In renovating their 1948 rambler, Spring Valley homeowners Brian and Joanne Barlia realized that gaining more usable space doesn’t necessarily require an addition. Instead, they decided to reorganize the interiors so they would work better for family living.
The two-story house had been remodeled by the previous owner but was still in need of upgrades to create larger, more comfortable spaces. Among other drawbacks, the kitchen was cramped, the living room small and bedrooms were accessed from a narrow hallway.
“It had a very choppy layout with lots of rooms,” recalls Joanne Barlia, a volunteer fundraiser for the Ocular Melanoma Foundation. “Once inside, guests couldn’t figure out how to get back to the front door.”
With three sons and a daughter, the Barlias initially commissioned architect Ankie Barnes to extend the back of the house with a large family room. But they eventually decided against the project. “We ended up not wanting to increase the footprint of the house while reducing the size of the backyard,” says Brian Barlia, a real estate developer.
Instead, the homeowners asked Barnes to collaborate with DC architect Andreas Charalambous to reconfigure the existing two floors and basement into a more open, functional arrangement. Charalambous had worked on several projects for Barlia’s development company, Peak Gersten, and steered the interiors in a streamlined direction. “We strove for an uncluttered, yet warm feeling, and spaces filled with light,” notes Charalambous, who handled material, furniture, and lighting selections as well as millwork design. The architects worked together to simplify the building envelope and open the interiors. “To stretch a tight budget, we distilled the scope down to items delivering the biggest bang for the buck,” says Barnes.
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“We decided that the best design direction to take to tame the ‘ranchiness’ of the house was to go modern.” Exterior walls of brick, stone, and siding were unified with a continuous coat of stucco and roof dormers added to expand the second-floor bedrooms. At the front, a porch column was removed to create a clean, cantilevered roofline. Windows and doors were changed to simpler, more energy-efficient designs, and a new front door was added to “set a modern tone from the entry on in,” says Barnes.
Inside, the main level was reconfigured to make room for a large, open kitchen and family room, where the Barlias entertain and spend most of their time. The two spaces are divided by a floating staircase leading to the second level and basement. “This part of the renovation was major surgery, and I am happy to say the patient not only survived but was given a new lease on life,” says Charalambous.
The rear wall abutting the kitchen and family room was rebuilt with steel posts and beams to support floor-to-ceiling windows and glass doors, which provide access to the tree-lined backyard. “We focused the house to encourage interaction between the inside and outside,” says Brian Barlia.
The garden setting was designed by landscape architect Richard Arentz with a lap pool and seating areas to maximize the potential of the space. In easy reach of the pool is a bathroom with a shower and dressing area, next to a mudroom. These new spaces were created from portions of the original garage and living area. Just outside the kitchen, a stone patio shaded by a wisteria-covered pergola serves as an outdoor living/dining room in warm weather.
Spots for casual meals and conversation are found throughout the main level. The kitchen was enlarged to incorporate an island and breakfast area. In a corner of the family room, the turret built by the previous owner is now fitted with a built-in banquette around a circular table. A formal dining area occupies one side of the stone-clad fireplace wall separating the living room.
Walls finished in Venetian plaster anchor the various spaces on this level, adding texture and an earth-toned palette. They are designed without doors or moldings so the spatial flow is uninterrupted throughout this part of the house. Pale oak floors reinforce the light, open feeling.
Upstairs, the master bedroom is located over the family room with the corner turret used as a seating area. A new master bathroom provides a double-sink vanity, whirlpool tub, and large shower. Just off the master suite, the once-narrow corridor connecting the children’s bedrooms has been widened with study alcoves inserted into the dormers. They house bookcases and desks for homework.
Charalambous took a playful approach in designing the kids’ spaces. He finished the sons’ shared bathroom in blue mosaic tiles while applying pink and violet patterns to the daughter’s bathroom and building a custom daybed with storage in her bedroom. The basement serves as the children’s hangout with a large sectional sofa facing a TV over the fireplace.
While the home’s interiors are clean-lined and contemporary, the exterior, with its pediment and corner turret, still reflects a more conformist aesthetic—a dichotomy that is intentional. As Joanne Barlia notes, “We like the idea that the outside is more traditional and low-key, and it’s a surprise when you come into the house to find that it’s so modern.”
BUILDING ARCHITECTURE: Ankie Barnes, FAIA, LEED AP, Barnes Vanze Architects, Inc., Washington, DC. INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN: Andreas Charalambous, AIA, IIDA, Forma Design, Washington, DC. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: Richard Arentz, ASLA, Arentz Landscape Architects, Washington, DC, and Marshall, Virginia. BUILDER: Ted Peterson, Peterson + Collins, Washington, DC.
Architect Carmel Greer, principal of the six-year-old firm District Design, doesn’t impose a particular style on her residential projects. Instead, she lets a home tell her what it wants to be. “I never fight a house,” says Greer. “The house will always win.”
Her design approach is to play up the best architectural features of a home while creating spaces for contemporary living. In a recent DC row-house renovation, she salvaged the old floor joists and turned them into bedroom wall paneling. For another townhouse redesign, she converted the library into the dining room, but preserved the wood shelving and repainted it. “I try to leave some of the original characters of a house intact,” says the architect.
Greer treated her own home the same way, enhancing the good bones of a 1950s brick colonial in DC’s Kent neighborhood that she and husband Dan Baum, CEO of a public relations firm, purchased and remodeled in 2016. “It had been on the market forever,” she recalls. “No one else wanted it because it was so bizarrely chopped up and had not been updated since the 1970s.”
With its six bedrooms and five-and-a-half bathrooms, the center-hall colonial was spacious enough for the couple, their four children and dog Aida without the need for an addition. “It is fundamentally a sturdy, well-built house and on a tremendous amount of land for the city,” notes Greer.
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In renovating the home, her biggest move was to reconfigure the rooms along the rear of the main level to create a family zone. The original kitchen was expanded by taking over a former bathroom, closet, and hallway. Greer then updated the space with custom Shaker-style cabinets and a marble-topped island. Brass fixtures and hardware were chosen “to create a warm and glamorous look,” she says.
Next, to the kitchen, a walk-in closet and a bathroom were demolished to create a casual dining area. A custom-built corner banquette provides storage under the seats and a bar fitted with a wine cooler is topped by a walnut shelf.
The library next to the dining area was repurposed as a TV lounge and hang-out space. In contrast to the cream-colored rooms in most of the house, its walls and shelving are painted a deep blue. Modern pony-skin chairs, a tufted-leather sofa, and a brass drum coffee table reflect Greer’s eclectic decorating style. “I like a dark, intimate room that can be cozy at night,” says the architect, who helps most of her clients design their interiors.
In the front of the house, the living and dining rooms were largely preserved intact with only cosmetic changes. Furnishings in gray and neutral colors combine with a mix of textures—including metals, marble, velvet, and fur—to create a moody atmosphere in the living room.
Linen slipcovered chairs and a wooden table in the dining room rest on a practical rug designed for outdoor use. Among the artwork in the space is The Rattlesnake, a bucking bronco sculpted in bronze by Frederic Remington.
Greer established a more gracious introduction to the home by combining two small chambers into a single entrance foyer. She moved the original dining room’s crystal chandelier to this space and mounted brass fleur-de-lis-shaped hooks on one wall for hanging coats. Plastic “marble” tiles were replaced by wood flooring in a herringbone pattern to complement the original oak floors in the living and dining rooms.
After removing skimpy, builder-grade trim, Greer installed more substantial moldings and raised the doorways between spaces to make the main-level rooms feel taller. “Enlarging these openings sounds like a small thing,” she observes, “but it makes a big difference in the house not feeling claustrophobic.”
Upstairs, part of an oversized bedroom became a large closet serving the master bedroom, which is simply furnished with a streamlined canopy bed and mirrored nightstands. The master bathroom was enlarged by incorporating a former sewing room into space. The same Calacatta Vagli marble used in the kitchen clads the shower and tops the vanities, which feature hammered-metal sinks. The architect added a sculptural, freestanding soaking tub, but admits that her three-year-old daughter Gracie is the only one who regularly uses it.
While Greer, who studied architecture at Yale, respected the formality of the original house, she didn’t take it too seriously. Whimsical vintage pieces, stripped-down furnishings, and abstract artwork keep the design upbeat and modern. As she notes, “I wanted to take the stodginess out of the colonial.”
Writer Deborah K. Dietsch is based in Washington, DC. Stacy Zarin Goldberg is a photographer in Olney, Maryland.
ARCHITECTURE & INTERIOR DESIGN: CARMEL GREER, AIA, LEED AP, District Design, Washington, DC. RENOVATION CONTRACTOR: Quality Carpentry Group, Rockville, Maryland.
RESOURCES
LIVING ROOM Sofas: tovfurniture.com. Klismos Chair: Owners’ collection. Coffee Tables: dwr.com. Photograph over Fireplace: Michael Bonfigli; mbonfigli.com. Wire Chairs: dotandbo.com. Corner Bench: Antique. Rug: therugcompany.com. Side Table: Owners’ collection. Table & Floor Lamps: Vintage.
ENTRY Chair: restorationhardware.com.
