Fresh face: Waynesboro factory Solutions Place gets a second life
It’s easy for a lobby to go nearly unnoticed; it’s just a place to pass through or wait for a few minutes before moving on to the real destination. But for small startup companies, a lobby can be significant. “You don’t necessarily want to spend a lot of money on a fancy lobby, but clients […]
High on the hill: A house prizes flow, along with the views
Robin and Mary Felder like to call their place Monte Piccolo, meaning “tiny mountain.” That’s in deference to Thomas Jefferson, whose home was, of course, the “little mountain.” And while it may not be Monticello, there’s nothing small about the view from this elevated site in Ivy; you can see all the way to Wintergreen, […]
Perfectly Victorian: Rooms with a view in historic Staunton
Anyone with a fondness for Staunton—its well-kept, homey neighborhoods, walkable and engaging downtown and intact historical fabric—can appreciate the appeal of living a couple of blocks uphill from the center of town. Imagine it: You emerge from your house on foot and all but roll down to Beverley Street to partake of whatever pleasure (cappuccino, […]
Subtle and simple: In neutral shades, a kitchen for the moment
Buildings reflect priorities. In 1949, when Jennifer Greenhalgh’s house on Park Street was built, kitchens were not the centerpieces they’ve become today. She and her husband Blake bought the colonial-style dwelling in 2008 and immediately set about making the kitchen more relevant to their contemporary lifestyle. “The kitchen was much smaller,” she remembered, standing with […]
First and last: A well-used kitchen gets its due
The earliest image Jim Rounsevell and Carol O’Connor have of their house, from shortly after it was built in 1920, includes food. The aerial shot shows chickens and pigs behind the house, along with rows of garden veggies. Almost a century later, the current owners love cooking and entertaining; food is important in their lives. […]
Old world, new views: On a venerable farm, a house for today
It’s appealing to imagine building anew on open land—making one’s mark on untouched acreage. But one couple in Rappahannock County took on a more unusual challenge. Lynn and Pam Pittinger bought a 93-acre farm and set about adding a modern house to an existing cluster of buildings. In the midst of this timeworn set of […]
Meet me at South Street: A facelift for an old Charlottesville favorite
If anybody around here understands how locals prefer to drink their beer, it’s Mandi and Taylor Smack. The proprietors of Afton’s wildly popular Blue Mountain Brewery, the Smacks bought South Street Brewery in July and hired Wolf Ackerman to help them put their stamp on it before reopening it in November. And though lots of […]
Mix and serve: Scaling up history in a salvaged house
Everybody talks about marrying old and new, but there are different ways to do it. You’ve got your fixer-upper farmhouses, into which you can insert contemporary elements like stainless steel dishwashers. You’ve got your new builder homes that nod to tradition with way too much crown molding. Here is something totally different, and very unusual. […]
Up and out: A tall, spacious Albemarle kitchen takes in the view
“This was a poor man’s farmhouse,” said Jen Fariello of the classic 1890 abode she shares with her husband, Chris Conklin, and their 5-year-old son. It’s a far cry from that now. Ten years after the couple bought the place, they’ve just completed their second major update, and the house is looking polished and modern. […]
Far afield: Adams Sutphin is tweaking tradition in a Fauquier County landscape
In Fauquier County’s hunt country, the views are long. Roads gently rise and fall through open fields, passing horse barns, ponds and board fences, and in the far distance, the Blue Ridge draws a curving horizon. It feels like a place where the long vistas suggest a connection to the past. In this iconic setting, […]
Permission to dream: Visitors reach new heights at Monticello
What could be loftier than Monticello? Well, at least physically, Montalto is—by 410′. The neighboring mountain was once part of Jefferson’s holdings, and these days, after decades in private ownership, it’s returned to the fold. In 2004, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation bought the mountain and the grand house, called Repose, that sits atop it. To […]
Intelligent design: A mid-century Rugby home defines true class
We might have found the exact opposite of a McMansion. It’s upscale, not showy. It’s stylish, not trendy. It’s anything but gauche. It’s just a well-designed, beautifully-built home that has stood the test of more than six decades in ways that are kind of astonishing. Meet 2016 Spottswood Rd. Let’s bypass, for now, the white […]
Clean slate: Taking a kitchen from flood to flow
There’s nothing like a flood to rearrange priorities. Soon after Andrea and Brian Hubbell closed on their Rugby neighborhood house last March, the supply line to their kitchen sink gave up the ghost, spraying a geyser at the ceiling. Because the Hubbells weren’t yet living in the house—a 1950s brick structure—they didn’t discover the problem […]
The new traditional: A fresh farmhouse updates an American classic
