MARCH/APRIL 2012
When landscape architect Scott Brinitzer of Scott Brinitzer Design Associates in Arlington landed the chance to restore the grounds of a 1925 Tudor in DC, he saw an opportunity to resurrect a once-grand old garden—and also to leave his imaginative imprint on the 2011 DC Design House.
“I love classic gardens so it was an absolute love affair with what was there,” Brinitzer says. “The bones of the garden were pretty phenomenal, but they had been completely neglected for about 30 years.”
A koi pond was obscured so that it was no longer integrated with the house or the other garden areas. Brinitzer and Jeff Potter of J&G Landscape Design felled a jumble of overgrown trees to reveal the pond as well as a boxwood maze. They then introduced whimsically curving gravel walkways that connect to the other parts of the garden. “The gravel becomes almost a water flow as well,” Brinitzer says. Gravel arcs mimic splashes of water on the lawn. Upright conical yews frame the pond, while Korean boxwood shrubs and soft gray rosemary provide texture.
A stately crab apple tree and a pair of crape myrtles were left in place for their character and spring color. A yew hedge provides a deep green backdrop to an original azalea that blooms reddish pink. Nearby, a row of schip laurel leads to the neatly trimmed maze.
According to Brinitzer, none of this was planned. “These ideas developed from working in the garden, trying to come up with something worthy of a show house,” he says.
AWARD: GRAND, SPECIAL EVENTS (DESIGN/BUILD). LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: SCOTT BRINITZER, principal; KATIA GOFFIN, principal designer, Scott Brinitzer Design Associates, Arlington, Virginia. LANDSCAPE INSTALLATION: JEFF POTTER, J&G Landscaping, Spencerville, Maryland. PHOTOGRAPHY: SCOTT BRINITZER.
Karen Watkins is a freelance writer based in Bethesda, Maryland.
**Out of the array of interior design magazines, Home and Design magazine stands out as a primary idea source for luxury home designs and landscape design ideas. Wonderful visuals of inspired décor and lush landscapes are combined with expert advice to provide a fundamental reference point for bringing amazing home interior design ideas, and outdoor spaces to life.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
In the dignified Northwest Washington enclave of Wesley Heights, the weight of tradition is no trifling matter. Azaleas and antiques have long ruled and charting a modern course can require courage. In a renovation of their Georgian-style house, Christopher and Richard Cahill took pains to embellish the past while bringing fresh sensibilities to bear.
For starters, they dared to paint their living room black. “The only way you can do it is to have big windows,” cautions Christopher Cahill, owner of an eponymous design-build firm and the landscape company Botanical Decorators. As he speaks, his living room is bathed in morning sunlight. “Black reflects light,” he explains.
Over the past year, the Cahills updated every square foot of their four-level, five-bedroom house. They refreshed the stately gray brick exterior, which presides over a neat border of boxwoods. Indoors, walls and wallpaper, including an elegant chinoiserie, came down. Acres of white solid-surface kitchen counters were supplanted by green granite. In the breakfast room, a 1980s-vintage Palladian window was replaced with a rectangular transom. The second floor master suite got a reconfigured dressing room and a luxurious bathroom, both with garden views.
The Cahills, who like large-scale entertaining, installed a catering kitchen on the lower level, steps from the garage. Christopher and spouse Richard, who works in financial services, have also prepared for the arrival of an infant, who will bring a lively new dynamic to the home. In anticipation, the owners took down a wall on the first floor, blending the former dining room with the kitchen and breakfast room. The result is a relaxed family room as the new nexus of the house. French doors provide easy access to the garden. A former study has been co-opted as a dining room. “We wanted a home that felt comfortable; the goal was light and cheery,” says Christopher Cahill.
The Cahills also tackled the two-tiered garden, which rises steeply behind the house. Crucial retaining walls were rebuilt and steps to the upper lawn redesigned. The patio was expanded to make space for a fireplace—a move that required carving out part of the hillside, where two mature trees established themselves decades ago. Cahill estimates that his crews removed 72 tons of earth, old stone and plant material before bringing in 115 tons of new materials—all transported by wheelbarrow. Cahill saved the trees and a hammock now swings between their massive trunks near a round of turf just big enough for a swing set.
“We use the fireplace all the time,” Cahill says.
