A Bucks County couple built an architectural retreat in the woods
“We wanted a place to get away,” Anderson said on a recent October afternoon.
When cookbook author Pamela Anderson and her husband, David, were looking for a bucolic escape in Bucks County, they found a forested stretch of land sandwiched between a high ridge and a stream to put down roots.
The couple, who previously lived in New Hope, toured the 11-acre parcel in Riegelsville with an architect back in 2003, learning how their new home could flow with the land. Today, the focal point of Copper House might be the living room, with 180-degree views from floor-to-ceiling windows. It’s like forest bathing, from a comfortable couch.
“We wanted a place to get away,” Anderson said on a recent October afternoon.
Outside, they’ve woven gravel trails into countless grottos, fire pits, and other quiet gathering places for the numerous visitors who’ve descended upon their home for sound baths, yoga, and meditations. On this Friday afternoon, about a dozen architects and interior designers gathered at their home for a corporate retreat to learn about sustainable flooring.
“Some people just want to come here to have a meeting in a lovely place,” Anderson said.
The Andersons didn’t just want to live at Copper House, so they went beyond having friends over for dinner. They started hosting corporate events and retreats at their home during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, stopped for a bit, and got things back up again afterward.
“We’ve done most of the work ourselves. We built all the walls ourselves from rocks we had here. It’s expensive to maintain this place, and these events help with that,” Anderson said. “It made sense for us.”
Anderson, along with being a best-selling cookbook author, cooks most of the food for the retreats, harvesting local fruits and vegetables and cooking wood-fired pizza from an outdoor oven.
“This was just a natural transition for me from that career to this one,” she said.
David Anderson, a longtime Episcopal priest, said the landscape was wild when they first toured it, filled with brambles and invasive species. The couple has methodically rid the invasive species from various patches of their property, but that work never ends.
Their latest retreat was hosted by Interface, an indoor flooring company that specializes in sustainable projects. Monica Blair-Smith, an account executive with Interface, said they’ve had meetings by a bonfire and in the labyrinth, so far, at Copper House. The team also took a sound bath.
“We toured several places from here to southern New Jersey, but we really loved how much this space was integrated with nature. Hosting in such a beautiful space is important to us,” Blair-Smith said. “Once we toured it, we didn’t go anywhere else. It was a no-brainer.”
Retreat packages at Copper House begin at $1,500.
While events and retreats have become a lucrative business, the Andersons said Copper House is still a home they cherish.
“You’re always seeing something new and different, and our senses are so heightened living here,” Pamela Anderson said. “In winter, it’s like living in a snow globe.”