DINING ROOM Sideboard: luckettstore.com. Sculpture on Sideboard: Frederic Remington. Art above Sideboard: Artist Unknown, from Maine. Green Vase: Vintage from Paris. Dining Table & Chairs: Owners’ collection. Rug: dashandalbert.annieselke.com.
KITCHEN Cabinetry: Custom. Countertoplasermandg.com. Pendants: circalighting.com.Desk Chair: Vintage. Range: lacornueusa.com through williams-sonoma.com. Microwave: bosch-home.com through ajmadison.com. The painting above Desk: Owners’ collection. Painting, Right of Desk: christchilddc.org. Ceiling Lights: industriallightelectric.com. Sink Fixture: rohl-home.com through ferguson.com.
BREAKFAST AREA Chairs: dwr.com. Pillow Fabrics: Owners’ collection. Art: Lithographs by Juan Miro and Alexander Calder. Table: Saarinen Tulip Table through knoll.com. Pendant: circalighting.com.
LIBRARY Sofa: westelm.com. Coffee Table: anthropologie.com. Glass Table: eileengray.com through dwr.com. Floor Lamp: Vintage. Art: Carmel Greer. Cowhide Chair: Vintage, Le Corbusier LC2 collection. Rugs: Cowhide from Argentina. Paint Color: Clark & Kensington’s Midnight Oil; acehardware.com.
BATHROOM Floor & Shower Tile: marblesystems.com. Sconces: feiss.com. Vanities: Custom. Bath Fixtures: vintagetub.com.
MASTER BEDROOM Bed: roomandboard.com. Bedding: horchow.com. White Rug: overland.com. Black Rug: dashandalbert.annieselke.com. Large Painting: Artist unknown. Nightstand & Lamp: horchow.com. Small Sketch: Carmel Greer. Wooden Stool: Eames through hermanmiller.com.
Near the juncture of the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay, a bifurcated structure appears to float above the shoreline against spectacular views of the water. Reached by a boardwalk raised over marshland, its paired, shed-like volumes are sited at the end of Honest Point, a peninsula in Virginia’s Northern Neck that once was home to an oyster-processing plant.
This remarkable vacation home was made possible by what came before it. “The pre-existing structure afforded the rare opportunity to build on the water’s edge,” explains architect Dale Overmyer. “By law, no new structures can be built within 100 feet of the waterline, so we followed the footprint of the old oyster plant for the new house and provided elevated walkways to reach it.”
Homeowner Bill Dean—chief executive of an electrical engineering company in Dulles, Virginia—calls his new dwelling the Oyster House in homage to its precursor. Dean spent years looking at waterfront real estate before settling on 16 acres in Lottsburg, Virginia, where he built the retreat and restored the land around it.
“Being surrounded by water was the big attraction of the site,” Dean says. “As soon as I saw the big, sweeping views, I knew I wanted to buy this property within one second. It’s like owning an island.”
Overmyer, who had renovated Dean’s primary residence in Georgetown, divided the waterfront house into two parts based on the homeowner’s wishes. “Bill wanted to separate the bedrooms from the entertaining areas for acoustics and privacy, so we envisioned the main pavilion to be as open as possible and a bedroom wing to be more enclosed and cozy,” says the architect.
Design inspiration came from nearby boathouses and local marine architecture. “I wanted to keep the house simple and stick to the waterman’s theme,” explains the homeowner.
Numerous timber piers raise the home enough to withstand flooding and provide an elevated vantage point from which to look out over the water. Its two wings are topped by metal roofs and connected on the upper level by a glass bridge.
The contemporary pavilion used for living and entertaining is more transparent than its neighbor, and a portion of its window wall can be opened completely to the outdoors. The two-story great room, topped by a fir ceiling, offers water views in nearly every direction. Only the mahogany enclosure of the kitchen and staircase leading to the bedrooms interrupts the open expanse.
The kitchen opens through a fold-away window to the screened porch—also enclosed in mahogany—that in turn spills onto the sundeck. A rooftop balcony atop the porch offers dramatic panoramas of the river and bay. “When there’s a party, everyone gravitates to the porch,” says Dean. “A TV pops out of the ceiling and we often watch movies there on a beautiful night.”
Adjoining the main pavilion, the shingle-clad bedroom structure is designed with smaller windows and a clerestory atop the pitched roof to maintain privacy. The four-bedroom suites feature fir ceiling beams, painted-wood paneling and slate floors in the bathrooms. The master bedroom centers on a fireplace fitted with a marble slab incorporating fossils.
Interior designer Elizabeth Hague, who worked with Overmyer on Dean’s Georgetown house, created what she calls “relaxed coastal contemporary” décor throughout. “It was important for the all the furniture and finishes in the living spaces to be impervious to the elements since the glass walls are frequently open,” Hague says.
Teak was chosen for the custom sofa bases and end tables, and stainless steel for the coffee table. Gray and blue fabrics complement the marble in the bathrooms and kitchen, and concrete floors in the living areas.
Dean mostly spends weekends from March through October at Oyster House and often invites friends and family to join him. Guests are welcomed from both land and sea. They can approach the house from an entrance drive on the mainland and walk or hop a golf cart to the house on a 375-foot-long ipe bridge on pressure-treated pine pilings. The walkway extends to the house from a forecourt flanked by two garages with one-bedroom apartments on their upper levels for visitors.
At water’s edge, another boardwalk extends past the house to a boat dock on the river. Dean often travels from DC to the vacation property on his 87-foot yacht—which allows him to arrive practically at the doorstep of his waterfront escape.
In addition to building new structures, the homeowner revived the former agricultural fields on the property with native grasses, shrubs, and trees, following a landscape design by Oehme, van Sweden. “The existing marshlands along the shoreline were pristine and beautiful, and inspired how we moved forward with our design,” says landscape architect Sheila Brady, vice president and principal of Oehme, van Sweden. “We preserved and reinforced their character with durable, dependable grasses that could withstand being inundated with water.”
Brady and her team redesigned other portions of the property, bringing in soils and plants to refresh the depleted landscape. A grove of loblolly pine was added next to the entrance drive, along with a play court built for tennis and volleyball. Meadows extend from the entrance drive at the center of the site.
An existing barn and old house on the edge of the property await renovation, and the owner plans to add more structures to the waterfront site. He recently commissioned Overmyer to design a guest
house and a pavilion next to a future swimming pool near the barn. As Dean notes, “It’s a big property and we’ll have more on it one day for enjoying this beautiful place.”
Writer Deborah K. Dietsch is based in Washington, DC. Maxwell MacKenzie is a photographer in Purcellville, Virginia.
Architecture: Dale Overmyer, AIA, principal; Jeremy Fletcher, project manager, Overmyer Architects, Washington, DC. Interior Design: Elizabeth Hague, principal; Linda Lewis, designer, Elizabeth Hague Interiors, Washington, DC. Builder: ILEX, Easton, Maryland. Landscape Architecture: Sheila Brady, principal; Marisa Scalera, associate, Oehme, van Sweden, Washington, DC.
Architect Gregory Uekman and his wife Ann Dorough were living in a tiny cottage in Kensington when they began looking for a larger home. “I wanted a house with a view, without seeing our neighbors’ backyards,” recalls Uekman.
The architect didn’t find that unencumbered vista, but instead convinced his wife to buy a modest 1950 rambler in Bethesda that he could transform into what he calls “an island” amid a sea of larger homes.
In expanding the one-story, 1,100-square-foot structure, Uekman added a master suite to one side of the house and replaced the garage with a freestanding studio on the other. The resulting U-shaped complex encloses a stone-paved rear courtyard that creates a feeling of seclusion.
“What drove the design was a sense of privacy, even when we’re outside,” says the architect, who nicknamed the residence “Maison Defensive” in honor of his strategy to shield it from its neighbors. “And having the courtyard gave us the opportunity to open the house to it and make the interior feel larger than it is.”
As a designer, Uekman says, “light and clarity are extremely important to me,” so he used glass and white stucco to make the house and garage appear crisply modern. Copper-clad additions housing the kitchen and bedroom bay window provide visual contrast to the pale exterior.
Dorough, who works as a manager at the American Institute of Architects, deferred to her husband’s aesthetic for most of the renovation. “I married a guy who picked out our wedding china and crystal, so I understand his design sense,” she says. “But I had my must-haves, like a well-designed kitchen, a reading nook and as much green space outside as possible.”
The new kitchen projects from the front corner of the house to offer a large space framed by rift-sawn oak cabinets and Caesarstone countertops. Standing at the sink, Dorough, who picked out the glass-tile backsplash, points to the master bedroom visible through a doorway in the opposite corner. “Even though this is a small house,” she says, “we get long views through the interior so it feels more open.”
In the heart of the home, the original kitchen and back wall was demolished to expand the living room. Now, a large, open space comprising a sitting area by the fireplace, a TV lounge and a dining area all face the courtyard through a new wall of glass.
This transparent barrier extends farther into the backyard than the original rear wall. In contrast to the red oak flooring in the rest of the living area, the space between the new and old walls is defined by the same stone flooring that paves the courtyard, visually connecting the indoors and outdoors. Overhead, a steel beam spans the opening where the back wall once stood and new, freestanding partitions next to the dining space provide storage and a place for the TV.