In his previous home, the designer luxuriated in a glass-walled contemporary townhouse with a black leather-and-steel Bauhaus vibe. His Web site still lists Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as the architect he most admires. The new home’s interior is notable for a softer zeitgeist, with natural materials and a palette ranging from sea green to mushroom to sandstone in much of the house. The living and dining rooms do bring a punch of black and white, and there is plenty of glass and steel. But 1920s Modernism has matured into 1960s sophisticate.
The style note is appropriate. The house was built in the 1960s on land carved from a neighboring lot. The living room décor echoes the manner of David Hicks, the legendary English designer who popularized black walls in the 1960s. Furnishings also lean to a Hicksian blend of contemporary and vintage pieces with abstract art. The simple panels of harvest-gold-and-white printed cloth at the windows recall Hicks, but also the playful textiles of the American Mid-Century designer Alexander Girard.
The dining room is a cooler blend of black, white and silver. Contemporary lacquered chairs share the setting with a blown-glass centerpiece by Dale Chihuly atop a dining table with 18th-century French accents. The soothing backdrop is a stencil-like wallpaper pattern of acanthus leaves in black on white. Cahill delights in mentioning that the paper cost just $95 a roll. “I’m frugal,” he says.
However, he admits to splurging on rugs—antique in the living room, Tibetan wool in the halls and master bedroom. But he declined to invest in hand-woven fabrics. “You can’t really tell the difference,” he contends. What’s more, spending less on decoration at the outset makes it easier to alter the décor when he tires of it. “It gives you the freedom to change,” he says.
The house came with eight-foot, four-inch ceilings, so Cahill added layers of crown moldings and topped windows and doorways with broad bands of white trim to “lift the eye upward.” The enhancements also add to the feeling of being in a historic house.
As Cahill pointed out the architectural details, daylight played tricks with the living room walls, shifting the color from black to anthracite to something else entirely. “In summer the walls appear green,” the designer says. “At night, people ask if they are navy blue.”
He seems especially happy to share the effect, and he promptly explains his reason: “It’s the first home that I’ve done exactly as I wanted it done.”
Linda Hales, former design critic at The Washington Post, writes about architecture and design. Stacy Zarin Goldberg is a photographer in Olney, Maryland.
RENOVATION, INTERIOR DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION: CHRISTOPHER CAHILL, Cahill Design Build, Washington, DC. LANDSCAPE DESIGN: BRIAN HAHN, Botanical Decorators, Olney, Maryland.
**Out of the array of interior design magazines, Home and Design magazine stands out as a primary idea source for luxury home design and building/remodeling features. Wonderful visuals of custom homes and eco-friendly resources are combined with expert advice to provide a fundamental reference point for bringing amazing home interior design and remodeling projects to life.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Ensconced in a neighborhood with its own wooded trail leading down to the C&O Canal towpath, Marc Loev, Toni Hawley and their three young boys adored their pristine surroundings. If only their 1980s Colonial home shared a similar reverence for Mother Nature. Its windows were too few and far between to appreciate the views. Outdated mechanical systems and poor insulation made the house drafty and inefficient. It also had an outdated kitchen and disjointed floor plan.
House-hunting forays to find something better led to a simple realization: No other lot in the Metro area could hold a candle to their Potomac gem. So they decided to stay put, and commissioned architect Tom Flach of KohlMark Group to design a renovation—which eventually evolved into the design of a brand new house. “We went through a whole process of designing renovations and additions to the existing home, trying to transform and connect it to the outdoor living space and views,” Flach recalls. “Finally, we made the decision to demolish the existing home and rebuild.”
Unencumbered by the constraints of the original structure, the architect and his clients were free to explore bold new options. They set their sights on a modern home with an open floor plan that would celebrate nature, accommodate parties of all sizes, and project sophisticated style without sacrificing comfort or durability.
Faced with a limited footprint on the two-acre lot, Flach nestled the home around the existing pool without disturbing the mature river birches in the front yard. “The neighborhood was fairly traditional so I worked with traditional forms, but took them to a modern level by removing ornamentation and working with very simple stucco and glass on a stone foundation,” says the architect.
The home’s southern orientation made solar power an easy option—happily for the owners, whose determination to tread lightly on the environment drove the entire building process. Before demolition, Second Chance, a Baltimore non-profit, deconstructed the original house—and was able to recycle two-thirds of its materials. The owners selected insulated low-E, argon-filled windows; spray-foam insulation; low-voltage and LED lighting and low-flow and dual-flush plumbing fixtures for maximum efficiency. The solar system fuels electricity and hot water.
