It’s easy for a lobby to go nearly unnoticed; it’s just a place to pass through or wait for a few minutes before moving on to the real destination. But for small startup companies, a lobby can be significant. “You don’t necessarily want to spend a lot of money on a fancy lobby, but clients […]
It’s easy for a lobby to go nearly unnoticed; it’s just a place to pass through or wait for a few minutes before moving on to the real destination. But for small startup companies, a lobby can be significant. “You don’t necessarily want to spend a lot of money on a fancy lobby, but clients […]
What does it mean to make a mark on the land? That was a question posed of VMDO principal David Oakland as a first-year UVA architecture student, and one that Oakland (and, he notes, many other architects) continues to answer as best he can. The question came from Robert Vickery, his teacher at the time […]
Robin and Mary Felder like to call their place Monte Piccolo, meaning “tiny mountain.” That’s in deference to Thomas Jefferson, whose home was, of course, the “little mountain.” And while it may not be Monticello, there’s nothing small about the view from this elevated site in Ivy; you can see all the way to Wintergreen, […]
Anyone with a fondness for Staunton—its well-kept, homey neighborhoods, walkable and engaging downtown and intact historical fabric—can appreciate the appeal of living a couple of blocks uphill from the center of town. Imagine it: You emerge from your house on foot and all but roll down to Beverley Street to partake of whatever pleasure (cappuccino, […]
Buildings reflect priorities. In 1949, when Jennifer Greenhalgh’s house on Park Street was built, kitchens were not the centerpieces they’ve become today. She and her husband Blake bought the colonial-style dwelling in 2008 and immediately set about making the kitchen more relevant to their contemporary lifestyle. “The kitchen was much smaller,” she remembered, standing with […]
Local designer Jeannette Andamasaris wasn’t always into design. In fact, when she graduated from Ohio University, she had a degree in Marine Biology. But traveling around the world as a dancer honed her interest in architecture and other cultures and, while working as a performance artist, she had the opportunity to get involved with the […]
Now that it’s out of fashion to put your boombox on your shoulder and parade up and down the street, how are you supposed to force your superior music taste down the ear canals of passersby? Sadly, just about the only way to spread your song-selecting genius these days is to lure folks into your […]
As a child, architect Robert Nichols was always fixing broken things and salvaging other people’s junk. And once he started creating new objects, he became even more hooked on the process. “I loved the thrill of establishing authorship through a deliberate effort—I had evolved from a tinkerer to a designer,” Nichols said. He’s translated that […]
The earliest image Jim Rounsevell and Carol O’Connor have of their house, from shortly after it was built in 1920, includes food. The aerial shot shows chickens and pigs behind the house, along with rows of garden veggies. Almost a century later, the current owners love cooking and entertaining; food is important in their lives. […]
It’s appealing to imagine building anew on open land—making one’s mark on untouched acreage. But one couple in Rappahannock County took on a more unusual challenge. Lynn and Pam Pittinger bought a 93-acre farm and set about adding a modern house to an existing cluster of buildings. In the midst of this timeworn set of […]