Accessible from the living space, the master-bedroom addition centers on a large bay window that provides Dorough’s desired reading nook, with a view of the courtyard. Other windows throughout the house and office are judiciously placed to provide light without glimpses of neighboring properties. A light well over the sitting area in the living room channels sunshine from skylights into the center of the home.
Behind the living room chimney, the former back bedroom is now the master bathroom and a laundry closet. Two of the original bedrooms at the front was kept intact to serve as a guest room and Dorough’s home office.
Uekman commutes to his job by walking a few steps to the freestanding studio at the back. “I wanted a sense of separation from the house and this makes a statement that you are going to the office,” says the architect, who previously worked in downtown Bethesda. The rear of the office structure provides a storage space and behind it is a small shed for garden tools.
Inside the house, furnishings are kept to a precious few. Authentic Pension chairs designed by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto in the 1930s face the TV. Clean-lined armchairs and a sofa from Room & Board provide living room seating. Uekman designed the walnut coffee table next to the sofa.
The couple says their pared-down living style complements the design of the house as a modern oasis in a changing suburban neighborhood. “The benefit of minimalism is serenity,” says Dorough. “I can come into the house after a busy day and decompress easily.” v
Writer Deborah K. Dietsch is based in Washington, DC. Paul Burk is a photographer in Baltimore.
ARCHITECTURE: GREGORY UEKMAN, AIA; Uekman/Architects LLC, Bethesda, Maryland. CONTRACTOR: Bonaventure Builders, Clifton, Virginia.
After renting a house on 20 acres overlooking the Tred Avon River, a couple decided to buy the property in Easton, Maryland, and replace its outdated main dwelling with a modern vacation retreat that would embrace the views. The reasons for the purchase are obvious: Where the land juts into the river, magnificent water vistas lie in almost every direction.
Building a new home from the ground up in this remote location required a strong commitment to place. The husband, who runs an energy company, and his wife, live outside Pittsburgh and have to fly or drive about five hours to reach the Eastern Shore.
Their choice of Washington, DC-based architect Robert Gurney and interior designer Therese Baron Gurney, a husband-and-wife team, led to the design of a three-volume, 5,500-square-foot structure. The center volume houses an entrance hall and second-floor guest suites. It’s flanked on one side by the one-story main residence and on the other by a low-slung garage. Built at differing heights, the three wings appear to be separate but are actually joined by glass-enclosed connectors.
“By varying the sizes and proportions and combining vertical and horizontal volumes, the overall composition becomes dynamic,” says Robert Gurney. “I like when you can look out from one volume and see into another.”
Water views are revealed slowly, enveloping visitors once they are inside the glass-enclosed living spaces. “You arrive at a solid volume—the entrance doesn’t have windows—and you don’t sense the water until you are well inside the house,” Gurney says.
Wanting to use materials that would be maintenance-free, he eschewed wood and painted surfaces for fiber-cement panels and aluminum-framed glass. The chimney in the living area is clad in terne-coated stainless steel.
The heart of the house is a 124-foot-long pavilion enclosed in glass and raised four feet above the ground to accommodate occasional flooding. Wrapping the perimeter, elevated terraces with roof overhangs for shade offer seating aimed at the best views.
An outdoor staircase leading from one terrace descends to a swimming pool and patio. Overlooking this area is a secluded, screened porch that Gurney located at the back of the entrance hall. “I didn’t want to make the porch directly accessible from the living spaces, as that would have created a barrier to the landscape,” he explains.
The flat site, reconfigured by landscape architect Lila Fendrick to improve drainage, now slopes gently and features a rain garden. Fendrick also preserved the mature trees on the property. “We protected the majority of maples, oaks, cedars, conifers and other trees so the house would look like it has been there for a very long time,” she explains. “The landscape design is very restrained and architectural in character.”
In addition to the overhanging roof, which shields the house from the sun’s rays, other energy-saving features include a geothermal heating and cooling system, solar tubes that heat the pool and in-floor radiant heating. Automated window shades are built into the ceiling.
Inside the house, Therese Baron Gurney reflected the clean-lined architecture with modern furnishings and a color palette drawn from bright hues found in nature. Swivel chairs upholstered in burnt orange wool bouclé echo the sunsets, while wood tables serve as reminders of the tree-lined setting.
“The furniture needed to respect the scale and proportions of the house,” Baron Gurney says. “My goal is to provide a harmonious environment that complements both the architecture and the way the clients live.”
The pavilion nearest the water houses an open living/dining area and kitchen at one end and the master suite and the husband’s home office at the other. The living area centers on a marble-clad fireplace with a movable panel that conceals the TV. A custom console table behind the sofa “allows you to rest your arm and your drink, and enjoy yourself,” notes the designer.
The custom ash dining table is paired with classic Brno chairs designed by Mies van der Rohe, whose 1951 Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois, inspired Gurney’s design of this project. Behind the kitchen, the home office incorporates a seating area with comfortable sofas and a painted-steel and walnut coffee table.
For the master suite, Baron Gurney designed a leather and walnut bed that rests on a linen-banded rug. Tucked above the screened porch and entrance hall are two additional bedrooms for guests.
Before the home was built, Gurney renovated an existing guesthouse on the property for the homeowners to stay in during the 18 months of construction. He has since modified the original dock with a covering made of the same fiber-cement panels that clad the house and is currently redesigning a two-story building on the property to hold an exercise room, guest suite, and garage. With all these features in place, the owners may make the long trek to their sleek vacation home more often—and stay longer to soak in the views.
Deborah K. Dietsch is a Washington, DC, writer. Maxwell MacKenzie is a Washington-based photographer.
Architecture: Robert M. Gurney, FAIA, principal; Brian Tuskey, project architect, Robert M. Gurney, FAIA, Washington, DC. Interior Design: Therese Baron Gurney, ASID, Baron Gurney Interiors, Washington, DC. Landscape Architecture: Lila Fendrick, Lila Fendrick Landscape Architects, Chevy Chase, Maryland. Contractor: Peterson and Collins, Washington, DC.
Nestled within a grove of trees, this contemporary dwelling in Bethesda provides a tranquil retreat for a couple on the go. The three-story house is set back from the road and reached via a bridge spanning the sloping lot. Its rooms are oriented to capture wooded views and the secluded feeling of being in the forest.
“We took an anti-McMansion approach and asked the architect to design a house you can’t see from the street,” says the husband. “It was important to have greenery all around us and feel the presence of nature.”
While shielded by leafy trees, the home’s architecture stands out for its jutting angles of oxidized copper, cedar, and glass. Even the bridge from the street zigzags past built-in planters rather than offering a straight shot to the front door.
“The flashes of color and drama are driven by the owners’ equal love of their South American and Estonian roots,” says the home’s architect, Travis Price. “The house dances the tango of bold simplicity with serene whispers of natural materials and views.”
Price says he combined Asian and Nordic style design influences to create “a simple modernism where indoors and outdoors are inseparable.”
The homeowners selected the architect after spotting photos in a book of a Japanese-influenced house he designed. “Once we met him, his approach to design and incorporating it into how we live convinced us that he was the right person,” says the wife.
The couple, who run a pharmaceutical consulting firm, frequently take trips abroad for work. “The constant traveling was a challenge when it came to the project,” recalls the wife. “Even more challenging,” she adds, “was blending the needs and preferences of two very independent people.”
Rather than starting from scratch, the pair built their new home on the foundation of a mid-century ranch house they had shared since the 1980s. “A leaky roof and other problems are what ultimately forced us to act, but we had been collecting design ideas several years before that,” explains the wife. She says the primary motivators were “to open up the house to more light, expand the kitchen area since we love to cook (and eat) and create more storage room.”
Those goals are met in a new living-and-dining area on the second level, which occupies a two-story loft that opens to the kitchen. A bluestone-clad wall with a fireplace envelops two sides of the living area to increase the coziness factor. Glass walls around the dining room direct views to the trees lining the side of the property. The cedar-covered ceiling provides a natural texture relating to the home’s exterior. “It’s so easy to do something modern and sterile,” says the husband. “Instead, there’s a tactile sense of materials in the house and spaces related to nature.”
The kitchen, at the rear of this level, opens to a screened porch and a patio with a stone fireplace. The soapstone-topped kitchen island is set at an angle from the living area to follow the outline of the former ranch house. Several appliances recycled from that home’s kitchen are incorporated into the new space.
Next, to the kitchen, a custom shelf unit displays groupings of colorful serving plates and ceramics. “One big motivator in renovating the house was to be able to actually see what I had so that I could use the collection,” says the wife. “Travis came up with the brilliant idea to not only provide storage space for the pieces but to make them art.”
Down the hall on this level are the owners’ home office, a bathroom and a guest room fashioned from spaces within the original ranch house. Next to the entrance, a spiraling steel staircase winds down to the preserved basement and up to the new bedroom level.