But going sustainable did not mean settling for spartan over über-chic. In fact, many of the home’s features required daring feats of engineering, from walls of glass to a three-level cantilevered, helical staircase to an open “fire pit” hearth in the living room that appears to defy gravity.
During construction, Hawley and Loev hired Baltimore interior designer Michelle Miller to furnish the home in a style that would complement the architecture. Miller painted the walls white to allow the home’s organic materials—Brazilian cherry floors, stone and glass—and the views to take center stage. She designed many custom pieces of furniture using durable fabrics. “The clients wanted to use their home for entertaining, but they also have three boys. We kept it pared down and really simple,” she explains.
Like astute apprentices, Hawley and Loev, both physicians, constantly pitched ideas to Flach and Miller. “They were passionate and very knowledgeable,” says Flach. “Everything that I proposed to them that was pushing the limits, Toni and Marc embraced. At the same time, they also pushed me to take things beyond my comfort zone.”
Miller created a sense of warmth and intimacy in the voluminous rooms on the main level, above which a second-story “bridge” connects the bedrooms. In the dining room, a dark gray wall accentuates a nude by Craig Alan while crystal pendants by Schonbek create a glamorous vibe.
The living room is oriented toward the outside with a two-story wall of glass. A custom rug mimics the line of the ceiling above, and a series of wall sculptures by John Douglas makes a bold statement. The living room leads to a loggia, where a NanaWall opens completely to face the backyard.
Public and private “zones” cater to both family and social functions. A pocket door closes off the kitchen, family room and family powder room, and a back stairway and elevator lead upstairs so the kids can use these spaces during a party—sight and sound unseen.
Hawley, an expert cook, immersed herself in the kitchen design with help from kitchen designer Patty Whitman. Double ovens, sinks, microwaves and dishwashers make the space functional, while Bianco Antico granite countertops and a white back-painted glass backsplash offset dark cabinets and wood floors. In the adjacent family room, oversized windows flank a stucco-clad fireplace.
The master suite, positioned on one side of the bridge above the loggia with the boys’ rooms on the other, is a picture of serenity. Inspired by a hotel the couple visited in Mexico, the bathroom pampers them with smooth limestone and marble tiles and a soaking tub with views of the treetops. “The site lines make it feel like you’re in a private sanctuary,” says Loev.
The second floor also features rooms with en suite baths for each son, a well-appointed guest suite and a kids’ gallery where the parents and boys gather to read and unwind before bedtime. A large third-story playroom prevents toys from straying into other areas of the house.
On the lower level, Loev and Hawley have created a sophisticated “club room.” Unlike their previously dark basement, the new space is bathed in light thanks to the open staircase and bridge near the fireplace. An indoor-outdoor bar, a modular sofa and an etched stainless-steel wall sculpture make this space perfect for large gatherings. A whole-house Lutron lighting system and wireless sound system by SONOS enable the owners to set moods with ease. “We wanted it to be a little sexy down there,” says Miller. The lower level also features an exercise room and a bathroom with a steam shower.
When the project was completed, Loev and Hawley felt “a sense of loss” because their fruitful collaboration had come to a close. “We were very involved,” recalls Loev. “Every element was a collaboration—much to our designer’s and architect’s chagrin,” he adds with a laugh.
“They were the perfect clients,” Flach responds. “There was such a great push from each of us to stretch the limits. That’s what makes great architecture.”
Photographer Greg Hadley is based in Fairfax, Virginia.
ARCHITECTURE: THOMAS FLACH, AIA, vice president, KohlMark Group - Architects and Builders, Burke, Virginia. CONSTRUCTION: THOMAS FLACH and WADE GREENE, project manager, KohlMark Group - Architects and Builders. INTERIOR DESIGN: MICHELLE MILLER, Michelle Miller Interiors, Baltimore, Maryland. LANDSCAPE DESIGN: Through the Garden, Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia.
**Out of the array of interior design magazines, Home and Design magazine stands out as a primary idea source for luxury home design and building/remodeling features. Wonderful visuals of custom homes and eco-friendly resources are combined with expert advice to provide a fundamental reference point for bringing amazing home interior design and remodeling projects to life.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Jim Gibson is known for the tasteful, elegant houses he constructs throughout the DC area—including, recently, his own classic yet modern residence in the Somerset neighborhood of Chevy Chase, Maryland. After living nearby in a very traditional home, Gibson and his wife Dana were ready for something different. They bought an 8,700-square-foot lot with a non-descript rancher on it with the intention of tearing it down; Gibson tapped GTM Architects, a frequent collaborator, to design the plans, and Skip Sroka for the interiors.
