Pristine Acres offsets a McLean home with a minimalist oasis See More...

Colao & Peter balances past and present in a Middleburg landscape See More...

A design team imparts a resort-like vibe to a woodsy McLean Home See More...

Reimagining a secluded backyard as a private playground started with near-perfect terrain and clients who knew exactly what they wanted: a place to spend happy years together before three daughters leave the nest. 

“This project was done with a family focus,” explains landscape architect Joseph Richardson, who crafted a blueprint for the three-quarter-acre property. “There’s a certain informality to it, but what they have created is resort-like.” In the backyard, he plotted a 22-by-50-foot swimming pool; a board-formed concrete seat wall alongside it is lighted by a 50-foot-long LED strip. 

At one end of the pool, Michael Winn of Winn Design + Build conceived and constructed a 500-square-foot, post-and-beam pool house featuring a wet bar, lounging space with a gas fireplace, a changing room and an outdoor shower. “We felt the post-and-beam design gave the structure an airier feel,” says Winn. 

The clients placed RH furnishings around a Hart Concrete Design fire pit, which is sited near an outdoor kitchen and dining terrace. The pool deck of Techo-Bloc pavers edges a 7,500-square-foot lawn. Lavish perimeter plantings of Green Giant arborvitae, oakleaf hydrangea, sweetspire, holly, witch hazel, rhododendron and bottlebrush buckeye flourish amid more than 900 perennials, grasses,
ferns and bulbs.

“I love pretty pictures,” Richardson notes. “But at the end of the day, I am most gratified when someone tells me how their project has improved their lives."

An 18th-century log cabin anchors a serene retreat in Middleburg, Virginia, where restrained outdoor features marry the rustic with the new.  

“This was a unique project,” says landscape architect J.R. Peter, whose assignment included reimagining a pool, walls, steps, walkways and the entrance drive as well as creating a walled garden and adding appropriate plantings throughout the property. 

Set on 11 acres, the historic cabin is joined to a white stucco ranch house updated by architect-owner Richard Gessner. A new portico on the rear façade provides a bird’s eye view of the expanse. Stone-walled terraces descend to a rebuilt pool where topiary guards an Asian-accented, white stucco pool house. “Its form is different from the main house, but the materials tie together,” Gessner explains. A glazed overhead door suggestive of a shoji screen opens to the pool. 

Completed in 2020, the project displays what Peter calls “rustic meets industrial” style. A board-formed concrete wall at one end of the pool and matching fire pit show the imprint of wood. Traditional ledgestone has been clean-cut by hand to give a modern appearance. Rustic pool pavers were laid in a linear grid. “We wanted to contrast textures,” Peter says, “and were tying all these things together with our choice of materials.”

New lighting enhances an existing saucer magnolia tree beside a neat row of red twig dogwood. Grasses flourish amid boxwood. On a newly cleared slope, Peter planted a bosque of gingko trees that will one day shade the old log cabin. 

Spare architecture and sleek white loungers exude the relaxed luxury of a California spa in a backyard McLean retreat. The home was in the design phase when Pristine Acres joined architecture firm WCRA and builder TriCrest Homes on the project. The timing ensured that the landscape design, from materials to detailing, would harmonize the owners’ entire lived experience. This allowed key elements of house, pool, grill, terraces and pavilion to merge into a cohesive whole inspired by a uniform palette of white trim, black granite and wood accents.

“As we dive into this indoor/outdoor lifestyle, pulling the outdoors and the indoors together at an early stage is extremely helpful,” observes Pristine Acres’ Steve Waldron. 

Fence to fence, the site measures a fifth of an acre. Landscape architect Kevin Kurdziolek centered a 20-by-40-foot pool with two infinity edges in the backyard; on one side, water cascades over a 24-inch-high basalt wall. The pool meets grade with a sandblasted marble terrace topped by an engineered-wood deck, which extends into a pavilion; a shower of faux rain falls into the pool from its roof. Horizontal wooden slats define one pavilion wall; they crop up again on a pergola shading the black-granite grilling station off the kitchen. Minimal plantings and artificial turf over a stormwater retention system ensure low maintenance.  

“What we like about these compact backyards is that you can design the whole space, edge to edge,” says Kurdziolek. “Everything fits together like pieces of a puzzle.” 

Landscape Architecture & Contractor: Steve Waldron, president; Kevin Kurdziolek, PLA, ASLA, Pristine Acres, Great Falls, Virginia. Architecture: WCRA, Chantilly, Virginia. Builder: TriCrest Homes, McLean, Virginia. Photography: Pristine Acres.

The potential for a multi-dimensional garden in the woods was clear from the start on a three-plus-acre clearing in Great Falls, Virginia. The owners of a Colorado-inspired, stone-and-wood residence sought to enhance their property with a pool, vegetable garden and play space for children. The plan developed by landscape architect Jeff Plusen layered vegetation in organic curves and set stones as nature might have dropped them. He even integrated a faux stream by recycling pool water over a cascade of Delaware River pebbles.

“It’s a tremendous property carved out of the woods, so the connection to the environment was very important,” Plusen notes.  

A wild spirit flourishes in the backyard. Stacked fieldstones support a pool sidewall. Irises and grasses sprout among irregular flagstones, a fire circle and pathways to an expansive lawn. For contrast, orderly travertine pavers surround the pool and gazebo.

Garden installation was undertaken by Planted Earth Landscaping. Starting in 2015, spaces for play equipment and a kitchen garden were established, and serviceberry trees, oakleaf hydrangeas and summer meadow bloomers planted. Close to 100 additional trees replenished the forest edge. “We went with nothing smaller than two-inch calipers,” says then-project manager Justin Spittal.

An unusual cattle-crossing grate at the front entrance keeps deer out, while welcoming guests with an unobstructed and lush view. “This project was awesome,” says Spittal. “Other than the native forest, there wasn’t a single plant on site when we got started.”

Award: Distinction, Total Residential Contracting (Planted Earth). Landscape Architecture: Jeff Plusen, ASLA, RLA, Plusen Landscape Architects, Catonsville, Maryland. Landscape Contractor: Planted Earth Landscaping Inc., Sykesville, Maryland. 

The interior update of a home overlooking the South River in Edgewater, Maryland, led naturally to outdoor improvements. For McHale Landscape Design, the commission meant revisiting a two-acre property completed 15 years earlier. 

“The new owners wanted a higher level of finish, beauty and serviceability,” says senior landscape designer Hans Bleinberger, who led the latest iteration. “A lot of the challenge was in reimagining and reinventing.” 

Obstacles included an outdated concrete pool deck; awkward access to a potential patio off the lower level; and a restriction against new paved surfaces since the property is located in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. 

The company landed on elegant solutions to each dilemma. A deck clad in irregular flagstone has supplanted the concrete surface, and the pool has been fully upgraded. A newly created ipe patio and path to the dock extend the home’s lower level outdoors, while a lower terrace was granted a permit thanks to the use of permeable decking. 

Poolside plantings include a fringe of Russian sage in the foreground of the river view. A slope of wave petunias, hydrangeas, perennial sage and daylilies descends from pool deck to ipe pathway alongside a generous new flight of stone steps between brick retaining walls.

The serene setting belies substantial effort, which extended to finding new brick to complement the 20-year-old house. “It’s kind of neat when you can get back on a property, upgrade it and bring it up to modern standards,” Bleinberger observes. “At the end of the day, you want to make it look easy.”