The upper floor serves as a spa-like sanctuary encompassing the master suite and an adjoining roof deck fitted with a tiny sauna and a green roof, an outdoor shower, and a soaking tub. On two sides of the master bedroom, translucent glass doors expose the blurry shapes of clothes within closets to create wall art. Outside the adjacent bathroom, an outdoor planter is filled with boxwood; the bathroom walls and ceiling repeat the cedar cladding found elsewhere in the home.
Furniture and objects collected on the couple’s travels include a Finnish dining table, Italian sofas and chairs and Native American pottery. They are arrayed on the main level, where windows positioned at various levels capture daylight and views. Reflecting on the space, the wife marvels, “Seeing the trees, light, and sky from so many different angles and times of day is truly amazing.”
Deborah K. Dietsch is a writer in Washington, DC. Photographer Kenneth M. Wyner is based in Takoma Park.
ARCHITECTURE: TRAVIS PRICE, FAIA, Travis Price Architects, Washington, DC. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: THOMAS TAIT, Thomas Tait Gardens, Washington, DC. CONTRACTOR: Price-Blake Construction, Washington, DC.
Designer Michael Stehlik met this challenge when he and his partner Justin Waller, a management consultant, bought a modest Adams Morgan rowhouse in 2008—a century after it was built.
One of the hallmarks of a good designer is the ability to update an older structure while retaining its period charm.They chose the two-story home for its convenient urban location. “We love being close to friends and fun things to do,” says Stehlik. “And we liked that the house was largely untouched and no one had done anything to ruin its character.”
He and Waller began a gradual renovation with “the unglamorous stuff,” according to the designer. They repaired the roof, replaced rear windows and turned the basement into a rental apartment before updating the remaining two levels with a gentle hand. “I didn’t want to make the house too modern,” says Stehlik. “We wanted to keep the authenticity of its history.”
Original wood floors were preserved throughout most of the house, along with the radiators and colored tilework in the entrance vestibule. Walls between the living and dining rooms on the main floor had already been removed, so Stehlik designed a shelving unit around the sofa to define the seating area and create display space and storage. Instead of inserting modern downlights into the living/dining area ceiling, the designer hung pendant fixtures that recall salons of the past.
Upstairs, the front bedroom now serves as the master, with a mid-century Adrian Pearsall table as a nightstand and a Room & Board bed that incorporates a storage drawer. Stehlik works at a glass-topped desk in the middle bedroom, where framed Monopoly money purchased at the Georgetown Flea Market provides playful inspiration to bring in business. The office also fills in as a guest room and TV lounge. At the back, the tiny third bedroom was converted into a walk-in closet, dressing area, and laundry room.
Throughout the house, contemporary furnishings are mixed with vintage finds and artwork collected locally and on the couple’s travels. “Almost every piece of art and furniture has a story and meaning to us—whether it was found on a fun trip, a commissioned piece or a piano from before our grandparents were born,” says Waller.
The biggest change to the house was the kitchen renovation, completed in 2015. Sleek IKEA storage, stainless-steel appliances and Silestone countertops and backsplash replaced old laminate cabinets, dated fixtures, and tiled work surfaces. Stehlik designed a storage wall fitted with an angled, striped-marble bar that resembles a piece of fine furniture and provides a convenient place to enjoy coffee or a meal.
To break up the white finishes and pay tribute to the home’s history, Stehlik recycled boards from the original kitchen floors and applied them to the ceiling. Mounted on the wood surface is a custom light fixture made of glass orbs, steel, and brass by DC designer Jonah Takagi.
A new door at the back of the kitchen opens to a deck and a bluestone-paved terrace edged in Mexican beach stones. Anchoring the outdoor seating area, an abstract wall mural painted by Waller recalls the “Homage to the Square” color studies of the late German-born artist Josef Albers.
“My role was mainly to give Michael room to have fun and make it our own,” says Waller. “We collaborated frequently and thanks to Michael’s years of experience, were able to focus on the details and not the logistics of the construction.”
For most of his career, Stehlik renovated large homes as a lead designer for Bethesda-based Carnemark design + build. Then, in 2013, he took the leap and launched his own company. “I was ready to do my own thing,” he says.
Researching their Adams Morgan house led Stehlik and Waller to discover its original building permit and a newspaper article on the first owner, who was the chief electrician for the House of Representatives. Framed copies of those documents now adorn the staircase leading to the topmost level. “Not only are they conversation pieces,” says Waller, “but they also honor the home and its history.”
INTERIOR DESIGN & RENOVATION: MICHAEL STEHLIK, Stehlik design, Washington, DC. RENOVATION CONTRACTOR: DMV Kitchen & Bath, Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Deborah K. Dietsch is a Washington-based writer. Anice Hoachlander is a principal of Hoachlander Davis Photography in Washington, DC.
RESOURCES
Kitchen Cabinets: ikea.com. Commissioned Light Fixture: ateliertakagi.com. Countertop: silestoneusa.com. Slab Counter & Backsplash (bar area): Honed Striato Olimpico marble through marblex.com. Faucet & soap dispenser: kallista.com. Sink: blanco-germany.com. Range: subzero-wolf.com. Hood: faberonline.com. Dishwasher: mieleusa.com. Flooring: porcelanosa-usa.com. Refrigerator: samsung.com/us. Stool: tronkdesign.com.
Entry Art: Owners’ collection. Light: schoolhouseelectric.com.
Living Area Sofa & Rug: roomandboard.com. Art in Niche: jesselink.com. Vintage Mirror: misspixies.com. Vintage Round Table: goodwooddc.com.
Exterior Seating & Center Ottoman: roomandboard.com. Blue Table: Frank Gehry Twist Cube.
Bedroom Bed: roomandboard.com. Bedding: roomandboard.com; goodwooddc.com. Vintage Adrian Pearsall Table & Lamp: through homeanthology.com. Commissioned Art: jesselink.com. Vintage Armoire: millenniumdecorativearts.com.
Study Desk: roomandboard.com with custom glass top. Lamp: pablodesigns.com. Sofa: roomandboard.com. Vase: belleepoquepottery.com. Plaid Pillow Fabric: galbraithandpaul.com
For nearly 25 years, Washingtonians Rick Lincicome and Cheryl Flota have spent weekends and vacations relaxing on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. They built a home in Rock Hall, a small harbor town, during the 1990s and purchased 15 acres on nearby Gray’s Inn Creek in 2010. Their idea was to replace a flood-damaged farmhouse on the property with a new modern residence.
“We wanted our home to be contemporary, open and comfortable, with a continuous and seamless relationship to the outside in all directions,” says Lincicome, a former corporate architect. “There are no bad views to the water or the woods, so we built extensive decks and floor-to-ceiling glass doors to move easily from the inside out.”
At the start of the project, he worked with landscape architect Miles Barnard of South Fork Studio to locate and configure the house. Their challenge was to capture water views while complying with critical area laws governing the protected buffer around the Maryland shore of the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries. The decision to preserve trees near the house led to an L-shaped dwelling with a large willow oak anchoring the courtyard between the two wings.
To develop the building design, Lincicome and Flota turned to the architects responsible for their first Rock Hall home, DC-based Jane Treacy and Phillip Eagleburger. “We enjoy their willingness to collaborate with us and their commitment to quality design and deep knowledge of residential construction,” says Flota, a lighting designer.
Before embarking on their second Rock Hall project, Treacy and Eagleburger had renovated the homeowners’ residence at the Watergate in collaboration with Washington-based designer Ernesto Santalla. “We loved all their design work on our apartment,” says Flota. “The fact that they all worked together so seamlessly made it easy to continue that collaboration, and we invited Ernesto to be part of the team again.”
Raised on concrete piers to meet flood-zone requirements, the new one-level home is clad in durable cedar siding and topped with sloping roofs to shed water. “Rick’s style is classic modern,” says Eagleburger. “We brought in flourishes he hadn’t considered, like the V-shaped roof over the screened porch.”
With the basic scheme of the house already established, Eagleburger refined the layout so that spaces used on a daily basis—living and dining rooms, kitchen and master suite—are located closest to the water. “We also made the screened porch on the water side as big as the living room for entertaining and hanging out,” he says.
The home’s more private side fronts the courtyard and incorporates two guest suites, a home office, utility and laundry rooms. Each wing of the L-shaped home is only one room deep to maximize daylight and views of the creek and courtyard.
Flota designed the home’s lighting plan, relying, she says, “on both natural and artificial light to balance the effects throughout the day and into nighttime.” Recessed and surface-mounted halogens illuminate walls, horizontal surfaces, and artwork. A few decorative fixtures, such as Bega pendants over the dining table, help define specific spaces.
Santalla ensured the décor was sophisticated yet practical, with a color scheme grounded in the hues of nature. “The design reconciles the desire for a contemporary home with the reality that the owners and their guests participate extensively in outdoor activities,” he says.
Slate-covered walls anchor the living room and master bedroom at either end of the main wing. Furnishings are a mixture of contemporary and classic modern pieces, vintage finds and family heirlooms. To save space in some rooms, Santalla created custom designs, including a walnut headboard with built-in nightstands and shelving in the master bedroom.
Since the house was completed in 2013, Lincicome has retired from his job at a large architecture firm and he and Flota now spend more time on the Eastern Shore. In addition to fishing and hunting, they enjoy shopping at the Chestertown farmers market, buying fresh ingredients for meals prepared at home.
