Art Collector's Residence

This residential project is comprised of two separate projects by two separate home owners.

The original project was James Noel, Architect's, Ltd. first major design undertaking. The owner's had lived in the house for thirty years and had outgrown it but loved the lot within the secluded wooded neighborhood.

She was a docent at the Corcoran and required a space to display large monumental pieces of artwork along with a spacious area to entertain large social gatherings.

The second phase of this project came with the second owners twenty years later. The new owner's sought out and informed me they purchased the house for the design along with the wall space for their large art works. The new owner's were a younger couple who wanted to tweak the earlier design along with creating an new kitchen and home office wing.

The Mondrian House

This townhouse l project is located in Old Town, Alexandria. The house was a builder spec house constructed in the 1980's constructed with the lowest quality grade materials. Vinyl raised panel interior doors, Cultured marbled & low budget cabinets, and poor quality hardware & trim throughout.

The three story house was sectioned off into multiple rooms, giving the the townhouse was cramped appearance throughout. A stairway centrally located with a wobbly colonial railing lead up to a dark top floor with a five foot ceiling height along the South axial wall. This top floor was dark, cramped, & hot, therefore unused.

Project:

Lower Floor:

Remove the walls separating the space into four individual small rooms to create one large space from front to back. The new spaces to be defined by cabinetry and casework elements. A new Power room was placed under the stairs and one of the pairs of French doors on the rear was removed to create a space for an enlarged open Kitchen.

Middle Floor:

Remove the vinyl bifold laundry room doors, the large return air grill and large eyeball recessed lighting in the hallway. The lighting was replaced with small mini downlights, the return air grill was moved into the Laundry room, and a new steel & screen overhead roller barn door replaced the bi-fold laundry room doors.

Upper Floor:

The upper floor was gutted to create a Master Bedroom suite to encompass the entire floor. The Master Bedroom & Walk-in Closet located on the East end of the house. A large dormer with a round oculus window created an high ceiling where the low wall previously was located. The two small windows were replaced with a large 10' wide glass door system & Juliette balcony. On the West end was a home office niche along with the new Master Bathroom.

Main Stairway:

The main stairway railing was constructed of a poor quality loose & rickety colonial rail system which gave a busy and oppressive appearance. The central staircase took up a great deal of space and a central feature of the space. With no natural light, it was a dark and foreboding space.

With the stairway taking up a very large portion of the central core throughout the house, the goal was to transform this space from a dark foreboding and purely functional one an airy space which distributed light throughout the interior core. This was achieved by installing a large bank of skylights the entire with of the stair corridor. The new railing were custom steel with cherry caps created a light modern and sturdy rail system. The stainless steel cables glimmers in the reflection of the light bouncing throughout the new stair light well.

Details:

Custom casework, moldings, & doors throughout.

Second Phase:

The client engaged our services for a second phase to enlarge the lower level floor. The house consisted of carriage house (rental unit) in the front, with the main residential dwelling in the rear separated by a courtyard.

The courtyard was enclosed to become the front living area. By adding a large bank of skylights over this new space, the main house was flooded with more light than what originally flowed in the prior two French doors.