“Jim is very experienced and it was clear from the beginning that he knew what he was after,” says GTM’s principal, George T. Myers. “The goal was for the house to fit the neighborhood, but he also wanted some elements on the outside that would indicate a more contemporary interior.”
As is typical for Gibson, who is very efficient, the project proceeded apace. “We built the house in about 10 months,” he says. “We were living in it within a year of settling on the property.”
Of course, the surprise in all this is less the efficiency of the project than its tremendous result. With help from Myers and Sroka, Gibson and his wife have created a remarkably stylish yet comfortable home—every inch of which was designed to their specifications and with their vision of home in mind. It not only perfectly fits the surrounding neighborhood of older houses, but it also exudes a serene, modern vibe that captures visitors’ hearts and minds the minute they walk in the door.
In fact, that is actually what happened when, soon after moving in, the Gibsons welcomed visitors who looked around the home and offered to buy it on the spot, furniture and decoration included. The Gibsons, with the confidence of people who know how to build their dream house, accepted the offer.
In the meantime, they are happy to tour their home while it’s still theirs, basking in the perfect melding of traditional Queen Anne, Shingle-style exterior architecture and the clean, crisp lines and soft, restful palette that Sroka so deftly incorporated throughout the interiors. “We wanted the exterior to fit the neighborhood and we liked the idea of the contemporary interior as a surprise,”
Gibson says. “I wanted to come home from work every night and feel like I was going into a really nice hotel.”
Sroka clearly understood this vision. “It was collaborative,” he says. “First we worked on room and lighting layouts and finishes, then furniture. The final stage is fabrics and colors. As you work, other elements become apparent. It’s a revealing process.”
In order to create a modern sensibility, the couple willingly relinquished pretty much everything they had owned before. “What we had was traditional,” Dana Gibson says. “We sold all of the furniture, everything. We wanted a new look. We wanted to be uncluttered.” An inveterate collector, Jim Gibson sold all his collections save one: a vibrant assortment of vintage posters. “I sold about 80 of them,” he offers—a remarkable statement given the number of them still adorning the walls. Beautifully framed in all shapes and sizes, they complement the couple’s new, streamlined décor. And, incidentally, they are the one decorative element that the Gibsons will not be leaving behind for the new owners.
The five-bedroom, five-and-a-half-bath house includes a finished basement complete with media room, workout room, wine cellar and guest suite, and a finished third floor housing the Gibsons’ 15-year-old son’s en suite bedroom and adjoining sitting room. The second floor encompasses what Gibson calls the “hotel-like” master suite, along with a home office and a guest suite.
On the main floor, harmony prevails with a palette of light blue, soft beige and charcoal that unites the living, dining and family rooms. Sroka honed in on solid, textured upholstery and simple, clean-lined draperies, and adorned surfaces with just the right accessories to provide warmth and interest. He designed subtly paneled ceilings, painting them all a soft blue; quarter-sawn wide-plank rift oak floors cover the ground floor, unifying the space.
When it came time to design the roomy, light-filled kitchen, Dana Gibson was inspired. “I’d seen these wonderful paneled pantry doors in a magazine,” she says. “We decided to convert them into refrigerator doors.” Custom cabinetry in three different finishes subtly delineates the work zones of the kitchen and the paneled fridge provides a focal point. “I didn’t want tile,” Dana says, “so we used back-painted glass for the backsplash, which really reflects the light.”
Light was a high priority for the Gibsons, so Sroka and Dana Gibson spent a lot of time creating the right lighting plan. It includes lights under the kitchen island and bathroom cabinets (to convey a sense that they’re floating), on each step of the staircase and behind the dropped ceiling in the foyer. “At night,” says Jim Gibson, “the lighting makes the house spectacular.”
Timothy Bell is a photographer with studios in Washington, DC, and New York City.
ARCHITECTURE: GEORGE T. MYERS, AIA, NCARB, principal; DOUG ROBERTS, project manager, GTM Architects, Inc., Bethesda, Maryland. INTERIOR DESIGN: SKIP SROKA, ASID, CID; ANTONELLA CESTONE, project manager, Sroka Design, Inc., Bethesda, Maryland. BUILDER: JIM GIBSON, Gibson Builders, Washington, DC.