Award: Distinction, Outdoor Living. Landscape Design & Contracting: Hans Bleinberger, McHale Landscape Design, Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Photography: Erin B. Bogan.

Flourishing limelight hydrangeas bear witness to the thoughtful revival and sustained maintenance of a century-old estate in Baltimore. The two-plus-acre property, boasting an early 20th-century Georgian-style residence and a dramatic stone terrace, was treated to a major upgrade in 2017. New owners called in landscape architect Jamie Brown to rethink worn features. His program called for regrading a sloping rear yard to create a dramatic incline and central steps linking a stone terrace to a new great lawn. Today, a mass planting of 120 white-blooming dwarf deutzia shrubs blankets the incline. “We wanted a low shrub for erosion control that would also relate to the period of the house,” Brown explains. 

Pinehurst Landscape Company installed the garden elements and provides continuing care, starting with perimeter screening and deer fencing. Hydrangeas enliven a side yard. “The wow factor of the plants has only increased,” says Pinehurst’s Ted Carter. The landscaping “has got a big kapow.”

Improvements include repair of a vintage-stone lily pond, pool upgrades and construction of a gazebo. New, mosaic-patterned quartzite pool decking contrasts with the freeform stonework of the original terrace, which was rebuilt using existing massive slabs of hand-quarried bluestone and new machine-cut bluestone, hand-chiseled and artificially weathered to blend into the legacy landscape. “That’s the coolest thing about this whole project,” says Carter. “It was fun to use the character of stone to its full extent and bring it to life.”

Award: Heritage/Outdoor Living (Pinehurst). Landscape Architecture/Design: Jamie Brown, Beechbrook Landscape Architecture, Baltimore, Maryland. Contractor: Paglia Contracting, Forest Hill, Maryland. Landscape Installation: Pinehurst Landscape Company, Glen Arm, Maryland.

Though a refreshing, 18-by-40-foot pool adds drama to a rear-garden redesign in Great Falls, Virginia, there is more to the project worth celebrating. When owners reached out to Surrounds Landscape Architecture + Construction in 2019, their gabled residence lacked adequate entertaining space. The design team constructed a covered terrace and merged it with an expanded back porch. Adding a stone wall here, a neat path there, plus a lively planting of perennials, the one-and-a-half-plus-acre property scored greater functionality as well as glamour. 

Chad Talton, a principal landscape architect at Surrounds, quickly focused on the rear façade. “Let’s blow out this small covered porch and make it a full covered room,” he proposed. The new, metal-roofed terrace incorporates an outdoor kitchen, plus dining and sitting areas. An existing outdoor fireplace gained new stature as a focal point in the dining space. Overhead heaters extend the outdoor season. Adjacent to the terrace, a prefab spa faced in stone beckons year-round.

Surrounds put a finishing touch on enhancements by crafting a welcoming new entrance to the property from the motor court. A cedar gate opens into a stone-walled pocket garden planted with colorful perennials and boxwood. From there, a walkway of Pennsylvania bluestone charts a clear new path past box hedging and white-flowering crape myrtle trees to the bluestone terrace and pool surround. 

As Talton reflects, “We tried to create a cohesive environment that is easy to use for owners and for guests.”

Award: Grand, Outdoor Living Area, Design/Build. Landscape Architecture & Contracting: Chad Talton, PLA, Surrounds Landscape Architecture + Construction, McLean, Virginia.

Dream jobs come in all shapes and sizes. For Jennifer Wagner Schmidt, the ideal interiors project was a $3 million contemporary Bethesda residence, just built and waiting to be furnished, and a client seeking a fresh start.

“Everything was from scratch,” Schmidt recalls. “The client’s only proviso to me was ‘do your magic.’”

The three-story stucco, glass and brick house strikes a dramatic presence on its quarter-acre corner lot. There are six bedrooms, five and a half baths, a multi-feature recreation room on the lower level and a roof deck up top. The foyer and primary bedroom are double-height spaces, enhanced by floating staircases with glass railings. 

Designed and built on spec by Prime Solutions Group, the 7,000-square-foot house was purchased in the spring of 2021 by a CEO from New York and his wife, who have two young children. Seeking help in selecting furniture and art for the main level and bedrooms, the owners discovered the Ashburn, Virginia, designer behind JWS Interiors through social media.

“The husband reached out,” explains Schmidt, whose Instagram followers number in the six figures. Her online posts show a taste for creamy textiles on cushy sofas, monumental marble coffee tables, spare architectural lighting and a touch of humanizing handiwork, be it a wooden stool, a woven rush seat or a coal-black ceramic bowl. It’s the warm side of modernism, but totally fashion-forward. Schmidt’s projects demonstrate a penchant for art that pops, including a sassy image of Marilyn Monroe blowing an enormous bubble of pink gum—though whether her Miami client sprang for the $30,000 limited edition or the $15 reproduction poster is not revealed. 

In fact, the designer’s success on the Bethesda project rested as much on her ability to marry high and low elements. “I combined high- and medium-end with custom to create an entirely custom look,” she says. “That’s how I stayed on budget.” 

The Bethesda home had been staged for sale as a glam singles pad—not for a couple with two kids and a dog in tow. Schmidt, who has two teenage daughters, understood that the family would appreciate comfort over cool metal and glass. “I wanted it to feel naturally modern and comfortable,” says the designer, who set out to create clean, airy interiors that evoke a sense of serenity. “I started with a white canvas so it would all flow.”

She went for drama in the foyer. A clean-lined marble console of her own design rests below a bold digital photo collage by Australian artist Dina Broadhurst. 

In the main-level living spaces, the existing envelope of white walls and European white oak floors is enlivened by strategically placed windows. Schmidt softened the floor-to-ceiling glass with simple linen panels over sheers in the family room. “The house gets amazing light,” she says. “I wanted to incorporate natural sunlight and play off that with the furniture.” Nubby textiles look touchable, and they are: They have been professionally sprayed for stain resistance.

Significantly, the designer defined the primary living area not as formal living and dining spaces, but as a laid-back family room and eat-in kitchen. For maximum functionality, the family room is organized in two conversation groups: one by the fireplace, the other facing the opposite wall. In keeping with Schmidt’s more relaxed concept, she scouted popular retailers such as CB2, West Elm and RH for casual but stylish furnishings; choices were guided by availability, practicality and her particular aesthetic. She elevated the look with custom designs including a statement marble coffee table, a chair that conjures a nomadic past and an oversized, upholstered ottoman. “I wanted the home to read as naturally modern and comfortable, really just a clean, airy feel,” she says. 

To the left of the foyer is the husband’s home office. Schmidt papered one wall with Kelly Wearstler’s Crescent, an oversized geometric pattern in an ebony colorway. Behind the desk hangs a painting by David Carlson; a second work by the Arlington artist and community activist was commissioned for the owners’ bedroom, furnished with a custom upholstered bed and vintage chairs. A loft accessed from a floating staircase in the primary bedroom is staged as a tranquil retreat and yoga studio. A sauna was added to an existing bathroom that Schmidt detailed in black marble. She also applied her aesthetic in two upstairs children’s bedrooms and a serene guest room.

The owners were able to move in after a remarkably quick 10-month decorating process. “My clients were very easy to work with,” says the designer. “The attitude was, ‘Just show me your designs; you’re the professional.’ It was a dream project for me.”

