How do you design a landscape for a house that sits within a stunning landscape? Gregg Bleam, whose firm envisioned the exterior approach to Elk Run Ridge, understood the problem as “trying to do the most with the least.” The hilltop site affords panoramic views: fields, woods, and distant ridgelines. What’s more, the house was […]
What sort of modern house might be at home in a cattle field? That is just one of the many questions illuminated by Churchville’s Elk Run Ridge, designed by Jim Burton for clients Fred and Kathryn Giampietro. It is a house that embodies many contradictions, and does so gracefully. It’s a private retreat that can […]
Resides in: Albemarle County 1. Antique or modern? 60/40. 2. City or country? City with a bit of country infusion. Although I would take the French countryside over Paris any day. 3. Which colors do you gravitate toward? It tends to change with whatever the project directs, but currently I’m into shades of ink and […]
Trained as an artist, Tate Pray was working as a carpenter until he moved to Charlottesville nine years ago. “I came across an opportunity to build formwork for a precast concrete company here in Charlottesville. I’ve been loving it ever since,” he said. Pray stepped into the new decorative market in Charlottesville and carved a […]
Alexander Kitchin wants to get your mind off the floor. “Most people are stuck down there,” he said. He’s referring to the common perception of how concrete is used in architecture. A UVA grad with a master’s degree in the discipline, Kitchin has devoted his 20-plus-year career to elevating the art of concrete design. Today, he […]
Having been in the business of selling vacations for 19 years, Julie Arbelaez was ready for a getaway from her workspace. “I felt like a change of scenery,” she said. The challenge was symbolized by the slash in her business name: Peace Frogs Travel/Outfitters. The company is a hybrid, both travel agency and retail store. […]
We caught up with the co-founder of Formwork Architecture to see what she’s currently working on, why she loves practicing in Charlottesville, and how a line of Brazilian modernist furniture in her childhood home helped hone her aesthetic. Why architecture? It makes me very happy most of the time I am practicing it. I consider architecture to […]
From the time of the earliest colonists, farms and estates have played a pivotal role in Virginia’s history and economy. The first settlers cultivated food crops to feed their families and early on adopted tobacco as a major cash crop, which continued to grow in importance until well into the 19th century. It was Virginia […]
Whether it’s buying a college-town condo for a son or daughter in school, a vacation home, or a property for eventual retirement, investors are putting their money into Central Virginia property. And the market for real estate investment properties is definitely bullish. Much of the attraction is in the “livability” of our area, which is […]
News & Views Piedmont Housing Alliance Has Low Cost Mortgage Funds For First Time Homebuyers Low and moderate-income first-time homebuyers in the greater Charlottesville area have a new opportunity to access low-cost mortgage funds between now and June 30, 2014. Local affordable housing provider Piedmont Housing Alliance (PHA) received an allocation of $2.7 million in […]