Open to the living and dining areas, their kitchen becomes a hub of activity when visitors arrive. “We love to have guests participate in cooking great food and testing new menus,” says Lincicome. “We wanted to have the ability to eat and entertain within the kitchen while maintaining great views.”
Writer Deborah K. Dietsch is based in Washington, DC.
Architecture: Jane E. Treacy and Phillip R. Eagleburger, AIA, principals; Brian Underwood, project architect, Treacy & Eagleburger Architects, Washington, DC. Interior Design: Ernesto Santalla, AIA, Ernesto Santalla, PLLC, Washington, DC. Builder: Patrick G. Jones, Inc., Chestertown, Maryland. Landscape Architecture: Miles Barnard, South Fork Studio, Chestertown, Maryland.
A walk through a pine forest near Easton on Maryland’s Eastern Shore led two weekending Washingtonians to notice a brick rambler on the edge of a pond. “It was unexpected. I hadn’t seen the house before,” says the Venezuelan-born wife, who runs an investment company based in Arlington. “It intrigued me and I thought it might be on the market. I always wanted a house in the woods.”
At the time, the owners of the small, mid-century home had no interest in selling. But eventually, they came around to the idea after deciding to move to Florida. So in 2012, the DC couple purchased the one-story structure and spent nine months transforming it into a guesthouse getaway to share with their three grown children.
“They wanted something clean, bright and modern,” says architect Salo Levinas of the DC firm Shinberg.Levinas Architectural Design, which led the renovation. “Our challenge was to retain the best features of the old house, but change the interior dramatically for today.”
The cramped rooms at the center of the house were gutted and combined to create an expansive living/dining area that opens to a kitchen with a 19-foot-long island. The original ceiling was removed, making the newly enlarged space taller and exposing the slanted planes and beams on the underside of the roof.
“The challenge was how to create the open space without adding noticeable columns,” says the owner. Levinas’s solution was to stretch tensile steel cables across the area that would support the structure while imparting the unencumbered feeling of a loft.
To maximize daylight, a light well was inserted into the roof above the kitchen. Its translucent glass enclosure softly illuminates the space through a skylight at the top. From the outside, this projection resembles a large chimney.
White surfaces unify the living/dining/kitchen space and create a backdrop to vibrant, multi-hued furnishings and artwork. Uniform finishes, such as synthetic stone countertops and laminated porcelain flooring, are repeated throughout the house to create visual flow and consistency. “We didn’t want to distract your eye with a showroom of materials,” says Levinas. “Everything is kept simple and easy.”
Next, to the kitchen, the open-plan great room is organized simply, with two nearly identical seating areas flanking a dining table in the middle of the space. Each furniture grouping is arranged next to one of two gas fireplaces that anchor the rear wall, increasing the coziness factor.
Secluded at the north end of the house are three bedrooms, each with its own bathroom. Levinas expanded this part of the home with a small addition to create room for closets and one of the bathrooms. “It’s a big transformation, but we did it by making just a few moves and largely keeping to the original footprint,” he notes.
A laundry room, a powder room, and another bedroom suite are located at the front next to the garage. “Every space, even the closet, and laundry has natural light,” says Levinas, pointing to tiny skylights in the bathrooms.
Throughout the property, window openings were enlarged and updated with new glazing to fill the interiors with daylight and views of the outdoors. At night, the house is illuminated by a variety of fixtures—pendants, torchères and recessed lamps, all orchestrated by lighting designer Fernando Soler of One Lux Studio in New York.
Large glass doors in the living room slide open to an outdoor entertaining space at the rear of the house. On one side, a striking, contemporary pergola of wood and steel shelters a dining area centered on a mahogany table large enough to seat 16.
Framing this area is the home’s two existing chimneys, which were extended in height by several feet to visually punctuate the low-slung building with vertical contrast. The wooden deck that supports the entertaining area is raised as if floating in the landscape. Similar decking extends to the front of the house, where a boardwalk leads from the entrance to a dock next to the pond.
Lush vegetation surrounds the house and pond, part of the landscape designed by Eric Groft of Washington, DC-based Oehme, van Sweden. “A combination of native and water-loving ornamental plantings provides a foil for the clean lines of the house,” says Groft. “Panicum, carex, hibiscus, Juncus and Petasites act to absorb the wet soil conditions and provide textural and seasonal interest.”
As Levinas explains, he and Groft collaborated closely from the project’s start “to create harmony between the indoors and outdoors.” The architect related the home’s conventional exterior to its more contemporary interior by streamlining openings and rooflines and covering the brick in white paint.
“From what was an ugly house in the middle of the woods, we created something miraculous inside,” says the owner. “This is a meditative, peaceful place where you can get in touch with your soul.”
Writer Deborah K. Dietsch is based in Washington, DC. Alan Karchmer is a photographer in DC.
Renovation Architecture: Salo Levinas, Associate AIA, project architect; Milton Shinberg, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, contributing principal, Shinberg.Levinas Architectural Design, Washington, DC. Renovation Contractor: Tim Saulsbury Construction, Easton, Maryland. Landscape Architecture: Eric Groft, FASLA, Oehme, van Sweden, Washington, DC. Styling: Sandra Benedum.
Spectacular views of the Potomac River, Roosevelt Island, Key Bridge and Rosslyn beckon from a residence inside a modern brick-and-glass condominium on Georgetown’s waterfront.
The scenery, however, was not as visible before architect Richard Williams and contractor Tom Glass renovated the top-floor unit. “The kitchen and bedrooms used to block the view of the river,” recalls Williams. “So we opened up the interior and organized it so the spaces could flow and slide into one another.”
The architect was well acquainted with the unit since he had previously remodeled it to create a five-bedroom family home. His former clients sold the condo to a bachelor who hired Williams to streamline and redesign its interiors into a three-bedroom abode. The architect worked with Glass Construction to take advantage of the floor-to-ceiling glass framing three sides of the unit by opening sightlines to the views from each room.
The front door now offers a straight shot to the grid-patterned window wall, announcing the presence of the river just beyond the dining area. The kitchen, which formerly occupied this space, has been relocated away from the center of the apartment and now abuts the corner guest room.
Enclosed by glass on three sides, the living room offers the most expansive river views. A bedroom previously occupying half of this space was demolished to provide a roomy seating area with built-in shelving.
Two small bedrooms on the side of the unit were combined to create a new owner’s suite and Williams enlarged a nearby guest bedroom by reconfiguring a bathroom and closet. An unobstructed hallway now stretches along the condo’s interior past the entrance to a staircase that leads to a large roof terrace.
“You get a sense of the length and breadth of the house,” says Williams, pointing out that the kitchen affords views through the owner’s bedroom windows at the opposite end of the apartment.
Tall openings between the rooms unite the spaces and walls of closets provide storage that keeps clutter at bay.
A slightly curved ceiling caps the dining area to define the space. A translucent partition made from light-filtering, aluminum-framed polycarbonate panels screens the dining table from the entrance hall while still filtering daylight. White-marble kitchen countertops and bathroom tiles amplify the feeling of lightness.
Williams recycled some elements from his previous design, including the German kitchen cabinets and white-oak flooring. He created a niche for the owner’s beloved console near the front door and expansive wall surfaces for his collection of paintings and photographs. “I am a firm believer in providing places for art and furniture with a past and a pedigree,” the architect says.
While the reorganization of rooms simplified the layout of the home, it presented complexities for the construction crew. “Since this is a top-floor unit, all the utilities for the building—heating and cooling pipes, plumbing stacks, ductwork and electrical conduits—come down through the space,” says Glass. “Making the design work around all that infrastructure was the biggest challenge of the job.”
In moving some of the utilities, he used ultrasound technology to determine the locations of steel rebar and tensioning cables in the concrete floor slab so holes could be drilled without disturbing structural components.
Project architect Tim Abrams recalls the difficulty of moving a fan coil unit from the middle of the living room to a less conspicuous wall near the dining area. Plumbing lines from the previous kitchen were extended to reach the new sink location without disturbing neighboring apartments. “We had to be strategic in relocating these systems and select a few mechanical interventions to get the biggest bang,” Abrams notes.
A new soffit over the living room bookcase hides ductwork that supplies air to the space. Similarly, the ceiling in the dining area conceals ducts, a kitchen exhaust fan and electrical wiring. To create its curved ceiling, Glass and his team built rounded metal-and-plywood ribs over which drywall was installed. A customized application tool shaped to the radius ensured that the finish plaster followed the curve.
Since the condo’s minimalist spaces have no baseboards, the builder applied impact-resistant gypsum board to the walls to prevent scrapes and dents, and inserted bead moldings between the walls and floors to achieve crisp lines.
“The clean, zero-trim look is challenging to achieve,” says Abrams. “Tom Glass is an extreme craftsman who executes details in such a way that they look effortless.”
Writer Deborah K. Dietsch is based in Washington, DC. Anice Hoachlander is a principal of Hoachlander Davis Photography in Washington, DC.