The two-acre site facing Battery Kemble, a national park in Northwest Washington, was a tangle of bamboo and invasive weeds when the developer assembled a design team. For architect Wouter Boer, Campion Hruby Landscape Architects and the building company Zantzinger, the challenge began with a steep, eroding slope and ended with two boldly contemporary houses and a modern landscape complementing a 270-degree view of the treetops.

On a recent morning, sunlight illuminated the high modern achievement: a white stucco-and-glass house set into a slope bristling with native grasses. In form, the dwelling resembles randomly stacked boxes, their flat roofs topped with sedum.

Boer, principal of his eponymous Dupont Circle firm, leads a tour of the first of two houses he designed on the site. Completed in 2021, this one is not yet occupied (and is on the market for $11.95 million). The second is occupied by the project’s developer, Bryce Arrowood of Cliveden Group, LLC, who walked over to join the tour. Both men are unapologetic about departing from the classic Tudor-and-azalea persona of the surrounding Wesley Heights neighborhood.

“I wanted it to feel modern for today,” says the architect. Over the years, he contributed his share of historically styled residences to the cityscape in partnership with architect David Jones. But since Jones retired in 2020, Boer has given license to his own Bauhaus leanings. “I’ve always had a passion for modern architecture,” he says. “Mies van der Rohe is sort of my hero architect.”

For this house, Boer drew inspiration from Mies’ iconic 1945 Farnsworth House. A masterpiece of white steel and glass, the weekend cottage in Illinois contains just one room. In contrast, Boer’s homage boasts 8,600 square feet of pristine plaster and floor-to-ceiling glass, with six bedrooms and seven and a half baths; its four levels are linked by a steel-and-glass staircase with floating oak treads (plus an elevator).

Boer calls the house “sparsely detailed,” yet the material palette is anything but spartan. Portuguese limestone paves the main level, warmed by radiant heating, while white oak flooring prevails elsewhere. Gleaming accent walls and kitchen cabinetry are teak veneer. The primary bedroom closet bears 17 layers of high-gloss white lacquer. As Boer observes, “modern architecture is all about the quality of the materials”—and in this case, luxurious surfaces are more than a sleek backdrop. “The [lack of] ornament becomes the ornament,” the architect explains.

Anodized aluminum doors on the two-car garage shimmer in the morning light. From the spare entry court, a three-story, glass-walled hall leads to a dramatic, 65-foot-long rectangular living space. A floating teak partition holds a two-sided-fireplace. The room’s long, west-facing wall offers floor-to-ceiling glass overlooking the adjacent park. Beyond, a streamlined kitchen with Calacatta Covelano marble counters opens to a terrace nearly 30 feet above grade.

Four of the six bedrooms are organized on the second floor, while the top level is devoted to a private study with a terrace set above the tree canopy. A lower floor with extra bedrooms, a 1,000-bottle, glass-walled wine cellar, a yoga studio and gathering space gives way to a terrace and a 25-foot-long, infinity-edge pool. In the living room, Boer points out slim steel columns that almost disappear in alignment with the silvery window frames. Not visible is the footing—15 feet wide and eight feet deep beneath the pool—which stabilizes the entire house. “It takes a lot of structural finesse to make it look so simple,” the architect affirms.

Before this project even began to take shape, an existing house had to be demolished and the street extended to enable access. (That spur is now a private drive to the two houses Boer designed, as well as a third dwelling in a transitional style.)

“We literally had to carve each lot out of the woods,” recalls Zantzinger construction manager Gavin Stannard, who spent three years on site during construction. Landscape architects Kevin Campion and Stephen Makrinos planted 40-foot-tall pin oaks to screen a barely visible neighbor to the south while also dealing with stormwater interventions. Managing the flow opposite a national park engaged the Army Corps of Engineers and required multiple bioretention features. A six-foot-wide swale filled with 80 tons of large gray rock snakes along the drive in front of the houses.

“It’s not a small amount of water,” points out Makrinos, who was pleased that there was a budget for plantings to make the area look more natural. “There is an allée of river birch coming out of the grasses; it feels modern, like the architecture.” Golden groundsel, blue camassia and amethyst blazing star soften the hardscape surrounding the house.
Flat roof surfaces, visible from within, were planted with sedum by Furbish, a Baltimore green-roof specialist. “Aesthetically, you’re bringing the landscape up to the house,” Makrinos says. “All you see is green.”

As for realizing Boer’s vision, the challenges appear to have been met. Stannard observes that in modern architecture, “All the conventions, everything you know about making a house, go out the window.” Specialized craftsmen are required, tolerances are small and framing must be precise. If everything is ordered carefully, it all works. In Stannard’s opinion, this project was close to flawless. “Wouter Boer,” he concludes, “is an artist.”

Architecture: Wouter Boer, AIA, principal; Phillip McGee, project architect, Wouter Boer Architects Inc., Washington, DC. Landscape Architecture: Kevin Campion, ASLA, principal; Stephen Makrinos, senior associate, Campion Hruby Landscape Architects, Annapolis, Maryland. Builder: Zantzinger, Inc., Washington, DC. Structural Engineer: Ehlert Bryan, Washington, DC.

RESOURCES
Windows: westernwindowsystems.com through thesanderscompany.com. Upper & Lower Level Wood Floors: classicfloordesigns.info. Kitchen Range: subzero-wolf.com through build.com.

For landscape architect Kevin Campion and architect Adam McGraw, the Purcellville project was special from the start.

The Loudoun County estate sprawls over 200-plus acres of Virginia horse country, virtually all under conservation easements. To the southwest, the Blue Ridge Mountains beckon across a valley that transitions each autumn from green to rust. On the northern edge of the site, a gracious stone residence constructed in 1932 reflects the dignity of just three owners who’ve occupied it over the past 90 years. In the eyes of Campion and McGraw, the stunning property was fertile ground. “It’s an exquisite old Virginia estate,” says Campion, of Campion Hruby Landscape Architects. “We worked with the clients to reinvent this place for modern life.”

Its current occupants, a horse-loving family of five, acquired the property in 2015 and quickly approached Campion, who had worked on their prior residence in Leesburg. Over the next five years, he collaborated with the owners, an engineering executive and his wife, an equestrienne, to redefine the agrarian landscape.

His master plan encompassed a range of improvements, from a new entry gate and inviting garden rooms to paddocks and a riding arena. It also mapped out a future barn. When the time was right, Campion suggested that his clients contact McGraw, founding partner of StudioMB in Washington, DC, to design it.

“When we came to the project, it was just open pastures,” recalls the architect. “The new owners wanted to bring in horses. The need for a barn evolved into a greater project.”

McGraw conceptualized a grand, multi-purpose structure that would not only accommodate horses but also serve as a venue for family fun and entertaining. Now central to the family’s engagement with their home, the completed whitewashed, timber-frame retreat boasts an airy great hall perched above an elegant, six-stall stable. The 31-foot-high hall is graced by exposed Douglas fir columns, beams, trusses and joints; pine-paneled walls; and a pair of cupolas that bathe the interior in daylight.

Mid-Atlantic Timber Frames of Pennsylvania crafted the 5,700-square-foot structure, which was fitted onto a waiting foundation. Complete with a sleeping loft, the barn’s 3,050-square-foot upper level enjoys pastoral and equestrian views through oversized glazed openings on two sides; a floating wall supports a stone fireplace and a kitchen extends along one end. Sized to host large gatherings such as an annual party for a local riding school, the hall is also intimate enough for family Thanksgiving.

