When Stanley Mazaroff and Nancy Dorman needed more space for their extensive modern art collection, they decided to move some of into an old barn at their Maryland farm. The only problem was that the barn was a dilapidated hulk in dire need of renovation.

“It was virtually in a state of collapse,” recalls Mazaroff of the 19th-century structure. He and Dorman purchased the farm 15 years ago as a weekend get-away. “We loved the house and we loved the land,” says Dorman. “It feels very remote to us even though it is so close to Baltimore .”

After reviewing their options, they decided to go all out and convert the barn into a modern gallery and guesthouse. Prophetically, Mazaroff had befriended Barbara Wilks, a principal in the Baltimore and New York based firm of W Architecture and Landscape Architecture, who had even seen the barn once. Mazaroff called her, and Wilks again braved the rutted country lane that winds through the farm's 85 acres to visit the barn. There she saw its potential amid the piles of hay and obvious deterioration.

“It was so beautiful,” says Wilks. “The light coming through the slats of wood was really the essence of the barn and what we wanted to keep.” Wilks shared the couple's desire to preserve the barn's natural aesthetic. To achieve that goal, she designed a structure within the structure, a glass box that would contain open-plan living areas and gallery space while leaving the exterior barn mostly intact.

The renovated barn on Stanley Mazaroff and Nancy Dorman's weekend farm in Maryland serves as an art gallery, guesthouse, and entertaining space. Most of the building retains the barn's traditional look, but the north side features a glass wall that opens onto a vista of fields and trees.

What followed was equal parts demolition, renovation, and preservation. The barn was shored up to ward against collapse and to accommodate the glass box. Despite a white-knuckle moment when one wall collapsed, the structure held, and the siding was covered in a preservative to help the weathered wood maintain its charm and structural integrity.

The finished building is art in its own right. The floating exterior staircase leads visitors to a perfect microcosm—a house under glass. The south and east sides of the barn retain their original appearance, and light falls in shattered beams onto the glass interior. On the north side, the original wall was replaced with one made of glass to overlook a panorama of fields. Where a rundown addition once stood there is now a glass-encased kitchen and dining space jutting into a grove of mature conifers. The original chestnut beams of the barn were preserved, creating a geometry that is at once contemporary and organic, hinting at the structure's past while melding seamlessly with its present.

“It's pretty simple in plan,” says Wilks. “But because there are so many layers and a little bit of grade change, we really worked to make it a nice sequence so the space kind of unfolds and is a little bit of a surprise.”

The couple used designer Robert Berman of Baltimore-based Johnson Berman to bring the same minimalist eye for design into the barn that he applied to their home in Baltimore . “We wanted everything to be simple, showing the essence of the structure and

to let the art show,” says Mazaroff. Dorman adds, “We wanted it to be minimal and sleek, but still comfortable.”

Berman utilized classic contemporary pieces and natural materials in a neutral palette of black and beige that flatters the barn's ambience. The furniture is predominantly leather and the rugs are wool and linen. “The colors are designed to take a backseat to the setting [of the structure],” says Berman. “They are colors from nature because we didn't want the furniture to shout.” Many of the furniture designs come from Bauhaus-trained architects such as Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer. “Even though they were designed over 70 years ago, they still look very contemporary,” says Berman. “And because they were designed by an architect, they blend well into a space where architecture is so important.”

According to Mazaroff, “wow” is the traditional response the barn elicits from first-time visitors. Whether entertaining family in the dining room that floats amid the trees, or sitting by the fireplace enjoying the many views, Mazaroff and Dorman love that the barn's design breaks the barrier between the indoors and outdoors, allowing elements of nature to infiltrate the space. Juxtaposed between old and new, open and protected, their art collection feels as much at home as the couple. “I really love the glass walls and the way the light comes in,” says Dorman. “We feel like we're part of nature.”