island could be considered 'water-front' homes, although many have a water view obscured by trees. From the pond, the homes are not even noticeable as can be seen in the image of Great Island Pond at the top of this page. The homes are on the right-hand side of the photo, behind the trees and up the hill. (They are visible during the winter months when the leaves are off the trees.)

Floor Plans

The 'limited occupancy' restriction on homes in Great Island is also designed to minimize the impact of the development by limiting the size of the households. The homes have one or two floors with, at most, three bedrooms. The master bedroom and one other bedroom must be on the first floor.

Unlike your typical New England home (capes, colonials and ranches), the longest side of the house is front-to-back in order to fit on the narrow lots and aid in the 'clustering' of homes. First floor windows (other than the master bath window) are installed on only one of the facing sides to provide privacy. Here is a single-family floor plan showing the front-to-back layout and window arrangement typical of these homes (Redbridge model);

To understand these floor plans, you have to think about how a traditional floor plan works. Traditional floor plans are designed for families. Take a colonial for example, where the bedrooms are upstairs with the master bedroom on one end and bedrooms for the children are on the other. The Great Island floor plans are based on a "master/guest suite" design. In the single-floor model above, the master and guest suites are kitty-corner to maximize the distance between them.

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