RENOVATION ARCHITECTURE: RICHARD WILLIAMS, FAIA, principal-in-charge; TIM ABRAMS, AIA, project architect, Richard Williams Architects, Washington, DC. RENOVATION CONTRACTOR: TOM GLASS, Glass Construction, Washington, DC.
Artist Jackie Hoysted and information technology specialist Prem Singh built the unconventional, two-level structure so they wouldn’t have to leave home to go to work; the home’s domestic spaces comfortably coexist with an art studio for Hoysted and an office for Singh.
The spare modern house, surrounded by traditional side-hall Colonials in a Bethesda neighborhood, is conspicuous for both its form and its function.“Living and working in this house has simplified our lives,” says Singh. He and Hoysted chose the home’s location so they could walk to the Metro station, shops and restaurants in downtown Bethesda.
The two had lived in Darnestown, Maryland, before buying a small 1930s home and demolishing it to build a larger contemporary design on the lot. “We felt bad tearing down the house,” says Hoysted. “But to live and work at home, we needed substantially more space.”
To create the hybrid live/work design, the homeowners turned to Bethesda architect Mark McInturff and his colleague, Colleen Healey, who arranged the new L-shaped house around a courtyard. “It opens to the street and makes the house feel bigger,” says McInturff of the outdoor space, which provides an extra dining and entertaining area and another workspace for Hoysted in warm weather.
The walls facing the courtyard are clad in asphalt shingles, a cost-saving measure, and feature playfully arranged windows on the studio side “to reflect the creative part of the house,” says McInturff.
While interspersed among the living spaces, each work area can be accessed directly by visitors making business calls. An entrance to Hoysted’s studio is located off the courtyard, while a spiral staircase on the side of the house ascends to Singh’s second-floor office, located above the studio. Should they decide to sell the property in the future, the homeowners say the studio could be turned into a family or playroom, and the office into another bedroom.
In organizing the house, the architects took advantage of the sloping site to sink the art studio into the lower, rear part of the lot so it sits a half-level below the living area at the front. That position gave the studio higher ceilings than the other rooms in the house.
Hoysted says she selected the Bethesda architect based on the “playfulness and lightness” of his designs. “Modern architecture can be stark, but Mark uses a lot of colors to energize his work,” she observes. On the home’s exterior, blue-painted balconies and black panels enliven flat expanses of light-colored fiber-cement siding.
Inside, lime green paint outlines the kitchen within a large, open space at the front of the house that serves as a living/dining/TV-watching area. “The kitchen is very economical in terms of space and budget,” says Healey, pointing to refrigerator drawers, a backsplash of porcelain tiles laid vertically and a Corian-topped island.
Among the homeowners’ splurges is the steel-faced gas fireplace with a built-in TV cabinet in the living area, where furnishings include the French-designed Togo sofa from Ligne Roset and a cowhide rug from Design Within Reach.
A staircase placed at the center of the house leads from the main floor to the basement and second floor. Stair landings enclosed with glass balustrades and metal grates offer glimpses of the studio, kitchen, living area and courtyard, depending on the level.
The master bedroom suite occupies a second-floor space at the front of the house. A wall of cabinets and drawers and a walk-in closet behind the bed provide ample space for storing clothes and belongings. A metal balcony and a window framing views of crape myrtles put the owners in touch with nature.
The biggest surprise of the design, Singh says, is the amount of sunshine that streams in during the day. He points to floor-to-ceiling windows in his office, noting similar openings in the living spaces. “The whole house is light and airy, and the light creates new shapes inside the house.”
Writer Deborah K. Dietsch is based in Washington, DC. Photographer Julia Heine is a principal with McInturff Architects.
ARCHITECTURE: MARK McInturff, FAIA, and COLLEEN HEALEY, project architect, McInturff Architects, Bethesda, Maryland. GENERAL CONTRACTOR: ALAN KANNER and JOHN LEWANDO, Added Dimensions, Takoma Park, Maryland.
RESOURCES:
OUTDOORS—Table & Chairs in Courtyard: emuamericas.com.
STUDIO—Round Table: Eames through dwr.com. Black-and-Chrome Stools: Lem Piston through dwr.com. Art on Easel: jackiehoysted.com. Flooring: Raw concrete slab with a clear coating.
LIVING/DINING ROOM—Fireplace Wall: Raw metal with custom patina by Jackie Hoysted. Modular Sofa & Dining Table: ligne-roset-usa.com. Small Occasional & Coffee Tables, Rug, Magazine Basket: dwr.com. Dining Chairs: Eames through dwr.com. Cielo Pendants over Table: pablodesigns.com. Stools at Island: Owners’ collection. Flooring: Four-inch-wide white oak with white stain.
KITCHEN—Cabinetry: kitchenbathstudios.com. Backsplash Tiles: daltile.com. Faucet: danze.com.
Downsizing from a house to an apartment typically requires the shedding of possessions, from furnishings to books and artwork. But for Jackie Chalkley and her husband, C. Wayne Callaway, moving from their modern, architect-designed home in Woodley Park to a two-bedroom condominium in Wesley Heights meant renovating to accommodate all their favorite belongings without overwhelming the smaller space.
Chalkley, once a potter, is best known for her three eponymous fashion boutiques in Washington, DC, that pioneered the wearable art concept. She closed those businesses in 1999 and has recently turned her artistic eye to interior design. “I’ve always worked with design in terms of products and presentation, so it wasn’t new for me to think about it in terms of space and planning,” she says, noting a current project she has undertaken to update the public spaces of the 1970s building where she and Callaway live.
Chalkley oversaw the renovation of their two-level condo, transforming outdated interiors that had “wallpaper on every single surface,” she recalls, into clean-lined, open spaces. She and her husband purchased the apartment in 2013, drawn by elements similar to those in their previous home, including floor-to-ceiling windows, a generous outdoor terrace, and balconies off the upper level.
Playing up those assets, Chalkley streamlined the main level to create a seamless living/dining suite that opens through expansive glass doors and windows to an outdoor room. “There wasn’t a rhythm or flow to space, so that was the first thing I struggled with,” she says. “The terrace makes the interior space feel bigger and serves as another living area in warm weather.”
Chalkley also added built-in storage and shelving in nearly every room; the units eliminate clutter and leave plenty of space to display paintings, prints, and sculpture. “I wanted the design to be very minimalist with specific places for our artwork,” she says.
On the living room wall next to the seating area, vertically slatted piers conceal a china closet and a heating/cooling unit. They also frame a niche that showcases a large painting by the late New York artist David Shapiro. The arrangement is repeated on the opposite wall of the dining area to set off a cluster of earth-daubed paintings by New York artist Alan Sonfist.
Sofas, chairs, and lamps are by French designer Christian Liaigre, whose projects include the Mercer Hotel in New York. “His pieces are beautifully proportioned and unpretentious,” notes Chalkley. “They are contemporary in an understated, classic way.”
Although the ceiling height in the apartment is only eight feet, the owner installed tall ficus trees and a pair of wooden ladders from Mali in the living area. “They lend verticality to space, almost in a way that defies the height limitation,” she explains.
To save costs, Chalkley overhauled the kitchen with IKEA cabinets but splurged on high-end appliances and marble countertops. A tiny breakfast nook with a table and a banquette are tucked in between the cabinets, and even this small space incorporates artwork: a print by Spanish artist Antoni Tàpies.
Next, to the kitchen, the staircase leading to the upper level was remodeled with a simple enclosure and dark-stained wood treads that echo the flooring on the main level for visual continuity. A multi-piece sculpture by Washington, DC, artist Yuriko Yamaguchi serves to anchor the transitional space.
In the hallway leading to the two bedrooms on the upper floor, Chalkley moved a door to make room for another art wall, now filled by two Shapiro paintings. She created an office space within the guest room by mounting IKEA shelving to display books and objects from her boutiques, and installing the custom walnut desk created by Washington, DC, designer Thomas Pheasant for her previous residence. Facing the desk, photographs by Linda Connor hang in a grid pattern. In the adjacent master bedroom, IKEA cabinet doors were cut down to create a headboard, and twin portraits by Paris-based painter James Brown were mounted above the bed.
Renovating and repurposing the belongings from her previous home has been a valuable experience for Chalkley. As she reflects, “This downsizing project has given me insights that should be useful to my clients who are facing similar transitions going forward.”
Writer Deborah K. Dietsch is based in Washington, DC. Maxwell MacKenzie is a photographer in Washington, DC.
INTERIOR DESIGN: JACKIE CHALKLEY, Jackie Chalkley, Washington, DC.
As the co-founder of Naviance, a software provider of college and career-planning tools, Stephen Smith is in the business of readiness. So when he decided to move from the District to be closer to his Virginia office, he prepared a list of must-haves for his new house. “I wanted a master suite, a garage and a room where I could put my piano,” Smith says. “The house had to be big enough for family and friends.”
His search led to a sprawling, 1965 home in Arlington that had been expanded in the 1980s. “The house looked different from anything I’d seen,” recalls Smith. “It was quirky.” Multiple, one-story wings were arranged around an entrance courtyard at the front and an indoor pool at the rear. Two of the bedrooms in the addition had no windows and the master bedroom opened to an interior courtyard.