“What I loved about this project was the fact that the clients gave us latitude to create a home for them,” says Campion. “We added the first equestrian piece, then did a master plan for the gardens, then designed the equestrian areas, then went back to the house.”

The main house is a seven-bedroom dwelling with a peaked slate roof, dormers, chimney and white trim. The late DC architect
William H. Irwin Fleming, who orginally designed it, clearly reveled in rustic stone, not only used to clad the exterior but also in a stone-walled study with a flagstone floor and on a massive stone fireplace—one of nine in the residence.

Recent improvements by Campion and McGraw better connect the main house to its pristine landscape. Existing French doors and a Juliet balcony overlook a new stone terrace, pavilion and outdoor kitchen that surround the existing pool. The home’s columned rear porch surveys neat paddocks once dedicated to rolled hay.

The team took design inspiration from the original home. Campion credits Marshall, Virginia-based mason Ed Ashby with honoring the existing stonework. “The magic of the gardens is the combination of hardscape and local building materials with plants that ties it all together,” explains the landscape architect.

Kevin Campion’s master plan respects the natural contours of the terrain. To fine-tune an all-season plant palette, Campion was joined by fellow landscape architect Meredith Forney Beach, whose favored combinations around the new pool terrace include Little Lime hydrangea, Russian sage, ornamental grasses and catmint with “PowWow Wild Berry” coneflower. Spring daffodils and alliums give way to summer roses. In autumn, the foliage fades to gold.

“It’s a very simple, uncomplicated garden,” Campion says. “There’s nothing really fussy, just a sea of native plants with walls and structures that fit into the landscape.”

As for the new barn, this whitewashed building adds a visual focal point. The finely detailed lower level serves an essential purpose in the equestrian family’s lifestyle with efficiency and elegance. The upper level provides the owners with a venue for sharing the estate with a multitude of guests.

“The design was definitely an evolution,” reflects McGraw. “At the end of the day, the barn has become the jewel of the property.”

Barn & Pool House Architecture: Adam McGraw, AIA, StudioMB, Washington, DC. Builder: Potomac Valley Builders, Bethesda, Maryland. Landscape Architecture: Kevin Campion, ASLA, principal; Meredith Forney Beach, principal, Campion Hruby Landscape Architects, Annapolis, Maryland. Landscape Contractors: Planted Earth Landscaping Inc., Sykesville, Maryland, and Redux Garden and Home, Catonsville, Maryland.

To appreciate the delight Anthony and Elizabeth Wilder take in their freshly updated Bethesda home, it helps to understand what—and who—came before. For years, Anthony Wilder drove past the property on his rounds. Trees obscured the driveway, but he could see that the 1960s-era, one-story home—then clad in pale-gray brick—embodied his longtime aspiration: to live in a contemporary home with a pool. “I visualized the heck out of the house for years,” he admits. After 30 years as founding architectural designer of his eponymous design/build firm, Wilder appreciated the fact the house was built not of plywood but masonry—a sign of provenance.

Today, the white-painted dwelling sits like a jewel box on its velvety two-acre lawn, with a golf course across the road, a vintage pool in back and a tennis court on the side. The nearly 4,000-square-foot house may never have looked so welcoming or comfortable in its contemporary skin, or been more enjoyed by visiting family, including two grown children and three grandchildren.

With its flat roof and boxy form, the outer structure changed little from its mid-century origins. But inside, a major renovation completed during the pandemic refreshed the design, chiefly converting single-purpose rooms into a larger, multi-functional space while respecting the footprint and integrity of the original plan.

The home was designed in 1963 by Grosvenor Chapman, a titan of historic preservation who helped save Georgetown and Lafayette Square. Ironically, Chapman’s client, Herbert William Robinson, was a software pioneer.

Chapman drew a hollow square with a courtyard at its center. The house faces north, but doors and windows—many floor-to-ceiling—open to the landscape on all sides. The center atrium pours light into the interiors. Public rooms are grouped around the north, west and south sides, while sleeping quarters—the owners’ suite plus two bedrooms and baths—occupy the eastern side. A lower level includes another bedroom and bath. (There is also a bomb shelter with a hand-crank air intake, possibly inspired by Robinson’s Cold War assignment identifying strategic bombing targets in the Soviet Union.)

In the 1970s, the property passed to the late attorney John E. Nolan and his wife, who remained there until they were ready to downsize to a condo and phoned the Wilder firm for remodeling help. One conversation led to another and in 2013 the Wilders finally acquired the property that Anthony had longed for.

Outdoors, overgrown trees have been removed and privacy screens enhanced. Inside, the Wilders refined the palette to shades of white and black. Their modular furniture fit right in, as did a grand piano in the living room, now rechristened the music room and hung with black-and-white photographs of ’60s-era songsters including Frank Sinatra and The Beatles.

From the start, the seasoned remodelers zigged and zagged. “We did everything we don’t recommend,” explains Elizabeth Wilder, president of Anthony Wilder Design/Build. They moved in during the winter of 2014—before repairing a leaky roof. They deconstructed—before finalizing the plan. When a blind corner in the kitchen impeded access to the family room, Anthony simply bashed through the walls one day. They weren’t just any walls, but a combination wet bar and pantry on the kitchen side and a wall of bookcases on the family room side. In between were stairs to the lower level. Amid the exposed ductwork and dangling wires, Anthony made a dramatic design move: He enclosed the stairs on three sides with clear glass at railing height, visually connecting the kitchen and family room while transforming the stairs into an elegant central feature.

The couple and their three dogs hunkered in the back rooms on air mattresses while walls were finished off and roofing repaired, then settled in to enjoy their new home. Their initial effort had left plenty to do—including the kitchen itself—which they decided to tackle when the pandemic came along. “What drove our [latest] renovation was a need to keep the crews busy,” recalls Elizabeth. First, they installed an ipe deck followed by 21 replacement windows and doors. When serious construction began, they decamped to the home of some friends.

Working with Maria Fanjul, one of their firm’s architectural designers, they began to see the corner kitchen as a centerpiece of an L-shaped great room. A walk-through reveals the strategy. Straight ahead from the foyer, a doorway to the dining room was enlarged to gain a more gracious passageway into the heart of the home. Expanses of glass on two sides already flooded the dining room with light. To share that daylight with the kitchen, the Wilders took down an end wall and its old swinging door and linked the two spaces. A freestanding, marble-topped console delineates the zones while keeping the shared vista open.

The centerpiece of the kitchen is an immense island topped with Calacatta Lincoln marble. “The island is the soul of the house,” Anthony says. The same stone graces the peripheral counters, backsplash and even the window frames. Glossy white cabinets offset wood flooring refinished in charcoal. Favorite features include a steam oven and a tap that delivers hot, cold and sparkling water. The console facing the dining room houses a second oven, wine refrigerator and storage.

“Having a space where everyone can gather was a huge factor in our decision to renovate,” Elizabeth says.

A drive-by today might make architect Chapman smile. Renovation has preserved the past while making the house sparkle anew. Anthony is sure it was meant to be. “If you believe in anything enough,” he says, “it’s already written in your heart.”

Renovation & Interior Design: Anthony Wilder and Elizabeth Wilder, principals; Maria Fanjul, architectural designer, Anthony Wilder Design/Build, Cabin John, Maryland. Renovation Contractor: Anthony Wilder Design/Build.

