From Gowanus to Rhinebeck: ‘It’s a Whole Lifestyle Change.’

When Charles Brill and Merrill Lyons bought land in upstate New York, they imagined building a weekend home there, an escape from their full-time life in Gowanus, Brooklyn. But that was before the pandemic made them rethink the way they lived.

For years before they bought the property, said Mr. Brill, 40, a founder of the lighting company RBW, “we would seek out all the different farmers markets of the Hudson Valley and take day trips to different towns,” trying to figure out which places they liked best. They finally settled on an eight-acre lot outside Rhinebeck, N.Y., paying $123,000 in September 2019.

Ms. Lyons, 44, an interior designer, began drawing up plans for a house with two small structures connected by a breezeway, calling on her friends Ben Sandell and Van Chu, the founders of the architecture firm Built Narrative Studio, for help.

“We wanted to echo traditional bucolic architecture and the way a farm grows over time, with buildings upon buildings,” Ms. Lyons said.