**Out of the array of interior design magazines, Home and Design magazine stands out as a primary idea source for luxury home designs. Wonderful visuals of inspired décor and lush landscapes are combined with expert advice to provide a fundamental reference point for bringing amazing home interior design ideas to life.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
A few boxes already line the upstairs hall as the family of seven prepares to move. But the decidedly unfussy yet chic style of Mary Amons, known by many as the most genuinely real housewife of “The Real Housewives of DC,” still emanates from every room of the house she’s called home for the past 18 years.
Describing her style as “relaxed Ralph Lauren Colorado,” Amons gravitates to a neutral palette and layered textures that foster complementary pops of color. The home today is a far cry from the pink-mortared brick and stucco Dutch Colonial with a red sponge-painted kitchen that Amons first encountered when she began house hunting in the McLean neighborhood near where she grew up.
“I saw tremendous potential,” Amons says of the house, which she’d personalized to the point where all it needed was a landscaping facelift before she began filming the 2010 Bravo reality series. “My favorite house is Diane Keaton’s in the movie Something’s Gotta Give, and that’s what I wanted to recreate here.”
The first order of business was to neutralize the exterior—“There was just way too much going on,” she deadpans—by painting it a single calming color, and adding a front wing that houses a gracious entry, plus the dining and living rooms. She and her husband, wireless communications consultant Rich Amons, later undertook other additions, including finishing a large attic space to make an apartment for the oldest child living at home and adding an expansive flagstone patio that grounds the glassed-in sunroom and provides a perfect space for warm-weather entertaining.
An artist whose own paintings—as well as works by oldest daughter Lolly—adorn several rooms, Amons clearly understands the aesthetic of creating a unifying backdrop. The hardwood floors throughout the first floor are painted black (just like in the Keaton film), and all hard surfaces—from kitchen counters and backsplash to the vanities in all six bathrooms—are Carrara marble. Walls throughout the first floor soothe in Benjamin Moore’s White Dove and white orchids, Amons favorite flower, grace numerous tabletops.
“I heard the best piece of advice once, which is to design your house around the way you dress,” Amons says, gesturing to her black leggings, white t-shirt and black cardigan for emphasis. “I wear very little color.”
With her penchant for layering, Amons’s neutral palette is anything but cold. Just the right amount of decorative molding brings additional depth to several rooms, including the tray-ceilinged family room. It is adorned with a sisal rug and natural hides—another Amons favorite—on the floor and draped over the couch.
With three daughters and two sons to keep up with, Amons has deliberately avoided the trend of letting an oversized television dominate the family room. Instead, a recessed flat-screen rises from a Carrara counter at the touch of a button, and disappears just as seamlessly. The other common rooms are free of TVs and their accompanying gadgetry altogether.
“I didn’t want to give the kids too many options,” she says. “The heart of the home is the living area where we can sit and gather.”
In keeping with this mantra, Amons recently removed a large table and surrounding chairs from the kitchen, freeing the space to become another intimate seating area warmed by a wood-burning fireplace that more often than not is lit during the colder months. “This year has been particularly unified,” Amons says. “Our kids are always developing and changing and the dynamics around here are developing and changing with them. But I’m always all about family first.”
The living and dining rooms—-only a tinge more formal than the other rooms—reveal a combination of pieces the Amons family has collected over the years, complementary Baker furniture, and photographs and other family keepsakes. In a nod to her mother, who deplored window treatments, Amons left most of the windows on the first floor unadorned.
A flirtatious manifestation of her recent embrace of modern décor is a Cappellini chair covered in a Pucci swirl of gray, black and dusty rose that holds court in the living room. Together with the round marble-topped Minotti table, the pieces from DC’s Contemporaria hint at the design direction that Mary Amons’s next home may take. “I’ve definitely been more interested in modern lately,” she says.
Upstairs, the master suite is centered around an over-scaled wooden bed created by a family friend to maximize the view from the bedroom window.
Adjacent to the bedroom is the master bath, a luxurious sea of Carrara that also serves as the gateway to his and hers closets, the latter the site of the biometric lock Amons had installed that created a buzz on “Housewives.”
Although she says a number of factors find the family ready to take up a new residence—they were looking at a variety of properties at the time of our interview—it’s clear that Amons has mixed emotions about the impending move. “It’s bittersweet to leave; it’s hard to let go,” she says. “But I’m excited for changes and new opportunities.”
