Month: June 2021

Sometimes the solution to your problem means redefining your goals. That’s what happened when James Hazel decided he had to deal with his lawn’s erosion issues.

Twenty years ago, James and Sally Hazel were looking for a weekend place to get their young family away from the pressures of Washington and his job as a D.C. lobbyist. One weekend they came to see a farm along the South River outside Stanardsville—nearly 300 acres of rolling hills, forests, and pastures, lovely views of the Blue Ridge, an almost-new house on a hill, with a fire pit overlooking the perfect swimming hole—“and that was it,” says Hazel. They built a basketball half-court off the gravel drive for their two sons, settled in, and began making family memories. 

Fast forward to 2017. The Hazels had retired to Charlottesville, but still used the South River house frequently for long weekends, summer vacations, and family gatherings as their sons married and began their own careers. Over the years, Hazel had become concerned about erosion on the house’s steep west lawn, especially around the aging fire pit. He contacted local landscape architect Anna Boeschenstein of Grounded LLC because he had seen her work on another country property in this magazine. 

As Hazel and Boeschenstein talked, other issues began to emerge. The Hazel family and guests spent all their time on the house’s narrow concrete patio, because there wasn’t much level lawn space to gather on; they couldn’t rework the west lawn because that’s where the septic field was; they’d often talked about a pool; soon there would be grandkids visiting…

And so the real solution emerged: Create a terraced pool on the gentler south slope. That way, the Hazels would have both a recreation space for their growing family and more room for entertaining. Upgrading and relandscaping the old fire pit as part of the pool project would help stabilize the western slope and create another place to gather.

But even a perfect solution isn’t without its challenges. The new deck had to be carefully terraced into the slope to ensure that the drop between the patio and the pool (and between the pool and the ground) wasn’t so high it presented a danger for small children. And while keeping those kids safe around the water was the prime concern, a pool enclosure would really clutter up the deck’s open feel and the beautiful views, so the heated salt-water pool has a retractable cover that’s kept closed whenever it’s not in use. The pool machinery had to be accessible, so it’s off to the side near the driveway, but a little downslope and screened by shrubbery to keep it out of sight. 

Boeschenstein’s design also successfully handles the challenge of integrating the new feature with the existing patio and into the surrounding landscape. Silver travertine, chosen for the pool decking because it retains less heat, was also laid over the concrete patio to help unify the two areas. Both retaining walls are faced with a Willow Creek stone veneer. The grasses and flowering plants in the bed atop the patio’s retaining wall echo those on the lawn, just as the shrubs below the pool deck help merge the entire feature into the woods at the base of the slope.

The upgraded fire pit, although it’s far enough down the western slope that it’s not visible from the patio/pool area, is still tied into the overall design. The same stone choices used in the pool feature appear here: sandstone pavers leading into the pit, a semicircular stone bench backed into the slope and faced with Willow Creek stone, and a small travertine patio with Adirondack chairs overlooking the swimming hole and the trout-stocked South River.

Both projects were completed in time for the family’s annual Fourth of July barbecue in 2018, and saw frequent use until the pandemic hit in 2020. Last year, Hazel says, he and his wife celebrated a smaller-than-usual Christmas, just the two of them, around the fire pit.

In a fortunate new development, Hazel was recently offered the chance to purchase a parcel of farmland directly across the South River from his house, so he could upgrade and conserve that bank of the river and buffer his property from development. He and Boeschenstein are already at work on the landscape design for the reclaimed riverbank—after all, it’s part of the view from his fire pit.

After spending 25 years turning Waterperry Farm, her Free Union home, into a horticultural showpiece, what did Katherine Kane see as the next step? “I wanted to bring people to enjoy the garden,” she says. “And I’d always wanted to have a bed and breakfast.” 

When Kane and her husband, Dr. Olin West, bought the farm in 1990, the property was mostly open fields and pastures for cattle; the couple loved the mountain views, but Kane couldn’t wait to start filling the place with plants—trees, flowers and shrubs, ponds, even a kitchen garden with vegetables and herbs. The beauty and variety of the gardens and landscaping had become a draw for both gardeners and photographers, and Kane wanted to give horticulturists and nature lovers a way to spend more time enjoying the settings she had created.

In 2015, she asked Jeff Bushman of Bushman Dreyfus Architects to transform Waterperry’s carriage house into a guest house that could sleep four. Bushman describes his design approach as incorporating “reactions to the site, to the existing building, and to the client’s goals as our design partner.” (Now, after working together on several projects at Waterperry, Bushman, and Kane are such experienced collaborators they can fill in each other’s sentences.)

