Leveraging the project site’s historic function, neighboring developments, and the local artisan community, Broadstone Yards is designed to fit into Westside Atlanta. The exterior design references aesthetics commonly found in stockyards, the historic use for this area in West Atlanta. Like the surrounding developments, Broadstone Yards includes many found spaces and moments of discovery. Murals, furnishings, and artwork by local artists are located in the project’s public and amenity spaces. The project is comprised of 251 studio, one- and two-bedroom luxury apartments. Amenities include a pool courtyard, double-height clubroom and gym, a mezzanine business center with private offices and study rooms, an outdoor rooftop lounge and a three-story pedestrian bridge overlooking the Atlanta skyline.
RHD Award Year: 2019
A Mews House
A Mews House is the third smallest lot in the city of Atlanta, with a detached single-family residence built on it. The lot is a mere 20 feet wide, providing for a 14-foot-wide house even after special relief from vexing suburban zoning regulations (in an urban setting) was granted.
In a time when housing is becoming increasingly unaffordable, it is important to build more housing—period. This project showcases the critical role design can play in bringing new and innovative housing stock online.
Testing the premise that design drives economies, A Mews House is built as a spec house to show that elevated design can be profitable and possible in the competitive speculative residential market without public subsidies.
Pollack Residence
At some point in the 1980s, the original 50s-era house was remodeled in a quasi-post modern style. By the time current owners acquired the property, the house had been covered with synthetic stucco and crowned with a clunky parapet. In front of the house, railing enclosed a partially submerged carport to become a roof porch. At the rear of the house, upper-level porches were supported by unattractive pipe columns, and generic gutters and downspouts had were added. Any mid-century modern charm that may have existed was gone.
The new owners wanted to improve the appearance of the exterior and add a family room, two bedrooms, and a swimming pool. The architect’s solution involved relocating the garage to an inconspicuous place and inserting the new family room where the garage had previously been. A three-story guest bedroom tower was added at the opposite end of the original house. The design removed clunky parapets and reframed the roof reframed to extend beyond the wall below to give depth to the façade. In the interstitial space between the new family room and the main house, a koi pond was inserted, creating a sunken garden viewed from the entry approach above. On the back of the house, a new black steel structure replaced the unattractive pipe columns supporting the porches. New terrace, pool, stairs, railings, and shade structure integrated as extensions from the house. New wood siding and trim were added to the exterior to soften the starkness of the all-white stucco cladding, complimenting the brown tones of the existing stone foundation walls.
Figure 8 House
On a barrier island off North Carolina’s Atlantic Coast, the Figure Eight house sits amongst dunes, its design inspired by the spirit of the original modernist houses found on the island. The client and their family had been coming to this beach property for years before deciding to build their ideal vacation home. They requested contemporary living accommodations and a steel structure, which allowed for geometric operations on an otherwise archetypal house form. These cuts and extrusions bring natural light deep into the house, create pockets of outdoor gathering, and take advantage of breezes and views. The cedar cladding weathers to integrate with its surroundings; slatted portions break down the house’s mass and subtly reference the adjacent reeds and palms.
Programmatically, the house is arranged so that the sleeping areas are justified and stacked on one half of the house and the gathering spaces on the other. In this way, a sort of organizational gradient is created across the elevation of the house – from solid and enclosed to porous and open. Large sliding glass doors open to the outdoor living areas, breaking down the threshold between inside and out. The main living/dining/kitchen area is located on the upper level and takes advantage of the gabled roof form to create a double-height space. Overlooking this area is an office mezzanine, which sits above the master suite.
Bayou Traditional
The architectural concept for this home is tied to its location and the history and traditions of place. Between New Orleans and Houston, upriver from the Gulf of Mexico, sits historic Lake Charles, Louisiana. First settled in the late 19th century, the town flourished due to abundant forests of cypress and pine and sawmills that supplied lumber throughout the South and, eventually, the American West. By the 1890s, this prosperity along with the combination of natural and human resources inevitably led to the construction of fine homes, many of which still stand today in a 40-block area known as the Charpentier Historic District. Here, carpenters took on the role of architect and craftsman, showcasing their artistic and technical prowess through elaborate detailing, inside and out, executed with native pine.
This rich heritage provided ample inspiration for the design of Bayou Traditional, a 6,000 s.f. home in an emerging Traditional Neighborhood Development that celebrates the heritage and history of Lake Charles and the Southwest Louisiana region. The clients, lifelong Louisianans, wanted to create an heirloom home, one that they would age in and eventually pass down to future generations. Equally important, they wanted the home’s legacy to be one of stewardship, reflecting upon Lake Charles’ historic character and extending its lineage of vernacular architecture. Honoring traditions established by the region’s early carpenters who juxtaposed formality and simplicity, the design team detailed the interiors by layering an elegant cornice and trim upon horizontal pine boards. The overall design concept incorporates elements of Creole architecture with classical scale and proportion, and native materials with modern building practices, resulting in a traditional raised cottage that commemorates the past while embracing the future.
Harrison House
At only 1,800 square feet, the existing house would not accommodate the needs of its new owners. With two small children, they wanted more bedrooms & bathrooms, as well as additional casual family space. These additional desires required another 1,800 square feet. An existing eyesore of a carport tacked onto the front façade of the existing house begged for removal.
While doubling the size of the house, the architect’s goal was to resurrect the original mid-century box – then minimize the impact to it. The design solution involved separating the addition so that new & old could be distinctly read. New vs. Old can be decoded where the original yellow brick is exposed and seen in contrast to new cypress siding and white stucco surfaces. The black color of the original wood post & beam structure is extended to the new, exposed black steel. New space was elevated on a podium some distance away, connected by an elevated bridge at roof level. An offending carport was removed from the front of the house, replaced by a more discreet detached garage in a different location, allowing a new front façade to be composed.
These light touches do not engage the original house’s exterior walls at any place, keeping those exterior walls as free from intrusion as possible. Original interior partitions were edited and reconfigured to provide purer open space (previously, various closets protruded into the living area’s rectangle). As needed, components were restored or replaced, and new interior space was organized along the exterior window in relation to newly created outdoor areas.
Alpha Phi at UGA
The Alpha Phi Sorority project rehabilitated the 1860/1909 Dearing-Wilkins House in Athens and converted it from single-family use to sorority use, with the addition of 54 beds, site parking, assembly rooms, and dining facilities. The building program sought to retain as much of the historic house as possible, including original parlor rooms and finishes and significant historic exterior features, while adding to the building in a way that complements the old house that Athenians have loved for years.
Converting the house from single-family to sorority use required the addition of substantial new floor area. The massing of the additions is oriented to the rear of the historic house and across the width of the lot to allow the house’s central hall axis to continue through to the new chapter room in the south wing. The north dorm wing forms one edge of a garden courtyard framed by brick garden walls and the side of the historic house.
The openness at the rear of the historic wraparound porches was preserved by matching the width of the south wing to the historic house and by incorporating a glassy hyphen to connect the north and south wings. This hyphen also breaks up the massing of the two rear additions so that their secondary relationship to the historic house is clear. The exterior detailing of the new additions is sympathetic to the neoclassicism of the historic house, but uses simpler details for both economy and deference to the original.