Erika Howsare

Here’s one for the dreamers: Monticola, a nearly 300-acre estate on the James River, is for sale. If you’ve never heard of Monticola, you’re not alone. Despite its rich history, it claims little fame and has never really been a public place. Now, spiffed up for a turn on the market, it’s ready for a […]

Jeff Dreyfus and Bob Headrick have always loved their house. It is a special place—very progressive when it was built in 1933, predating by decades most other local examples of modern architecture. Its International Style design is bold and crisp, built with geometric planes of white accented by black. Yet by 2002, when the couple […]

The idea of a “new downtown” in Crozet has been in the air for years. With the opening of Piedmont Place—a lively, mixed-use building just across the street from the Crozet Library—it is suddenly looking like a reality. “My wife Michelle and I moved to Crozet in 2011,” says developer Drew Holzwarth, who manages residential […]

You can often spot a Latitude 38 house from a block away. The Charlottesville company, owned by husband and wife team Jeff Erkelens and Joey Conover, has tended to build tall, vertical structures, with a fresh, quirky asymmetry. But one Latitude house, found in the Riverside neighborhood adjacent to Riverview Park, breaks the mold. More […]

It’s almost like a mini Monticello. Situated on high ground, commanding a majestic view, the house is likely close to two centuries old. With its brick foundation and chimneys, and many other classic Virginia architectural details, it looks eminently at home among the mature trees that surround it. It holds a place on the National […]

It’s not easy to nearly double the square footage of a house without bulking up its street profile. But that’s just what happened at Mike and Karen Ball’s North Downtown home. Not only did the couple, and their three young children, gain a lot of living space with the renovation/addition designed by Bushman Dreyfus Architects, […]

When Justin Rood went house-hunting in Charlottesville, he looked really hard. Many dozens of properties into his search, he still hadn’t found just the right place—but not because he was picky. Intending to create a vacation rental in an older house, he needed to find a rare combination of location, character and function to serve […]

If your house sits on a small city lot, it may seem as though there’s little room to expand. After all, city regulations limit how much of your lot may be developed, plus the height of secondary structures relative to your house. But don’t give up hope. One recent project by Alloy Workshop demonstrates that […]

There are a few iconic local retailers in Charlottesville, and Amy Gardner’s store, Scarpa, is one of them. The women’s boutique—which started out selling shoes nearly 23 years ago and recently expanded into clothing—has been a mainstay in the north wing of Barracks Road Shopping Center, and in the Charlottesville imagination, as a bastion of […]

When Bonnie Bond bought her condo in the Lewis and Clark Building downtown in 2012, she faced an unusual situation. Not only was the two-bedroom unit due for routine updates—the building was built in 1989, and the flooring and cabinetry reflected their age—the condo bore the marks of its previous, and very notable, owner. Artist, […]