The carriage house was actually a combination guest bedroom/studio built in the 1990s on the site of the farm’s former barn. “My husband called it my writing house,” says Kane, who earned an MFA at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, but found that creating Waterperry’s gardens became her passion. The building was two separate spaces­­—a living room and a bedroom suite—on either side of a “carriage way” or breezeway topped by Kane’s writing room. 

One striking aspect: The studio atop the building was set diagonally to the first-floor axis, which created movement within the layout that both Kane and Bushman wanted to retain. “The existing geometry here was fantastic,” says Bushman. Kane agrees: “The challenge was how to make [the building] longer without making it a big white block—and how to make it beautiful.”

Bushman’s design extended the building’s footprint slightly to the north and south, while adjusting the surrounding perennial beds, shrubs, and medium-scale trees to create a feeling that the structure is immersed by the landscape. That feeling is enhanced by the exterior’s combination of neutral wood siding and light golden Virginia fieldstone facing crafted by Albemarle stonemason Shelton Sprouse. 

In 2018, when the renovation was almost complete, Bushman began on its second phase: enclosing the breezeway in glass, to create additional interior space without losing the original open feeling in the façade. The east and west entries are now floor-to-ceiling glass walls, with double glass doors (arched to the east, nine feet high to the west) that include recessed switch-controlled screens for summer comfort. This multi-functional space serves as a dining/lounging/recreation room focused around a handcrafted inlaid walnut ping-pong table that seats 10. (“My son and I saw this table at a store in New York City,” Kane says, “and we knew it belonged here—we’re a ping-pong family.”)

The decor in this room (and throughout the house) is both luxurious and distinctive. Kane’s style, for gardens and interior design, could best be termed “English country house”—think top-of-the-line but informal comfort. She also has a taste for African and tribal art, for texture (antique Oushak rugs mix with sisal carpeting), and for that one object that makes a space—like the artisan ping-pong/dining table. 

That table proved a significant technical challenge for Bushman and his design team. Making room for vigorous table tennis play meant moving the room’s western wall outward several feet—but Bushman wanted to retain the open feeling of the former breezeway. His solution: a fully glass-enclosed extension. Creating seamless joints in the glass walls, supporting the roof, and hanging the single-paned double doors without the visual interference of massive structures required superb technical skills and pinpoint precision. “I must have measured this one feature 14 times,” Bushman says. With help of builder Paul Barrett (“a window/door/stair specialist”) and Edward Pelton, whose metalworks firm crafted the one-of-a-kind bronze doorway, the result is an expansion of the room that virtually disappears into the landscape outside.

The house’s southern end is largely taken up with a wood-paneled, high-ceilinged great room complete with huge couches and chairs that beg to be lounged in, and game tables that call out for company. In one corner is a massive stone fireplace (also by Sprouse); on the wall opposite is a two-story bookcase with a library ladder. Kane’s key décor feature is a two-tier, verdigris-metal and wood chandelier, over six feet in diameter, that spent years stored in her mother’s barn until this room became “the perfect place for it.”

North of the breezeway/dining room is a well-fitted galley kitchen with Jenn-Air range, Sub-Zero fridge, white oak cabinetry, floating live oak shelves, and Belgian bluestone flooring. Past the kitchen is the master bedroom suite, with a Savoir bed (the kind featured in London’s luxury Savoy Hotel) and a private deck overlooking the pond. Over the master bath’s oval stone tub hangs a five-foot-square Oriental-style print of blossoming cherry branches overhanging flowing water that Kane commissioned just for this space.

Upstairs, the attic bedroom doesn’t feel at all attic-y, thanks to double skylights facing both east and west. Off the dressing area are a half bath and a separate closet rain-head shower with an operable skylight for showering en plein air (weather permitting). Making these smaller spaces work without sacrificing luxury, says Bushman, was “a little like designing a yacht.”

Atop the whole, up a half-flight of stairs, is Kane’s former writing studio. It’s been remade into a cozy sitting area with built-in seating and shelving, walls of windows with sills staggered to accommodate the roof angles, and a door onto its own second-story porch—a perfect eyrie to watch the sun set behind the Blue Ridge.

Visitors to the new Mudhouse Coffee Roasters shop on 10th Street may find themselves unsure they’re in a Mudhouse location at all. The striking, sleek space is a departure from the more rustic approach proprietors John and Lynelle Lawrence have taken alongside their design team at Formwork Architecture for their previous cafés.