Amons’s career, too, is branching out in new directions. She’s purchased the rights to produce two films based on real-life stories with releases planned for late 2012 and is expanding Labels for Love (labelsforlove.org), the nonprofit she founded several years ago that stages fashion events to raise awareness and funding for women’s and children’s causes.
And of course the move provides a chance for Amons to continue down the path of modern design. “Let’s just say most of the upholstery will not be coming back the same,” she says. “I’m excited to decorate a new space.”
Cathy Applefeld Olson is based in Alexandria, Virginia. Stacy Zarin Goldberg is a photographer in Olney, Maryland.
**Out of the array of interior design magazines, Home and Design magazine stands out as a primary idea source for luxury home designs. Wonderful visuals of inspired décor and lush landscapes are combined with expert advice to provide a fundamental reference point for bringing amazing home interior design ideas to life.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Historic Georgetown is rich with landmark buildings, quaint alleys and picturesque courtyards—slices of history that still evoke the bygone eras the neighborhood has weathered over hundreds of years. Prominently showcased on one such well-preserved street is a Federal-era home, recently brought back from disrepair by a renowned design team and now a winner of a Contractor of the Year Award for Entire House Over $1 Million—as well as Home & Design’s Award of Excellence.
Over the years, Glass Construction (recipient of these awards) has built a niche for itself in historic restoration, preservation and adaptive reuse. In fact, when owner Tom Glass heard from the couple who had just purchased this historic Georgetown home, it wasn’t the first time they’d called. “I’d known the owners for quite some time,” Glass recalls. “We’d done other renovations for them in Georgetown.”
Glass and his team were particularly energized by the prospect of this project because the architects tapped to redesign the house were the renowned Modernist Hugh Newell Jacobsen and his son and partner, Simon Jacobsen. “Of course I was familiar with Jacobsen’s work and it was exciting to get an opportunity to work with him,” Glass says.
According to Simon Jacobsen, while the house was designated a landmark, over the years it had been stripped of much of its historic value—so making changes was less of an issue than one might expect. The homeowners and architects agreed to return the exterior to its Federal-era roots, in keeping with the surrounding homes. “We didn’t want to erase the historic integrity of the building,” Simon Jacobsen explains. “We took it back to the Federal era, reducing it down to its original elegant design.”
The Jacobsens did the same with the interiors, which had been marred over the years by haphazard changes and reconfigurations. “Nothing original was really left anymore,” Simon Jacobsen says. “The original spaces were divided up in the 1930s, and that’s when the house began to lose what it was intended to be. The old kitchen was almost a rabbit warren.”
The new design removed extra walls throughout, enlarging rooms to their original grandeur. The house, which follows what Jacobsen terms “a two-pile plan” (a common layout of the period), is actually five splendid stories high (including the basement), and sports two spacious rooms per floor flanked by a side hall. In a crowded city, says Jacobsen, building up was historically the way to create a spacious home and heating one floor at a time made these homes financially viable.
The home’s front entrance is on the second floor, which includes both a front and a back parlor in addition to a grand front hall that now accesses a powder room, coat closet, staircase and elevator. The floor beneath—half above and half below ground—houses the dining room and kitchen (the architects dropped the floor three feet to give these rooms nine-foot ceilings), while the floor above accommodates the master suite complete with his and hers closets and a master bath. The fourth floor offers two en suite guest rooms and a laundry room, and the fifth floor belongs to the owners’ teenage son. The house boasts six working fireplaces.
Once the home’s exterior had been restored and the interiors brought back to their original state, the homeowners struck a different path. “They wanted a very clean, crisp, light-filled environment,” Glass says. “They were very much into the Modernist aesthetic. They have an extensive collection of art and a number of different kinds of furnishings that they needed space for.” Jacobsen, who is known for his spare, contemporary designs, was the perfect person to implement the sensibility the owners were looking for; in addition to the architecture, he and his son took on the home’s interior design as well, creating pristine backdrops for the homeowners’ colorful art and eclectic furniture.