RESOURCES

GENERAL
Windows & Doors: pella.com through pellamidatlantic.com.

PATIO
Dining Table Base: knoll.com. Dining Table Top: custom. Outdoor Sofas: contemporaria.com. Outdoor Coffee Table: livingdivani.it.

LIVING ROOM
Leather Eames Chair & Ottoman: dwr.com. Round Leather Chair: bakerfurniture.com. Leather Chaise: knoll.com.

DINING ROOM
Table Chairs: rh.com. Art: Andrew Faulkner through edithgraves.com.

FOYER
Bench: dwr.com.

KITCHEN
Cabinets: jackrosen.com. Oven, Stove & Cook Top: subzero-wolf.com. Steam Oven, Coffee Machine & Dishwasher: mieleusa.com.

BATH
Floor Tile: architessa.com. Sink & Vanity: us.kohler.com. Medicine Cabinet: robern.com. Faucet: weaverhardware.com. Shower Wall: crosswaterlondon.com.

POOL AREA
Mesh Chaise Lounge: cb2.com. Umbrellas: ikea.com.

On the terrace of an expansive new abode in Great Falls, the essence of this nearly 20-acre property is distilled into a single thoughtful element: an elegant, stainless-steel armillary. Perched on its pedestal, the astronomical sphere charts the passing of the seasons and marks the precise latitude and longitude of the low-slung, stone-and-stucco dwelling where Tony Colangelo and Melissa Delgado live with their twin first-graders, Sophia and Christopher. All four names are engraved amid the celestial rings, reflecting the sense of permanence that inspired the owners. This idyll is meant to sustain multiple generations—if not in perpetuity, then for a very long time.

“This is our ‘forever home,’” explains Colangelo, whose technology contracting firm is now headquartered above the garage. “We consciously designed and built for longevity and multi-generational support as well as for a sound investment.”

As for the armillary, which is set on axis with the imposing front entrance, Delgado, an obstetrician, adds, “We wanted something that was meaningful to us.”

The couples’ adventure began about five years ago. Already at home in Great Falls, they decided that a legacy of land would be a surer gift in 30 years than liquid assets. A real estate agent found them a property with two adjoining five-acre lots; one held a residence that was demolished while the other contained a paddock, which they retained.

The project was shepherded to completion 18 months ago by a team that included architect James McDonald, interior designer Martha Vicas and landscape architect Joseph Richardson. “It’s a Floridian-style villa on a gorgeous site,” enthuses McDonald, who heeded his clients’ mandate for single-level living—both for raising children now and aging in place later. As a result, the form is linear, encompassing about 6,000 square feet on the main level. Wide roof overhangs shelter generous northeast exposures through bifold and recessed glass doors. Dazzling gray-toned interior furnishings rise to any occasion under ceilings that are 24 feet high in the plush great room and 12 feet elsewhere.

The architect loves the way the massive front door pivots into a barrel-vaulted foyer with a view of the armillary. Left of the foyer is a teal-hued office for the doctor. From there, a cross hall ties the house together. Four en-suite bedrooms lie at the east end and two three-car garages off a breezeway connect to an enclosed pool on the west. In between, the hall opens to a flowing living space: great room, dining area, kitchen and loggia—all overlooking the rear landscape. Beyond a fringe of deer-proof boxwood and ornamental grasses, a lawn extends to woods through which the children can reach Delgado’s mother’s house, one of several adjoining properties since acquired.

“The thought behind the design was really to take advantage of multiple views and to maximize indoor-outdoor living opportunities,” McDonald says. “The architecture allows people to flow from indoor to outdoor spaces with ease.”

The couple’s wish list started with unified areas for cooking, dining and relaxing; an office for Delgado; and a pool. A partial lower level houses a second living room, theater, wine cellar, additional guest room and bath. The interiors had to be livable. “We’re not looking for ornate, we’re looking to be comfortable,” Colangelo says. “When we come home from a hard day’s work, or the kids from school, that’s important.”

Designer Martha Vicas provided sophistication and practicality, balancing Colangelo’s taste for contemporary and Delgado’s for traditional. Nap-ready sofas and chairs wear easy-to-clean fabrics in gray tones and subtle patterns. “We wanted timeless, classic design,” says Delgado. “Martha taught us we didn’t have to sacrifice comfort for style.”

Indeed, Vicas wove lavish elements throughout. In the great room, a fireplace wall combines swirling travertine and textured leather panels bracketed by reeded-oak slats that rise to the ceiling. “We wanted to celebrate the scale of that wall,” the designer explains. The elaborate leatherwork is echoed in the sculpted folds of a massive steel range hood in the chic kitchen by Lobkovich Kitchen Designs. Fixed on the wall opposite the fireplace, the hood becomes an art statement. Between those spaces, metallic cork wallpaper delineates the dining area, making it sparkle. The ceiling is faux-painted in a navy swirl. “It’s another pattern play,” Vicas says.

On a quieter note, the primary suite is a welcoming cocoon, embellished with wall panels of flame-grained walnut, linen and cream-colored cut suede. “We wanted a calm, serene environment,” Delgado remarks.

The family hangs out in the loggia, with its heated-tile floor, fireplace, grilling station and media screen. Retractable glass doors open to the armillary. “We try to include sculpture in every garden,” says landscape architect Joseph Richardson, noting that this one draws residents and guests outdoors.

When it came time to address the landscape, Richardson’s brief included the creation of a long drive through an allée of mature, ornamental pear trees ending in a circular arrival court. He added open expanses of lawn, meadows and a river birch grove, as well as an organic garden and greenhouse. A sunken meditation garden planted with colorful perennials promotes peaceful contemplation while enhancing the view from the owners’ bedroom. Woodland walking paths to Grandmother’s house may come next; Delgado envisions “an enchanted forest vibe.” Enjoying the long-term view, she says, “Each year, hopefully, it will evolve.”

Architecture: James McDonald, James McDonald Associate Architects, PC, Great Falls, Virginia. Interior Design: Martha Vicas, Allied ASID, M.S. Vicas Interiors, Washington, DC. Kitchen Design: Lobkovich Kitchen Designs, Tysons, Virginia. Builder: Artisan Builders, McLean, Virginia. Landscape Architecture: Joseph Richardson, PLA, ASLA, Joseph Richardson Landscape Architecture, Washington, DC. Landscape Contractor: Wheat’s Landscape Design + Construction, Vienna, Virginia. Styling: Kristi Hunter.

RESOURCES

OUTDOOR
Chaises: linkoutdoor.com. Front Door Sconces: illuminc.com.

LIVING ROOM
Fireplace Design & Art: studioart.it/en. Fireplace Stone: marblesystems.com. Fireplace Wall Paneling: artisanbuilds.com. Bench Fabric: Great Plains through hollyhunt.com. Sofa: Custom. Chaise: dmitriyco.com. Sofa Fabric: Great Plains through hollyhunt.com. Rug: Custom by juliedasherrugs.com. Chairs: aneesupholstery.com. Chair Fabric: Great Plains through hollyhunt.com. Wood Coffee Table: etsy.com. Rectangular Coffee Table: hollyhunt.com. Side Tables: charlestonforge.com. Drapery Fabric: kvadrat.dk/en/sahco. Drapery Fabrication: Leangs Interiors; 301-477-3065. Paint: Balboa Mist by benjaminmoore.com.