Sometimes, choosing an architect isn’t just business; it’s personal. That’s how Emily Umberger and Pradeep Rajagopalan felt when they met the folks at Wolf Ackerman in 2005. “We really got along with those guys personally,” said Rajagopalan—crucial when embarking on any project, but especially the design and construction of a new house. The feeling was […]
Scene setter: The curtain rises on a fresh Live Arts
More than a decade ago, three of Charlottesville’s signature arts organizations got a beautiful new home—the City Center for Contemporary Arts, housing Live Arts theater, Lighthouse Studio, and Second Street Gallery. Yet, since 2003, the lobbies of the building—on floors one, two, and three —have been unfinished. “It was an awesome achievement—a very, very ambitious […]
Up river: In Scottsville, a pared-down weekend home
With a weekend house, showiness is not the point. Take, for example, the big island in the kitchen/dining room of Danny and Katie MacNelly’s Scottsville getaway. Deceptively simple, it provides workspace, eating space, and enough extra room for a puzzle in progress. It’s a focal point, but its materials are not luxurious. “We talked about […]
East and West: An Asian-inspired home embraces Virginia’s seasons
It’s a long way from London to the woods of northern Albemarle County. Paul and Ginger Ferrell lived in the British capital for 24 years, and as they eyed retirement from across the pond, they zeroed in on Charlottesville as the perfect place to relocate. When asked if they considered living in town, they laughed. […]
Bursting with life: A blank-slate city lot, transformed
Meredith Mercer had luck on her side when she bought her house on Hessian Road in 2006. After living in various cities around the world, none with any land to speak of, she was ready to have a garden—and this house came with more than half an acre to play with. And though it had […]
Almost heaven: In Nelson, a farm to come home to
For certain buyers, there’s nothing more romantic than a big old farmhouse on a fair piece of land. Throw in a view and some large shade trees, and some people really get stars in their eyes. Tack “swimming pool” on to the above description and you might even elicit a swoon. Edge Hill, a 56-acre […]
As is, with a twist: An Albemarle couple keeps the best of the past
1964 was probably a great year in some ways—for one thing, it was the year the Beatles first hit the U.S.—but not for kitchens. Nowadays, folks tend to find the carved-up spaces and retro finishes of midcentury kitchens to be a bit constraining. So when Justin and Jen Knippen bought their four-bedroom house in Ivy […]
Tell me a tale: UVA’s Battle Building aims for happier endings
Kids and hospitals are not a fun combination, but at least the visit can be as convenient as possible—and maybe even educational. When UVA Health System opened its new pediatric outpatient building, the Battle Building, in June, its aim was to revamp the experience of visiting the hospital, for both patients and their parents. For […]
From the inside out: Interior life defines a Rappahannock home
It is commonplace for architects to speak of “bringing the outside in”—usually via plentiful glass and a toolkit of other tricks. When Richard Williams describes his firm’s design process on a Rappahannock County home, that familiar goal—connecting inhabitants to the landscape—takes on an unusual cast. “On our first site visit,” he said of his clients, […]
Parts and whole: Design makes this property bloom
To Cole Burrell, landscape designer, a garden is an extension of a house. “There’s a million styles and a million vocabularies,” he said, “but none makes any sense unless it makes sense with the house.” One of his Albemarle projects illustrates that principle with a garden that seems to spring organically from the spirit of […]
Pumped up: Downtown eatery samples Euro design
Red Pump, one of Charlottesville’s newest restaurants, carries the tagline “A Tuscan Kitchen,” and its menu—bursting with pizzettes, bucatini, and salumi misti—certainly bears out that designation. But when it came to the interior, owners Dean and Lynn Andrews drew upon a continent’s worth of influences. A Tuscan fire breathes at the back of the restaurant […]
Long time home: Inspired by camps, an architect crafts a house for the ages
When Bethany and Mike Puopolo bought their acreage south of Ash Lawn-Highland, she embarked on a paradox. In designing a home, Bethany began with the image of a temporary structure: “a camp or a revival tent, something very plain and very simple.” She and her family have now occupied this “camp” for nearly a quarter-century, […]
Come play: A horse farm gets a fun-loving update
It’s a luxury to imagine, then create, a playground—not only for children but for adults of many recreational persuasions. That is just what Brooke Spencer and her partner, Kim Cory, did at a Free Union property whose 97 rolling acres include mountain views, mature oak trees, and a spring-fed pond. Its present owners bought it […]
Refreshing the ’70s: Creating a better ranch in Earlysville Heights
In the heart of Earlysville sits a fine brick ranch at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac in the Earlysville Heights neighborhood. Fifteen minutes from Charlottesville and five minutes to Hollymead Town Center, this home currently features three bedrooms and one-and-a-half baths. We asked Troy Yancey of Teal Construction to give us his contractor’s expertise […]