Nine miles offshore, at the entrance to Boston Harbor, stands Graves Light.

We were invited to take part in the restoration of the site over several seasons, contributing to work that required moving people, tools, and materials across open water and onto a narrow rock ledge exposed to weather, tide, and sea state.

Our role centered on designing and building a small viewing deck at the base of the oil house—work shaped as much by access, timing, and conditions as by drawings or intent. Nothing arrived easily. Everything had to be planned around what the site would allow on a given day.

This project remains a reference point for how we think about making: work done in direct contact with place, where constraints are not abstract, and where attention, preparation, and adaptability matter as much as finish or form.

Further writing related to Graves Light lives in Field Notes.

View from a boat's deck showing a person wearing tan pants and black boots, secured with colorful safety lanyards, sitting over water with foam and waves.
Lighthouse on a rocky shore during sunset with cloudy sky in the background.
A wooden deck built over rocks with a fire pit in the center and a shadow of a metal railing and person taking a photo.
Broken wooden deck with a large crack and pieces of the wood lifted up, revealing an uneven concrete surface underneath.
A person sitting on a rock near a fire pit on a wooden deck with a lighthouse and foggy sky in the background.
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A wooden bench built around rocks on a wooden deck, with a weathered wooden structure above and a rocky background.
Wooden deck near rocky shoreline with water in the background.
Close-up of a moss-covered rock with visible cracks, resting on a wooden surface.
A lighthouse standing on rocky shore with a wooden deck and frame under construction in the foreground.
A wooden deck with an octagonal cutout in the center, filled with bricks and construction materials. Rocks surround the deck, and a metal chain is attached to a rock nearby.
A small lighthouse on a rocky outcrop connected by a wooden bridge, surrounded by rough ocean waters and a foggy sky.