DINING ROOM
Table: Custom by harrisrubin.com. Chairs: bernhardt.com. Chair Fabric: weitznerlimited.com. Chandelier: bocci.com through illuminc.com. Rug: Custom by juliedasherrugs.com. Wall Cover: romo.com. Ceiling Treatment: artstarcustompaintworks.com.

KITCHEN
Cabinetry: lobkovich.com. Countertop & Backsplash: glbtileandmarble.com through marblesystems.com. Stove & Cooktop: subzero-wolf.com through ferguson.com. Plumbing: brizo.com through ferguson.com. Hood Design: msvicasinteriors.com; lobkovich.com. Hardware: topknobs.com.

LOGGIA
Sofa & Loveseats: linkoutdoor.com. Sofa & Loveseat Fabric: Great Outdoors through hollyhunt.com. Coffee & Side Tables: linkoutdoor.com. Rug: perennialsfabrics.com.

LOGGIA KITCHEN
Table & Chairs: linkoutdoor.com. Backsplash: waterworks.com. Cooktop: subzero-wolf.com through ferguson.com. Wall Material: waterworks.com.

INDOOR POOL
Lounge Chairs & Ottoman: linkoutdoor.com. Fabric: Mokum through jamesdunloptextiles.com. Sconces: urbanelectric.com. Dining Table & Chairs: linkoutdoor.com. Yellow Fabric: elitis.fr/en.

WINE ROOM
Wine Room Design: msvicasinteriors.com. Wine Room Fabrication: artisanbuilds.com. Glass: riverglassdesigns.com. Tile Flooring: annsacks.com. Cabinetry: lobkovich.com. Countertop: glbtileandmarble.com through marblesystems.com.

OWNERS’ BEDROOM
Bedding: sferra.com. Wall Upholstery: custom. Wall Paneling: artisanbuilds.com. Scones: brandvanegmond.com through illuminc.com. Side Tables & Bench: aneesupholstery.com. Bench Fabric: Great Plains through hollyhunt.com. Rug: Custom by juliedasherrugs.com. Drapery Fabric: Great Plains through hollyhunt.com. Drapery Fabrication: Leangs Interiors; 301-477-3065. Chaise: aneesupholstery.com. Chaise Fabric: Great Plains through hollyhunt.com. Dressing Room Drapery Fabrication: pierrefrey.com. Dressing Room Chest: bernhardt.com.

OWNERS’ BATH
Tub: kohler.com. Floor & Tub Tile: architessa.com. Wallcovering: phillipjeffries.com. Bathtub Fixture: kohler.com through ferguson.com. Vanity: lobkovich.com. Countertop: glbtileandmarble.com. Tile: architessa.com. Sink Fixture: kohler.com through ferguson.com. Sconces: urbanelectric.com. Mirror: rh.com.

A new personality for a sedate Bethesda classic starts with crimson panels and a lemon-yellow mailbox at the front door—signs of a spirited remake by KUBE Architecture.This 1950s bi-level has been refreshed as a platform for contemporary living. “From the outside you can tell something has happened,” says architect Richard Loosle-Ortega, a founding partner at the DC firm. “Inside, the house is radically different.”

A main-floor renovation, completed in 2020, reaches its apex with a dramatic, orange-painted ceiling rising over exposed rafters to a double-skylit roofline. This architectural focal point hovers over a light-filled gallery. From front to rear, original walls were removed. In their place, entry, living, dining and kitchen spaces are signaled by varied ceiling heights—flat, sloped, low and high—accompanied by broad swaths of color. KUBE calls the combination “three-dimensional space within otherwise simple block volumes.”

A desire for big change topped the owners’ wish list. Empty nesters transplanted from Venezuela decades ago, the couple had raised two sons in the Wood Acres house. But working increasingly from home—he as an economist, she in real estate—both felt hemmed in by a dated layout, low ceilings and—for two Latin spirits—a lack of pizzazz. “We always wanted a more modern home,” the husband explains. “We were held back by the floor plan.”

Historically, the abode’s defining characteristic was its “split foyer” entrance, featuring a landing with half a flight of steps up to a 1,256-square-foot main floor and half a flight down to a similarly sized lower level. On the main level, the floor plan squeezed in formal living and dining rooms, a corner kitchen and a short hall to three bedrooms and two baths. (The lower level, which was not part of KUBE’s brief, includes a family room, more bedrooms and a bath.)

Today, visitors enter a loft-like space brightened by five skylights and a mostly glass rear wall offering a clear view past a new deck to a lush garden. The project added just 423 square feet across the back—enough to expand the kitchen with a generous island and enhance the owners’ bath. It also provided room for a nine-by-16-foot office. “They had enough space,” Loosle-Ortega explains. “It’s just that it was chopped up by walls.”

Max Sposito of New Era Builders handled the construction, while KUBE’s Matthew Dougherty worked with Loosle-Ortega on the design. Their collaboration ensured the presence of details that elevate what could have become a long box. Original oak flooring was refinished and matched, extending a unified ground plane. A long wall of Italian laminated woodgrain storage cabinets provides warmth while blurring the demarcation between the kitchen and pantry and the dining area. For the office, added to the southwest corner, Loosle-Ortega designed large glass exposures on two sides.
“I wanted to see the four seasons,” says the husband. “In Venezuela, it’s spring all year.”

By angling an interior wall shared by the office and dining area, Loosle-Ortega created a more interesting backdrop for the dining table. Glass insets are strategically placed at the top and edge of the angled wall; they allow light but not sound to flow through.

If the practical need for an office sparked the project, it was the bold use of color that energized the owners. “Colors are very Latin American,” says the wife simply. “I love that sort of thing.”

So does Loosle-Ortega, a longtime educator at Catholic University’s School of Architecture, who has personal ties to Latin America. He counts among his influences the work of Mexico’s celebrated architect of color, Luis Barragán. The result here is a foyer glowing with sun-infused yellow. Beyond the electric-orange skylight well, a deep blue “wall” of sliding doors to the office is balanced by a splash of blue grounding the kitchen’s glossy white cabinets and counters. Only the living area has white walls, one of which fades to pale gray.

“What surprises me is that when people see color, they like it—but they don’t do it,” the husband observes.

Multiple lighting sources, including pendants and up-lights, add complexity. Colored LED strips on the ceiling mark the threshold between old and new spaces while emitting streaks of blue, white or pink.

If the bi-level’s original rigid floor plan has fewer fans today, furnishings from the same era retain their appeal. With their architect’s counsel, the clients traded traditional furniture for mid-century flair with such pieces as a Noguchi coffee table and an Eames lounge chair in the living area.

The owners are thrilled with their dynamic new dwelling. “We decided the next years are going to be the best years of our life,” the husband avows. “Many people invest in a house to sell. We wanted to make sure we have enough time to enjoy it.”

Ticking away over the front door is a classic Ball Clock by George Nelson, its multi-color hands suggesting that this was the right time for change.

DRAWING BOARD

Once you’ve taken down walls, how do you build back better?

Richard Loosle-Ortega: Just tearing out all the walls to open up rooms is not enough. An understanding of how to differentiate the spaces from one another is important. I use a full range of tools: vertical changes (ceiling heights); horizontal (sliding doors and wall heights); texture and color (flooring materials and paint); and transparency and light (glass, skylights and reflective materials).

