Homes face the ravages of aging in different ways. Sometimes a simple face lift will do. Other times you have to tear down and start all over. At times there’s a middle path — the house has good bones — it just needs a new vision to be set free.
When architect Scott Huebner of Brickstack Architects first saw the 45-year-old-house off Asheville’s Town Mountain Road, that’s what he thought. The house clung possessively on a site with stunning views. It wanted to be where it was.
But it looked “alien, dated, it felt very out of sync.” The house sat on a rock plinth topped by wood-clad battered walls. It was cramped, like a bird whose wings had been constricted. “This is a house waiting to be liberated,” Scott said to himself. The design to do that came to him quickly, as if the house itself knew what it wanted to be.
“When I first met with the clients, I had a very strong feeling about what the roof should be,” Scott remembers. “Right away, I had the idea of a single roof material that unified the whole house — a single plane of metal. That was the big design move – figuring how to take this house with multiple flat roofs — and unify it with a single roof.”
Another idea also came quickly. “Once you’re inside the house, you realize, sadly, that it doesn’t really capitalize on the incredible view.” The house has a northwest view, overlooking downtown Asheville, with the magnificent mountains in the distance.
The late afternoon golden light and the wonderful variety of sunsets make it an exquisite place to feel one with the universe. But the house, with its constricted layout and its narrow punched window openings, felt like a battlement — it was dissonant with its environment.
The new low-slope roof will allow for the installation of high clerestory widows on the view side of the house. In addition, there will be more windows added throughout, including a series of large operating sliding doors that offer generous openings so the outside and the inside kind of “blur together.” The new house will suit its site.
The current kitchen is uninviting, almost “like a butler’s kitchen” with no real connection to the rest of the house and no windows. “The kitchen will be dramatically larger — easily double the size,” says Scott. “And now we’ve made it integral to the rest of the house.”
It was a good plan — requiring extensive renovations but leaving the foundation of the house basically intact. All that was needed was the cooperation of the owners — and that turned out to be easy. The owners treasured the location of the house, so when Scott showed them how they could make the most of the view and improve the interior flow, they were on board. “They were adventuresome in terms of what they wanted the house to be,” Scott says. “We were on the same wavelength.”
Scott’s wavelength is what can be called “progressive” architecture. It stands in the present, not the past, with an eye to the future. “All architects want their work to be timeless,” he says and that’s what he wants for this house. It will be modern, elegant and contemporary.
His style of contemporary architecture emphasizes the use of beautiful materials, wood, glass, steel. His creative influence is the architect/philosopher/teacher Louis Kahn whose monumental buildings were noted for their benign combinations of light and space, and reverence for building materials.
Scott is convinced that a lot of the craftsmen in the area want to do more contemporary work. He says he wants to see Asheville break out of its strict allegiance to Craftsmen and “rustic Appalachian.”
“A lot of people ask me about “sustainable, green architecture,” Scott says. “It’s worth noting one of the most significant things about this house plan — one of the most sustainable things we can do as homeowners is renovate an existing home — not tear it down.”
Though the renovations will be extensive, the house will not increase much in size. It’s already 4,000 some square feet. A second floor outdoor living area, 350 square feet, will be added. All the walls will be removed and replaced with new wood channel siding, which will update the forest-friendly feel of the house.
The homeowners and architect had three specific tasks: Repair the damage, give the house a much stronger presence on the street and maximize its potential as a contemporary home. The driving guide was the house’s incredible view… “Not everybody gets to have a view like this,” says Scott. “When you do, you want to take advantage of it.”
As a full service architect, Scott will be involved with the interiors as well. “I help the owners select cabinetry, the floor finishes, and the paint colors — everything works together.” The essentials will be on one level — a master suite bedroom and two other bedrooms suites, the big kitchen and living area. A media room and a bunkroom will be on the lower level; the small new addition on the highest level.
The work on the house will start this summer and take a little over a year. So in summer 2015 the new house will be ready. “There are going to be some happy homeowners then,” says Scott.
Learn more about Brickstack Architects or see Scott Huebner’s plans for the Sunset Summit house and other projects, visit brick-stack.com or call 828-545.4233.