The domed skylight rises above the roof of the sunroom, which spills onto the patio.
While updating the backyard of their traditional residence, Bethesda homeowners wished to make better use of their large, under-utilized patio by adding a three-season shelter for gathering. After considering pergolas and pavilions, they decided to up the ante to four seasons with a sunroom. Hired to overhaul the property, landscape architecture firm Fritz & Gignoux brought on architect Timothy Clites for the task.
Working with Horizon Builders, Clites conceived a 484-square-foot room, accessible from the house through existing glass doors. “We started with a traditional plan,” Clites notes. “But in the end, we felt it should have its own more modern vocabulary. As it turned out, a lot of creative things happened in that 22-by-22-foot space.”
Foremost among them: a star-shaped skylight, measuring 13-and-a-half feet from point to point. “The owners wanted it to look like a star had fallen through the ceiling,” Clites recounts.
“It became an exercise in how much glass was possible—they wanted more glass and less structure.” Two manufacturers designed star-shaped skylights in a sort of contest; Tanglewood Conservatories’ domed design, combining wide expanses of glass and a metal framework embellished with decorative cutouts, was the winner.
Ten-foot-tall, steel bi-fold doors open to the backyard on two sides. Integrated into the patio, a narrow reflecting pool borders one set of doors while the other set opens onto a portion of the patio delineated by low retaining walls. The patio’s existing slate surface was replaced with limestone that better supports the heavy structure. Armed with its own heating-and-cooling system, the light-filled sunroom stays comfortable year-round, whether it’s open for summer breezes or closed off for coziness.
Sunroom Architecture: Timothy L. Clites, AIA, Clites Architects PC, Middleburg, Virginia. Interior Design: Tricia Huntley, Huntley & Co., Washington, DC. Landscape Architecture: Fritz & Gignoux, Washington, DC. Builder: Horizon Builders, Annapolis, Maryland. Photography: Walter Smalling, Jr.