How important is lighting?

The right lighting creates the ambience. This is so important. We use lots of LED lighting in our projects, all on dimmers.

Color can be magical. What are the rules?

Blues and greens and warm oranges are some of my favorite colors. We’ll use whatever the client is willing to use. The key is to make sure the palette works together. Count on testing lots of different paint samples. For this project, we tried three or four oranges and yellows and four or five blues on the wall.

Renovation Architecture: Richard Loosle-Ortega, RA, principal; Matthew Dougherty, design associate, KUBE Architecture, Washington, DC. Renovation Contractor: Max Sposito, New Era Builders, LLC, Washington, DC.

It may seem counterintuitive that a thoroughly modern house would draw its defining architectural element from an 18th-century tradition. But that’s how Mark McInturff describes the boldly rebuilt stair hall at the core of a whole-house reinvention he recently completed in Northwest Washington.

“It’s a stair tower,” says the Bethesda architect. Describing his take on a classic center-hall Colonial, he reaches all the way back to George Washington’s home on the Potomac to explain his inspiration. “If you do a center hall right—like at Mount Vernon—when you come in the front, you can see straight through to the back.”

And so, out went the rear wall. In came expanses of glass, an ocular skylight and the floating treads, suspended landings and sinuous steel railing clad in steam-bent oak that transformed a conventional stair hall into a brilliant shaft of light.

The corner property benefitted from a double lot that made it desirable for an active household with two young children. The owner, a businessman, had not envisioned a work of modern architecture; having recently moved from a co-op, his intention was simply to refresh the interior with help from James Loveless of JWL Woodworking, with whom he’d collaborated on his previous residence. Once walls began to come down, however, the need for a master plan became clear. Eager for a layout that wasn’t “all chopped up,” the owner turned to McInturff Architects with the directive, he says, that “it was also important for the house to fit into the neighborhood.”

McInturff quickly devised a plan that would accomplish both goals, working closely with Colleen Healey, then a principal at his firm. “We didn’t just blow the walls out, we connected the spaces,” says Healey, who has since launched her own practice in DC.
The three-story, 5,417-square-foot Georgian manse came with seven bedrooms and five baths. A porch with a retractable screen was added off the dining room. Back stairs were removed, enlarging a kitchen redesigned by McInturff. Upstairs, two bedrooms became an owners’ bath and dressing room. Two third-floor rooms were enlivened by white oak ceiling panels. A studio over the garage was equipped with a bath and a kitchenette and the lower level was excavated to create a recreation room, laundry and sauna.

Facing the street, the home retains tradition with Palladian detailing and cornice molding—but the spirit is modern. Red brick is now painted Bauhaus white. Windows are de-shuttered and outlined in charcoal. A columned portico has morphed into angular steel, framing a mahogany front door with an asymmetric sidelite. Roof shingles have given way to the industrial chic of standing-seam metal. “We try to be very well-mannered from the street,” says McInturff. “What we’re looking for is not a collision but a weaving of elements.”

The radical transformation emerges fully in the back garden, where the façade thrills with angles and curves in glass, metal, mahogany and a smidgen of Georgian brick. The goal is simple: “People live differently now,” the architect affirms. “They want to open their houses to the exterior. They’re going to have a different look.”

A recent tour began at the new portico. “I always start at the front door,” McInturff explains. “I want to see what we’re going to see.” Open sesame: The west-facing interior explodes with light. The back wall of the stair hall reveals a towering magnolia, cryptomeria and holly. The stairs are wrapped in curved, oak-paneled railings—a tour de force of craftsmanship. White oak sets the mood on the first floor with paneled walls. A two-sided fireplace clad in basalt opens up the living room. Curves are a theme: In the library, for example, an oak-paneled wall arcs in a literal embrace.

Details charm: Even in daylight, a ceiling fixture by Moooi in the living room sparkles like fireflies and an intricate porcelain light fixture dangles from the top of the three-story stair hall like a Calder mobile—or a flock of doves.

The curves are repeated in spare furnishings chosen by Kate Ballou of Hendrick Interiors. Ballou adopted the palette of oak and neutrals in largely Scandinavian pieces such as a caramel leather bench by mid-century Danish saddler Erik Jorgensen that keeps company with an Eames Lounge Chair in the sunroom. Ivory wool upholstery from Kvadrat is naturally resistant to dirt, and oak tables have been treated with a sustainable soap finish. “It was really important that the home feel livable,” Ballou notes. “It’s very subtle yet still modern and fresh.”

There are almost no strong pops of color. By design, the hues that anchor the rooms are warm in tone. “It’s not a cold house, it’s a warm house,” the owner enthuses.

Mahogany frames floor-to-ceiling windows across the back and around the north side of the house, which gained floor-to-ceiling glass exposures. “I wanted to see outside,” the owner explains. “With every view, you’re looking at greenery.”

These garden vistas are courtesy of landscape architect Lila Fendrick, who planted evergreens to form a screen behind lush native shrubs and perennials. A strip of lawn is bound by a narrow pool of water running parallel to a simple bluestone terrace.

Discussing how the project evolved, McInturff avers that he and his team “don’t go in with preconceptions. Modernism is very broad—steel and glass to stone and wood. We just kind of feel our way into it.” In this home, wood became the defining character. “Wood talks back, it changes in the light and has multiple colors—it’s authentic,” the architect says. “It resonates with our humanity.”

Renovation Architecture: Mark McInturff, FAIA, principal in charge; Colleen Gove Healey, AIA, NCARB, project architect, McInturff Architects, Bethesda, Maryland. Interior Design: Kate Ballou, Allied ASID, Hendrick Interiors, Washington, DC. Renovation Contractor: James Loveless, JWL Woodworking, Ijamsville, Maryland. Landscape Architecture: Lila Fendrick, ASLA, Lila Fendrick Landscape Architects, Chevy Chase, Maryland. Landscape Contractor: Evergro Landscaping, Glenn Dale, Maryland.

RESOURCES

PATIO
White Table & Chairs: knoll.com; dwr.com.

DINING AREA
Table: Custom through danieldonnelly.com. Chairs: dwr.com. Chandelier: estiluz.com through illuminc.com.

LIVING AREA
Sofa: eggcollective.com through dwr.com. Sofa Fabric: dwr.com. Sofa Pillow Fabric: hollandandsherry.com. Rug: woodnotes.fi through ffsgallery.com. White Chairs: atlason.com through dwr.com. White Chair Fabric: dwr.com. Chair Pillow Fabric: roomandboard.com. Small Center Side Table: eggcollective.com. Cocktail Table: andtradition.com through ffsgallery.com. Orange Chairs & Stools: Owners’ collection. Clear Console: Owners’ collection. Chandelier: moooi.com through illuminc.com. Paint: Super White by benjaminmoore.com. Fireplace Surface: architessa.com.

SUNROOM
Bench: Erik Jorgensen through ffsgallery.com. Small Table: andtradition.com through ffsgallery.com. Chaise & Ottoman: hermanmiller.com through dwr.com. Rug: starkcarpet.com. Paint: Super White by benjaminmoore.com.

