Scrolling lazily through the MLS, looking for a vacant city lot on which to build your dream home? You can scroll to your heart’s content, but you’re not too likely to nab your quarry. “They don’t come on the market very often at all, but when decent lots do come on the market, they’re gone […]
Waves move in cycles. If you want to know the status of the open concept trend among homeowners, that’s pretty much all you need to know, according to Robert Nichols of Formwork Architecture. “There are almost always cycles, and there are subwaves too,” he says. “Some hybrids start to get developed. I kind of feel […]
Having already earned a degree in landscape architecture from Virginia Tech, Keith Scott decided that, in order to deepen his understanding of the built environment, an architecture degree would be necessary as well. So he got both. “As a result of the two degrees, many of my favorite places are where building and landscape are […]
Décor-wise, designer Kathy Heiner says homeowners should never scrimp on art. As she puts it, “Paintings, pottery and sculpture can transform a space, create interest and provide a topic for conversation.” And she practices what she preaches in her own home, where each wall is a veritable gallery of framed pieces—from prints and line drawings […]
Unlike the devil, it’s impossible to mistake a hell strip for anything else. Sterile concrete medians, inhospitable sidewalk patches and blazing afternoon decks do not appear in disguise. They differ from ordinary sunny garden sites in their sometimes polluted but always harsh exposure to reflective heat from asphalt and walls bereft of the buffering effects […]
“How do we treat children with as much respect as we treat adults?” That was one of the primary questions driving the design of an addition to Agnor-Hurt Elementary, an Albemarle County public school, last year. Camilo Bearman, the Stantec architect who led the project, loved reaching for that lofty goal. “It’s inspiring as a […]
In this month’s issue of Abode: a cleverly renovated home in Staunton’s Newtown district, an update on UVA’s Rotunda redo, D.I.R.T. Studio’s Julie Bargmann on landscape architecture and more. D.I.R.T.’s Julie Bargmann finds beauty in the breakdown. The Rotunda renovation is nearly complete. A peek at this year’s SHE Design House. Farmhouse chic with decorator […]
Even though Jeannean Carver has lived in her house since 1998, she never had a chance to figure out how to redo her kitchen. A busy pediatrician, she spent years putting off a real renovation, instead making only a few small changes. “I work a lot,” she says. “I didn’t have time to look for […]
It was an exercise in moderation when Dennis and Ingrid Blanton chose their house in Staunton’s historic Newtown neighborhood. New to the area, freshly arrived from two years in Costa Rica, they began house-shopping and were tempted by some sizable homes. But, says Ingrid, “We wanted to simplify our lives.” At first glance, they’d dismissed […]
What does it take to create a successful Design House? Three months, more than a dozen designers and landscape architects, myriad volunteers and vendors, and a public willing to purchase a ticket to venture inside. Oh, and a homeowner who’s willing to leave the house vacant for the duration. The Design House is not your […]
We first encountered interior decorator Lesli DeVito through her blog, myoldcountryhouse.com, where she showcases her work as a custom pet portrait artist and the artist of a much bigger canvas—her house. An 1880s farmhouse in Greenwood, the home has been lovingly updated with modern amenities and a bright, cheerful interior aesthetic. And DeVito did the […]
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 […]
Where is the intersection of art and architecture? For Anna Boeschenstein, it’s in the ground. “When I was in first grade,” says the Grounded LLC founder, “I told my parents that I wanted to be a farmer.” After getting her degree in art from Brown University, it was only a matter of time before she […]
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: […]