Still, Smith saw potential in the tall, timber-ceilinged rooms and bought the property in 2012. A major renovation followed under the direction of McLean architect Randall Mars, who opened the interiors to the outdoors and added a second level with a large master suite. “I liked that Randy’s designs are modern, but also warm and inviting,” says Smith. “I didn’t want a house that felt like a museum.”
Confined to the home’s existing footprint by local zoning regulations, Mars simplified the layout of the rooms and brightened the interiors by adding numerous windows and opening up the floor plan. “We wanted to eliminate the dark, windowless areas and create bedrooms that take advantage of the landscape,” the architect says.
As it happened, Mother Nature helped with Mars’s reorganization of the house when a severe thunderstorm caused a tree to fall into the indoor pool. Rather than rebuild its enclosure, Mars left the pool exposed as the centerpiece of the backyard.
The biggest alteration was the addition of a prominent stair tower to reach the new second level. Clad in mahogany, the tall structure acts as a punctuation mark within the low-slung brick home. Mars further accentuated the horizontality of the original house by extending broad eaves from its hipped roofs.
At the front of the house, the entrance courtyard was remodeled to emulate the serenity of a Japanese teahouse. Staggered concrete pavers lead past low plantings and river stones to the new mahogany front door and a view of the mahogany slats enclosing the second-floor balcony.
Just inside the front door, a formal living room centers the house. The 1980s addition, which flanks one side of the entry, has been reconfigured and its roof and window replaced. The wing now encompasses a music room—home to Smith’s 1920s baby grand piano—and two guest suites. The wing opposite the music room opens to the courtyard through floor-to-ceiling glass walls. It has been remodeled to create a new kitchen, dining area, and family room—one of Smith’s favorite spaces, where he can relax on a sectional sofa next to the granite-framed gas fireplace or lounge on the cushioned window seat.
These living spaces are divided by freestanding storage walls fitted with anigre-finished cabinets, drawers, and shelving. Crafted by Silver Spring-based Allegheny Woodworks, the built-ins stop short of the ceiling where the original wood paneling and beams are preserved. “The new millwork warmed up the house and added even more detail to transform the architecture,” says Mars.
Modern pendant lights in the kitchen, dining area, and stair hall reinforce the 1960s character of the home. Dark slate floors unify the main living spaces, while pale oak flooring extends through the bedrooms.
Upstairs, the new master bedroom opens to a private terrace and a sleek bathroom with a freestanding soaking tub. Two more bedrooms, a bathroom, and a laundry room occupy this level with access to the deck overlooking the front courtyard.
Smith worked with interior designer Sarita Simpson, formerly of the now-closed store Vastu, to furnish the rooms with contemporary pieces. “Steve is meticulous; we started working on the furniture plan before the house renovation even began,” recalls Simpson, who now runs her own firm in Arlington. “His design aesthetic is modern, but he isn’t interested in Minimalism that is stark and cold. So we played up the earthy, Mid-Century design of the house.”
Smith says he loves the way Mars used windows to connect indoor and outdoor spaces. “In almost any room, you have a view, making the landscape design an integral part of the interior,” he says. One evening while the homeowner was sitting in the family room, “I noticed something moving in the courtyard,” he recalls. “When I got up, I saw that a fox had curled up under the Japanese maple tree. Apparently, he found the courtyard as relaxing as I do.”
Writer Deborah K. Dietsch is based in Washington, DC. Anice Hoachlander is a principal at Hoachlander Davis Photography in DC.
ARCHITECTURE: RANDALL MARS, AIA, principal; ROBERT DEANE, project architect, Randall Mars Architects, McLean, Virginia. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: JOSEPH RICHARDSON, Joseph Richardson, Landscape Architect, Washington, DC. INTERIOR DESIGN: SARITA SIMPSON, Sarita Simpson Design, Arlington, Virginia. BUILDER: Gruver Cooley, Leesburg, Virginia.
Just before New Year’s Eve in 2011, Ashley Taylor and her then-fiancé Matt Bronczek made a resolution to buy a new house. The couple ended the year by touring a 1940s Tudor-style home in Northwest Washington and falling in love with its well-proportioned rooms and layout. “All the spaces on the main level flow into each other, so it’s great for entertaining and it’s near where my grandmother lives,” says Ashley.
A gemologist active in Washington’s charity-gala scene, Ashley is the granddaughter of jeweler Ann Hand and Lloyd Hand, former chief of protocol for President Lyndon B. Johnson. Matt, son of FedEx CEO and president David Bronczek, worked for former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. He is now co-owner of Federal Home Company, a design-build firm in McLean.
Soon after purchasing the house in 2012, the couple married in Mexico and returned to complete a renovation of the property that would provide a larger master suite, upgrade the basement and improve bathrooms, kitchen, and outdoor spaces. The eight-month project involved Matt and his business partner Doug DeLuca; architect Frank Durkin; and interior designer Erica Burns.
The team worked to modernize the most outdated rooms, but with a gentle hand. “The first things I noticed were the beautiful details from the original architecture, like the curved walls in the foyer and dining room,” says Burns. “The intention was never to change the architectural feel of the home, but make improvements that allowed it to be more functional.”
Many original features were left in place, including the Tudor-inspired limestone fireplace in the living room and the entrance hall’s gracefully curving staircase. “The house didn’t need to be gutted,” says Matt. “It needed a lot of love.”
One of the major changes is a new staircase leading from the family room at the side of the house to the remodeled basement and its billiards room and au pair suite. “Since Matt and Ashley entertain often,” notes Burns, “it was important to provide better circulation throughout the house.” New paneling around the windows above the stairs seamlessly fits into the home’s traditional architecture. A mahogany door salvaged from the Old Executive Office Building slides open to the basement game room.
The renovation extended to the outdoors, where a new stone fireplace and a built-in grill are now part of the terrace outside the dining room. “We love to entertain and use our dining room all the time,” says Ashley. “The terrace is a great overflow area for parties and the view of the fireplace from inside the house creates a cozy environment.”
On the second floor, revamped his and her walk-in closets flank the enlarged master bathroom with its centrally located soaking tub and steam shower. The paneled shower enclosure and wood flooring “make space feel more like a living room than a bathroom and tie into the rest of the house,” notes Burns.
On the third-floor, the Bronczeks created a Parisian-inspired garret retreat for guests with the ceiling covered in reclaimed wood from a Maine barn.
For Burns, the project involved mediating between the different tastes of her clients. “Ashley loves French Country and shabby chic, but Matt likes more traditional masculine design,” she says. “It meant finding a middle ground.” Her solution was to blend new designs with vintage pieces collected by the homeowners on their travels—chairs and a settée from the Paris flea market in the living room and a floral chandelier from Italy in the dining room. Added to the mix are furnishings from the Bronczeks’ previous DC home, also designed by Burns.
On the main level, a palette of muted tones unifies the various rooms. “I love the color, but not in your face,” says Ashley. “So most of the furniture is neutral and patterns are in the pillows.”
One of the brightest spaces is the dining room, where a nature-themed mural was painted by Matt’s cousin, DC artist Nicolette Capuano. More recently, Capuano completed colorful scenes in the bedrooms of the couple’s young children: birdcages for daughter Bridget, nicknamed “Birdie,” and sports uniforms for infant son Brody. “We tried to choose murals that would grow with the kids instead of being super age-specific,” says Matt.
Some vestiges of previous renovations in the house were kept, including the terracotta-tiled kitchen floor. “Ashley, who grew up in California, wanted to keep it as a reminder of home,” says Burns. “This is an example of when it’s okay to color outside the lines a bit in terms of architectural style. If you love it, it should stay.”
Writer Deborah K. Dietsch is based in Washington, DC. Stacy Zarin Goldberg is a photographer in Olney, Maryland.
RENOVATION ARCHITECTURE: FRANK DURKIN, Frank Durkin Architecture, Arlington, Virginia. RENOVATION Design & Contracting: MATT BRONCZEK and DOUG DeLuca, Federal Home Company, McLean, Virginia. INTERIOR DESIGN: ERICA BURNS, Erica Burns Interiors LLC, Bethesda, Maryland. LANDSCAPE CONTRACTOR: Wheat’s Landscape, Vienna, Virginia.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KENNETH M. WYNER
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010
Metaphors often guide the architecture conceived by Travis Price. Images of rising earth and clouds inspired the architect’s design of a Bethesda house perched high above the Potomac River. “Seeing those natural elements on the site led me to this,” says Price, pointing to the dramatic slope of the home’s metal roofs, “and to focus the view on the water.”
The hilltop residence is divided into two wings, spacious living quarters for the owners and a separate guesthouse for their children and visiting family. Shiny, aluminum roofs crowning both structures tilt upward to follow the contours of the site. They allow for large glass walls opening to vistas of the river and its tree-lined banks. “The house is very much part of nature,” says owner Steve Salop, a professor of economics and law at Georgetown University. “You aren’t just looking at nature; you are involved in it.”
A visit to the house during a thunderstorm underscores Salop’s point as sheets of rainwater fall from the roof to form a liquid curtain outside the kitchen windows. Constantly on display are signs of the changing seasons through the glass perimeter at the rear. “It’s an inside-outside house with plenty of room for family and friends,” says Salop’s wife, Judy Gelman, an economist. “It’s an easy house for entertaining.”
