Time was, when students at Charlottesville Catholic School wanted to do a science experiment, they’d have to contend with the elements. “Students would be heating minerals over an open flame,” recalls Principal Michael Riley. “They’d use a Petri dish with an alcohol flame. They’d be doing it outside”—because there wasn’t a properly ventilated spot indoors—“and […]
Time was, when students at Charlottesville Catholic School wanted to do a science experiment, they’d have to contend with the elements. “Students would be heating minerals over an open flame,” recalls Principal Michael Riley. “They’d use a Petri dish with an alcohol flame. They’d be doing it outside”—because there wasn’t a properly ventilated spot indoors—“and […]
Architect Cathy Purple Cherry started her practice, Purple Cherry Architects, in a 1,000-square-foot home with two children underfoot and two employees. Back then, as now, her focus was custom, luxury residential projects—the kind you’d see featured in home and garden magazines—and over the next few years, she hired more employees and expanded the work space […]
This month’s issue of Abode is on stands now—with a peek inside not one but three local houses, a look at a western Albemarle landscape designed in phases, a chat with designer Alana Woerpel and more. Here’s what you’ll find: Landscape architect Mary Wolf‘s recent work. Warming up to the idea of new insulation. Designer Alana […]
Talk about a bonus buy: Jeff and Ivy Levien bought a 30-acre parcel at Bundoran Farm in 2012, and only later realized that it came with a historic log cabin. To be precise, the Leviens knew that the building existed, but they figured it for a teardown. Several contractors had concurred with that view, and […]
A 1942 Marshall Wells-designed home in tony Farmington: What could be more traditional? Except when it isn’t. For the last three years, designer Kathy Heiner of KLH Designs has been transforming this home in collaboration with its owners, making it a showcase for an eclectic, unfussy style. “This house is all about friends and family,” says […]
When Kristen and Glenn Martin dropped their daughter off to begin her college career at the University of Virginia in 2013, they weren’t planning on renovating a house in Nelson County’s Stoney Creek development. But, less two years later, that’s what the Pennsylvania residents found themselves doing. “It was very outdated,” says Glenn of the […]
Time is always a key element in landscape: Plants grow and change, seasons come and go. In some cases, it takes time for a design to bloom, too. That was true at Shady Lawn, a Western Albemarle property where landscape architect Anna Boeschenstein, of Grounded, created a master plan five years ago. Her design is […]
Editor’s note: Beginning this month, each issue of Abode will include a column written by a graduate student at the University of Virginia School of Architecture, providing a glimpse into the considerations of the next generation of architects. The world is entangled in complex sets of relationships and nothing is what it seems. Design disciplines […]
Just as a home has a history, so, too, does a landscape. Only, a landscape’s story, as Mary Wolf attests, is multilayered. Take, for instance, her grandmother’s property, a Civil War battlefield site where she spent her weekends growing up. The appeal of that spot of land—that it connected our national, geological and human history […]
A lovely view is lovely, but a spectacular one might be life-changing. Think we exaggerate? Get ye to Elk Mountain Road in Afton on a clear day, and feast your eyes on the kind of vista that can truly alter your outlook. Number 885, which faces east from a lot just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, […]