LIBRARY/MEDIA ROOM
Sofa: Custom through danieldonnelly.com. Sofa Fabric: kvadrat.dk. Pillow Fabrics: roomandboard.com. Swivel Chairs: hollyhunt.com. Swivel Chair Fabric: Great Plains through hollyhunt.com. Nesting & Side Tables: fredericia.com through ffsgallery.com. Light Fixture: foscarini.com through illuminc.com. Rug: bloomsburgcarpet.com. Millwork Fabrication: potomacwoodwork.com. Paint: Super White by benjaminmoore.com.

STAIRWELL
Light Fixture: bocci.com.

LOGGIA
Table & Chairs: knoll.com.

KITCHEN
Breakfast Table: knoll.com through dwr.com. Breakfast Chairs: Erik Jorgensen through ffsgallery.com. Lounge Chairs: atlason.com through dwr.com. Lounge Chair Fabric: dwr.com. Small Table: Erik Jorgensen through ffsgallery.com. Paint: Super White by benjaminmoore.com. Cabinetry Fabrication: potomacwoodwork.com. Countertops: caesarstoneus.com through usmarbleandgranite.com. Sink Fixtures: ferguson.com. Cooktop: mieleusa.com through ferguson.com. Fireplace: woodlanddirect.com.

Visitors to Guy and Angie Paolozzi’s Vienna home may be forgiven for feeling transported to the French countryside. The first glimpse, through an allée of zelkova trees, reveals a stone manor more typical of Northern France than Northern Virginia, with a castle-ready tower anchoring one end.

The house, designed by architect Gregory L. Palmer, a principal of Harrison Design, “fits like a glove” on its sloping five-acre site in a riparian wetland crossed by a rippling run. “The setting could easily be transplanted to France with a little change in vegetation,” says Palmer from his base in Naples, Florida. He came to the clients’ attention in 2005 as the architect of a Virginia show house; Angie and Guy Paolozzi, who is a land developer and small business owner, eventually invited him to design a French-accented dwelling to fit their site. The result, completed a few years ago, is an elegant but relaxed “country house” rooted in the timeless solidity of Normandy and Brittany, with touches of sunny Provence. Historical accuracy is honored in the details, but the spirit is spiced with 21st-century comforts required by an energetic family of five.

The impression is old, yet new. The exterior of Lueders limestone was craft-cut to expose natural veining. The steep slate roof was laid in staggered butts to suggest age-old handiwork. The front façade, with its parade of arched double doors and Provençal blue shutters, hints at the house’s mythical French origin.

The layout, encompassing 14,142 square feet on three floors, is all American. With two teenagers and a youngster in elementary school, the Paolozzis desired five bedrooms, six full bathrooms and three half-baths, a lower-level theater and game-room complex, plus a mudroom and back stairs near the car court.

A classicist known for Old World finesse, Palmer imagined 
an authentic French farmhouse expanded over generations. At 
its core, the dwelling is a rectangular prism with extensions “added” for dining, guest quarters, a study and a pair of two-car garages. Reclaimed timbers crisscross ceilings, but the pièce de résistance is a 52-foot-long, groin-vaulted gallery fronting the farmhouse core.

The home’s entry, located at the gallery’s midpoint, reveals a garden view across a 26-by-18-foot great room, where steel-framed glazing opens the back wall to the pool terrace. “If you look at the front of the house, it’s fairly traditional from a proportion standpoint,” Palmer explains. “As we roll to the back, we’ve opened it up with large metal doors. It’s still very classical, but you never would have had these doors in a traditional house.”

The Paolozzis opted out of a formal parlor in favor of this plush-casual nexus, which flows into a 40-foot-long kitchen and breakfast room and onto an adjacent 32-by-19-foot arched stone loggia. “One of the best times to be out on the loggia is in the pouring rain,” observes Angie Paolozzi. For the kitchen, her essential command post, Portfolio Kitchens of Vienna produced double farm sinks, a La Cornue range and an oversized island topped with a 65-by-85-inch slab of Calacatta marble.

McLean designer Maria Galiani attributes her clean, neutral interiors to a client with “great taste and a great sense of style.” The first floor is a seamless visual journey in buff and blue. Floors are laid with Beaumanière limestone or wide wood planks. Walls were treated to a custom mix of stucco and Venetian plaster for a look that Galiani calls “not rustic, but not too formal.”

Vintage lookalikes, such as mantels cast from antiques, blur the line between history and this new build by The Galileo Group. Only the dining room exudes formality, with pale painted molding and glass-fronted cabinets holding a collection of blue and white china.

Throughout the first floor, fireplaces harken back to an era before central heating. Chandeliers styled as candelabras recall a time before electricity. Palmer, who takes historical authenticity seriously, offers a caution: “I tell people, ‘Don’t look at houses done in the last 50 years in this style. Go back to the roots, to the original designs and build from that. Create your own.’”

But he is quick to add that historical style is only a beginning. “We wanted to be in this time and place,” Palmer reflects. “Certainly history is informing it, but we wanted this to be a modern house.”

Architecture: Gregory L. Palmer, AIA, NCARB, Harrison Design, Washington, DC, and other cities. Interior Design: Maria Galiani, Galiani Design Group, McLean, Virginia. Landscape Contractor: Chick Landscaping, Inc., Burtonsville, Maryland. Builder: Patrick Latessa, The Galileo Group. McLean, Virginia.

RESOURCES

GENERAL
Flooring: realhardwoodfloors.com. Beams: ivancdutterer.com. Wall Treatments: variancefinishes.com through Season Services; 571-432-7020. Interior & Exterior Stone: pimentastone.com. Windows: hopewindows.com. Paint: benjaminmoore.com.

THE ROTUNDA/STAIR
Limestone: architessa.com. Railing: ironmastersinc.net. Wall Sconces: reworkshome.com.

GREAT ROOM
Rug: tamarian.com. Chandelier: niermannweeks.com. Trim & Pillow Fabric: schumacher.com. Sofa: Owners’ collection. Sofa Upholstery: osborneandlittle.com. Fireplace: francoisandco.com. Coffee Table: ralphlauren.com. Swivel Chairs: leeindustries.com. Swivel Chair Fabric: Barry Dixon for Vervain through fabricut.com.

GREAT ROOM BAR
Chandeliers: aidangrayliving.com. Stone Floor: architessa.com. Cabinetry: Custom by Patrick Latessa through thegalileogroup.com. Sink: akmetalfab.com.

DINING ROOM
Built-Ins: Patrick Latessa through thegalileogroup.com. Trim: division12design.com. Fireplace: francoisandco.com. Table & Chairs: owners’ collection.

BREAKFAST ROOM
Chairs & Dining Table: owners’ collection. Chairs & Dining Table Fabric: osborneandlittle.com, clarke-clarke.sandersondesigngroup.com. Chandelier: davidiatesta.com. Flooring: Custom by Giacalone Floors; 240-388-1774. Beams: ivancdutterer.com. Fireplace: pimentastone.com.

KITCHEN
Countertops & Tile: glbtileandmarble.com. Backsplash: marblesystems.com. Cabinetry: Portfolio Kitchens; 703-242-0030, premiercb.com. Hardware: ashleynorton.com. Range: lacornueusa.com. Bar Stools: hickorychair.com. Bar Stool Fabric: osborneandlittle.com.

VERANDA
Furniture: rh.com. Pillows: kravet.com. Lighting: bevolo.com.

GALLERY:
Lanterns: aidangrayliving.com. Wall Treatments: variancefinishes.com through Season Services; 571-432-7020. Flooring: architessa.com. Drapery: osborneandlittle.com.