Impressed by the house Price built for himself on a hill overlooking Rock Creek Park, the couple hired the DC architect to replace an outdated home on their property with a larger, more contemporary structure. “His design has both serenity and excitement, and those are the qualities we wanted for our house,” says Salop. “Travis was one of the few architects we interviewed who came to the site and sketched what he wanted to do.”
Nature always directs Price’s approach and this project is no exception in its site-sensitive design. The architect set the house on the ridge of the hill to face the river and angled the roofs so their lowest sides face the street to make the structure appear smaller. At the front, gardens arranged into strips of native plantings emphasize the horizontal sweep of the house.
“We tried to come up with a design that allowed the building to be the star attraction,” says Tom Tait, the Washington garden designer responsible for the landscape. “We emphasized the wavelike roof by designing the gardens to roll up to the house.” Landscaping also extends to a green roof of low-growing sedums on top of the garage. Tait played up the water theme by creating a lily pond near the pathway from the street and a reflecting pool on the back patio next to the main living space.
In orchestrating the approach to the house, Price carefully sited the two wings to either side of a path flanked by low, copper-clad walls. The passageway aligns with a spillway in the Potomac to draw attention to the changes in the river’s flow while representing the division between the two parts of the house. The location of the main living quarters corresponds with the active currents in the river while the guest house focuses on its still waters to suggest metaphors for the different activities in the house.
The pathway terminates in a slate-paved terrace at the rear of the property that provides a generous platform for taking in the natural surroundings. On the side next to the living space, steps lead down to an outdoor dining area and grill nestled under the trees.
The homeowners, who will soon be empty nesters, liked Price’s idea for the two-part house as a way to age in place. “We were at the point when we wanted space for ourselves and to give our kids their own space,” says Gelman. She and her husband spend most of their time in the home’s larger wing, where the rooms are arranged on one level and can function independently from the smaller guest house. “We call them terminal A and terminal B,” Gelman jokes of the two wings, comparing their upturned roofs to architect Eero Saarinen’s similar designs at Dulles airport.
Inside the main wing, the rooms are surprisingly livable. “There is plenty of space but the house isn’t huge or overwhelming,” says Salop. The living/dining room opens to a galley kitchen and a freestanding fireplace separating a seating area from the dining table. Down a hallway are Gelman’s home office and the couple’s bedroom and bathroom. Like most of the spaces in the house, they focus on the outdoors through walls of glass. Solid partitions between the rooms are also topped with glass to create the open feeling of a loft.
The guest house is built into the lower side of the hill and is reached via a staircase next to the kitchen. It provides bedrooms for the couple’s youngest son, a senior in high school, and his grown siblings, plus a music room and a TV lounge. Salop’s airy home office occupies a corner of the upper level closest to the main house. A door leading to a balcony allows him quick access to the terrace and main wing.
In both wings of the house, interior designer Barbara Hawthorn worked with Price to create plenty of built-in storage and shelving so the rooms would remain clutter-free. Her greatest challenge was making sure Salop’s glass-enclosed office looked inviting as visitors passed it on their way to the home’s entrance. “Steve didn’t want anything impeding the view but he had a huge need for storage and work space,” Hawthorn says. Her solution was to design a sleek desk in translucent resin and plenty of file cabinets to hide his paperwork. An Eames lounge chair and ottoman provide a comfortable spot for reading and relaxing.
In contrast to the cool, hard-edged architecture, the interiors in the main wing are softened by warm colors and varied textures. Panels of stained plywood cover the ceiling and Asian-inspired cherry furniture from Thos. Moser adds a crafted feeling to the dining area and master bedroom. Hawthorn customized the dining table with two removable leaves so it could be lengthened to seat 20 for large holiday dinners.
Upholstered sofas and Barcelona chairs in the open living space are paired with a wooden coffee table split into two parts, suggesting another metaphor for the home. Red cabinets from Ikea brighten the kitchen where a durable hardwood floor holds up to constant use. As the day unfolds, shifting patterns of light are cast through glass walls onto floors and walls to change the colors and mood. “The home isn’t sterile like the Bauhaus, but is full of natural rhythms,” says Travis Price. “This is modern architecture with soul.”
Frequent Home & Design contributor Deborah K. Dietsch is based in Washington, DC. Kenneth M. Wyner is a Takoma Park, Maryland, photographer.
ARCHITECTURE: TRAVIS L. PRICE III, FAIA, principal; DIEGO BALAGNA, managing architect, Travis Price Architects, Washington, DC. INTERIOR DESIGN: BARBARA HAWTHORN, Barbara Hawthorn Interiors, McLean, Virginia. LANDSCAPE DESIGN: TOM TAIT and CAROL GALE, Thomas Tait Gardens, Washington, DC.
Eight years ago, a fire almost destroyed an 1891 wood-frame house in Garrett Park, Maryland, where such Victorian-era architecture is revered. Town preservationists hoped the burned dwelling could be saved to maintain the historic character of the community. The property’s new owners agreed to consider restoration, but after hiring an engineer, discovered much of the structure was damaged beyond repair.
So these empty nesters replaced the charred wreck with what they call a “modern farmhouse interior design.” Says the husband, a retired information technology specialist, “We wanted something that fit into the neighborhood, a design that looks somewhat traditional on the outside, but is more contemporary inside.”
Architect Richard Williams designed a spacious front porch, pitched roofs and wood siding to recall the architecture of nearby homes. Avoiding a sense of nostalgia, he rendered the familiar elements with crisp outlines and graphic contrasts between materials.
Fir-trimmed windows of different sizes stand out against the pale-stained cedar walls. The chimney rising above the roof at the front of the house turns out to be a light well illuminating the stair hall. “We simplified the architecture to its essential elements to create a restrained backdrop for our clients’ lives,” says Williams. “The design came from a balancing act between modern and traditional elements throughout the process.”
We simplified the architecture to its essential elements to create a restrained backdrop for our clients’ lives.
—RICHARD WILLIAMS
The L-shaped house is widest at the front to allow room for a modern garden along the sides and rear. Designed by Gregg Bleam, the spare set of native plantings exemplifies the landscape architect’s site-specific Minimalism. “We tried to create a sense of quiet and tranquility,” says Bleam.
Like the home’s architecture, the landscape is a study in simplicity. Hornbeam trees around the perimeter frame a lawn with a single Jane Magnolia. Closer to the house, a shallow reflecting pool extends to a planter filled with horsetail. Entering the home from the traditional front porch, the Zen-like design—with its view of the water through a tall window in the hallway—comes as a surprise.
To emphasize the indoor-outdoor connection further, Williams designed a large corner window in the living/dining space at the heart of the main level. Stretching below its gridded opening is a banquette for sipping coffee and contemplating nature. “We imagined that as a place to picnic next to a stream,” he says.
While the homeowners wanted rooms open to daylight and views, they weren’t enamored with the architecture of glass and steel. “I like cozy bungalows and Cape Cods,” says the wife. “Modern can seem cold,” Williams responded by mixing materials and textures throughout the interiors: dark limestone and oak floors, a stone-and-brick fireplace, Venetian plaster in a bathroom.
A fir-paneled ceiling marks the dining area, where leather chairs are paired with a walnut table crafted by Nebraska woodworker Andy Colley. A nearby barn door slides open to the “away” room at the front of the house, a quiet, book-lined space for reading, working at the computer or listening to music.
The owners insisted the home be eco-friendly and accessible so they can keep their utility bills in check and comfortably age in place. “I wanted it to reflect universal design,” says the wife, “so we included a side entrance to accommodate a wheelchair and a bedroom suite on the ground floor. Some of the walls are framed for an elevator, in case we need one in the future.” Energy-saving features such as a geothermal heating and cooling system, foam-insulated walls and a reflective aluminum roof earned LEED for Homes certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
The owners also requested enough space to accommodate visits from their four grown children and grandchildren while keeping the size of the house manageable for the two of them. “They didn’t want to have rooms lying around waiting to be used,” says project architect Tim Abrams. “There is no formal living or dining room, and no space is overblown or unnecessary.” Three bedrooms, including the master suite, occupy the second floor (the ground-floor bedroom is now used by guests) and an office above the garage could be turned into another bedroom or a caretaker’s suite.
The house and rear garage are linked by a screened porch abutting the bluestone terrace next to the pool. There, the family can gather and enjoy the view. Says the husband, “It’s a good place to pull up a chair and watch the sunlight reflecting off the water.” v
Writer Deborah K. Dietsch is based in Washington, DC. Photographer Tom Arban is based in Toronto and photographer Scott Smith is based in Charlottesville.
ARCHITECTURE: RICHARD WILLIAMS, FAIA, principal in charge; Tim Abrams, AIA, LEED AP, project architect; CATHERINE FOWLKES, interiors, Richard Williams Architects, Washington, DC. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: GREGG BLEAM, FASLA, Gregg Bleam Landscape Architect, Charlottesville, Virginia. BUILDER: HORIZON BUILDERS, Crofton, Maryland.