The house, with its restored, open plan, is rife with Jacobsen trademarks—and as Glass describes it, these made the project a challenge. “We essentially rebuilt the whole interior, reproducing it in Jacobsen’s style,” he says. For example, in Hugh Newell Jacobsen’s vernacular, doors extend from floor to ceiling so they look like a contiguous part of the wall. Eschewing moldings at floor or ceiling, Jacobsen opts for a reveal bead—a quarter-inch metal strip that goes onto the drywall, creating a gap that draws the eye. Unlike traditional moldings, the reveal bead leaves no room for error, says Glass. And in an old building that had shifted over time, windows and doorways weren’t level. “Each jamb had to be custom fit on the outside and level and square inside,” Glass recalls, “or the windows and doors literally wouldn’t open and shut.”
In the end, the Jacobsens’ vision and Glass Construction’s precision paid off. “It was hard work,” Tom Glass says, “but it was definitely rewarding.”
RENOVATION ARCHITECTURE, INTERIORS & LANDSCAPE: HUGH NEWELL JACOBSEN, FAIA; SIMON JACOBSEN, managing design partner, Jacobsen Architecture, Washington, DC. CONTRACTOR: TOM GLASS, president, Glass Construction, Washington, DC.
**Out of the array of interior design magazines, Home and Design magazine stands out as a primary idea source for luxury home design and building/remodeling features. Wonderful visuals of custom homes and eco-friendly resources are combined with expert advice to provide a fundamental reference point for bringing amazing home interior design and remodeling projects to life.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
When David Hollander bought his Capitol Hill townhouse in early 2003, it was outdated and had an inconvenient floor plan. For Hollander, who was single at the time, it served its bachelor-pad purpose. It wasn’t until he met and married Maya Ajmera some years later that, after sharing the space for a while, he agreed with her verdict: It was time for an overhaul.
The couple—Hollander is a partner in a law firm and Ajmera is the founder of the Global Fund for Children—hired Landis Construction for the job. The project, which ultimately entailed a two-story addition off the back and the construction of an entire third floor, established an open floor plan and a sleek, modern look. “We really touched every room in the house,” says Landis design manager Greg Gardner. “That’s how we were able to get a consistent look throughout.” The result, which Ajmera says “feels like a whole new house,” won NARI’s Merit Award for Entire House $500,000 to $1 Million.
Before the rebuild, Ajmera was bothered by the fact that walking through the front door of the house brought visitors immediately into the kitchen, beyond which a dark family room opened out a step lower than the rest of the space. “We leveled the floor and pushed 16 feet back to create the two-story addition,” says Gardner. This space now houses a clean-lined, modern kitchen/family room area with expansive sliding glass doors out to the patio and grassy yard. Where the kitchen and family room used to be, an open-plan living room/dining room now welcomes guests, who walk in via a short hallway leading from the front door. Porcelain-tile flooring delineates the hall (from which laundry and powder rooms are accessible) but the rest of the ground floor is covered in bleached wide maple planks that unify and brighten the space.
Landis updated the stairwell, extending it another flight to the new third floor. It was a challenge, says Gardner, because the owners envisioned both staircases as open and contemporary in style and seamlessly connected. They custom-designed steel and glass handrails with wood caps throughout to convey the look the couple was after.
Upstairs, the former master bedroom has been converted into a library to house the couple’s books and Ajmera’s pottery collection. Because of the sculpturally curved stairwell, “the cherry bookshelves had to be brought in in pieces and built in place,” Gardner recalls. The library opens into the master suite, which encompasses a large walk-in closet and a roomy master bath, and also opens into two other bedrooms.
The third floor houses two extra bedrooms plus what Ajmera refers to as Hollander’s “man cave,” complete with a built-in desk at one end and an entertainment center at the other; a wet bar with a refrigerator renders traveling two flights down for a beer unnecessary. Mechanized shades cover the windows throughout the house and a Lutron system controls the home’s technology.
Hollander and Ajmera, who love to entertain, couldn’t be happier with their updated, modern home, which now flows beautifully inside and out. They are carefully choosing dynamic artwork for the walls—and enjoying the process.
Photographer Greg Hadley is based in Fairfax, Virginia.
RENOVATION DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION: ETHAN LANDIS, principal; GREG GARDNER, design manager, Landis Construction, Washington, DC. LANDSCAPE DESIGN: Joan M. Janssen, Cityscapes Landscaping, Inc., Silver Spring, Maryland.
**Out of the array of interior design magazines, Home and Design magazine stands out as a primary idea source for luxury home design and building/remodeling features. Wonderful visuals of custom homes and eco-friendly resources are combined with expert advice to provide a fundamental reference point for bringing amazing home interior design and remodeling projects to life.
