First things first, current or future homeowner: You need a garage. “I would say, for sure, 100 percent of our customers want garages,” says Brice Craig of custom home designer Craig Builders. Really, like 100 percent 100 percent? Not even like one carport somewhere? “I haven’t seen any carports,” Craig says. “For new construction homes, […]
A structure as history-soaked as UVA’s Rotunda has many chapters to its story. And, having served as a symbol of the university for nearly 200 years, it’s layered with meaning, too. The Rotunda is currently undergoing a major renovation; much of the exterior will be finished this month, allowing graduates to process around the building during […]
It’s not that Julie Bargmann doesn’t like a vast panorama of green countryside—it’s that she’s more inspired by its opposite. “Give me a path through a landscape with railroad tracks overgrown with wild and woolly weeds,” says the landscape architect and D.I.R.T. Studio founder. “Give me urban wilds, give me a place that is growing […]
In this month’s issue of Abode: A 1938 Ivy home and landscape, an heirloom kitchen, WillowTree Apps’ offices and more. Click through here and, below, find a digital copy of the magazine. Grounded LLC’s Anna Boeschenstein on why architecture. A bright, hip renovation for WillowTree Apps. A huge home library. What to look for in […]
In a town with more than its share of notable houses, the home of Bebe Heiner and Bill Atwood is a quiet gem. Hidden at the end of a long driveway in Ivy’s Flordon neighborhood, Credenhill—as it was named by its original owners, after their Welsh hometown—embodies a reserved and gracious sensibility. The pleasing proportions […]
How to bring many layers of history together in one contemporary garden design? Credenhill, a 1938 home in Ivy, had a bit of a pedigree attached to it, in the person of noted designer Charles Gillette. The challenge for current owners Bebe Heiner and Bill Atwood was to integrate the original Gillette design—along with subsequent […]
Meghan Murray’s house is a family home in a couple of different ways. She grew up in this farmhouse in Faber, built by her grandparents in 1942, on land that’s been in her family for a century. So to occupy it now, as she and her family have for the past year, means that the […]
It used to be the place to perform a tree pose in a superheated room. Now, the one-time Bikram Yoga studio on Fifth Street SE is home to a very different kind of workout—the mental gymnastics of the techies at WillowTree Apps. As a fast-growing firm that creates mobile and TV-integrated apps for clients such […]
Libraries are the repositories not only of books, but of feelings. There’s the love of a good read, of course, but bookworms harbor other associations with libraries, too: discovery, solitude and the satisfaction of working hard. When architect Bruce Wardell and his colleagues were asked to design a library addition for a Charlottesville homeowner, they […]
Caroline Minsky opened The Artful Lodger with her husband, Christopher, in 2003, in a 1,100-square-foot space on Seminole Trail. Thirteen years later, the business has grown in size and scope, covering nearly 6,000 square feet of retail space downtown. We asked her to tell us what she thinks can transform a room and how a […]
If you think “groundbreaking”—as in the physical act—might be one of the more thrilling words in our language, you might need to get in the market for land. Selecting a site where you can build anew, on whichever hilltop you like best, is a welcome adventure. But, like all adventures, it has its share of […]
While cleaning the office of Madison House, where he was associate director from 1997-2001, former mayor Dave Norris found an old postcard of Madison Hall in the discard pile. “I thought [it] was a cool old knick-knack and saved it,” he says. Over time, he accumulated more postcards of UVA and, later, Charlottesville. The collection […]
This month’s issue of Abode is on stands now. Here’s what you’ll find inside. And, below, find a digital copy of the magazine. Waterstreet Studio’s Bill Mauzy on the intersection of photography and architecture. A fully loaded octagonal house. A Q&A with designer Wendi Smith. The latest in home security technology. This month’s featured house: […]
Tom Davidson and Marilyn Mars love to laugh, and their house shows it. When they moved to Nelson County from Florida, they sought a modern dwelling, commissioning Marilyn’s brother Randall Mars, a McLean-based architect, to design it. Though clean lines attracted them, Marilyn says, this house—full of colorful, detailed art and objects—is anything but minimal. […]
Spring comes to us variously—covered in mud, blasted through on dry winds, smuggled beneath the skirts of late freezes. It has been known to rise gloriously from a burgeoning earth like the first day of Eden, which seems likely this year. Abundant moisture from rain and snow portend a spectacular flowering of classic favorites: dogwood, […]
Wendi Smith has been in the design business for more than 20 years, beginning with commercial design work in New York City—from the Chase Bank trading floor to a standardizing two floors for Citibank in the MetLife Building on Park Avenue. “I have done everything from a brand new, 17,000-square-foot space to just helping first-time […]
There’s an enduring appeal to the idea of a compact dwelling that can go up fast—it’s been expressed in everything from the teepee to the mobile home. In the zeitgeist of the moment, it’s the phrase “tiny house” that holds currency. Down in Amherst County, sculptor Craig Pleasants has created his own version of the […]
You’re away from home on a business trip. Your cell phone buzzes in your pocket. It’s an alert from your home security app. There’s been a breach in one of your living room windows. Your phone rings. It’s your home security monitoring company. They’ve detected the breach and will send a police officer unless you […]
This month’s issue of Abode is available now. Here’s what you’ll find inside: Roots Natural Kitchen‘s clean remodel. Wood-look flooring to consider. A peek at Candace DeLoach’s inn loft. Jeff Dreyfus answers a few of our questions. An Ivy mansion wherein looks deceive. This month’s featured home: Brand new tradition As Robin and Craig Ellis […]
Faux wood has, in the past, been a splinter in the discerning consumer’s eye. But new products and improvements on standbys are changing that, according to local floor purveyors and homebuilders. From wood-look tile to luxury vinyl, floor treatments are treating high-end homeowners to options that were never before possible. “If they love everything about […]
Alvaro Anspach and Alberto Namnum are passionate about vegetables. Eat mostly fresh veggies and fruits, they believe, and you’ll soon feel more energetic and focused. How are they spreading the gospel? From the pulpit of their restaurant, Roots Natural Kitchen, where they serve salads and grain bowls packed with avocados, broccoli and other super-healthy ingredients. […]
What’s the difference between grand and grandiose? Anyone trying to make the distinction would do well to take Clouds Hill Farm as an example. Impressive in size, it’s nonetheless laid-back, not caring too much what we think of it—which is, somehow, a key to its appeal. Here are the facts: On 35 acres in Ivy […]
When Kristen Kaylor and her family moved into their new house off Rio Road last November, they didn’t get to make too many choices. The home was a spec house built by Bramante Homes, and much of the kitchen design had already been completed by Amy Hart of Albemarle Cabinet Co. Fortunately, Hart had been careful […]