According to John Lawrence, the contemporary approach came about for two reasons. One, the previous Mudhouse locations went into buildings constructed in the 1890s, while the 10th street facility was newer. Two, java is going in some badass new directions.

“Coffee has been around for centuries,” Lawrence says. “But we work with specialty grade coffee, and what folks are doing with it now is working a lot on the process of fermenting the cherries to amplify and bring out existing inherent flavors—amplify what’s there already. If we think of that as a more modern feel, well, we want to offer a more modern experience for our coffee drinkers.”

The 10th Street Mudhouse design also vibes well with the cutting-edge equipment installed at the location, Lawrence says. 

Beyond the obvious modern flourishes, the new Mudhouse space’s design is highly intentional throughout. As patrons enter it, they’re greeted by bright colors intended to call to mind life on the coffee farm—the greens of the fields in wall hanging tapestries, the orange-yellow of the sun in bespoke hanging sculptures designed by local artist Lily Erb.

“John and Lynelle approach coffee and the people that grow that coffee on an individualistic, case-by-case basis,” says Cecilia Nichols of Formwork. “They have an intimate relationship with the beans and the people involved in getting the beans into that coffee. Our work in many ways mirrors that. We care a lot about the details and respond to the assets of each site we work on.”

As customers continue to advance through the new Mudhouse shop, the design team introduces them to photographs and text, becoming more specific about the coffee-making process, before they get to the barista and place their order.

Above the main floor of the coffee shop is another unique spot: a rooftop sitting area bedecked by a large faux grass bed. “We were working with Cecilia—she was sketching out the seating and benches,” Lawrence says, “and we had this turf, and we all thought, ‘Let’s just make it a big bed.’ It’s fun.”

For Formwork’s Robert Nichols, the new space was a logical next step for Mudhouse, which grew from a humble coffee cart to its current portfolio of three cafés and a roastery. The location is closer to the University of Virginia than the other Mudhouses and lended itself not only to the modern design, but also to a segmenting of space that allows students and other groups room to spread out.

“[John and Lynelle are] constantly taking steps to keep their business vital and new and educating themselves and their customers,” Nichols says. “When we work with them, we have lengthy conversations, and they usually revolve around new thinking and reassessing just about everything.”

When a faithful client approached Rob Johnson at Green Mountain Construction about a kitchen renovation, he knew the project could be special. The homeowners had upgraded the space from contractor grade when they moved into the Forest Lakes home around 2001, but they wanted to kick the kitchen up a notch.

The homeowners were avid cooks, Johnson says, so he and his team worked backward from the Wolf range, griddle, and hood they selected as a centerpiece. The stove, which Green Mountain transitioned from electric to gas, was positioned on the kitchen side of an island composed of buttermilk quartz, a material used for the room’s countertops. “These ranges and hoods…have gotten to be so expensive, and the function and finish level then dictates the overarching palette of the rest of the project,” Johnson says.

Two project goals were to overcome space constraints and allow more light into the homeowners’ kitchen. So Johnson and his team bumped out an alcove to the island’s right-hand side and placed the sink—large, stainless steel, farmhouse style—under a new five-panel garden window. 

“They really enjoy where they are and spent a lot of time, money, and effort on many projects, especially in the backyard,” Johnson says. Having completed the outdoor projects as well, Johnson and Green Mountain were uniquely positioned to let the new kitchen flow from interior to exterior.

The new sink arrangement also yielded more seating around the kitchen island, and storage throughout. And where the old storage was largely composed of static cabinets, the new space features more drawers and pull-out cabinets—all with soft-close technology.

Across from the homeowners’ new range and hood are more open countertops and a prep sink positioned beneath translucent display shelving.

The style of the upgraded kitchen is firmly contemporary—crisp, with everything having a place. The homeowners wanted wide, roomy cooking areas and room for guests to interact with those working in the kitchen. Green Mountain installed dark-stained, modern cabinets and a column-style refrigerator to integrate seamlessly with the wood. To the left of the fridge is a dual-oven bank.

Johnson says the Forest Lakes homeowners’ focus on high-end appliances and use of quartz are both on-trend. “Quartz is still very, very popular,” he says. “In contemporary kitchens, people want the more monochromatic, uniform surfaces, not as much the wavy stones with accents.”

To cap the reno, Green Mountain transformed a laundry room just off the kitchen into a pantry. The small room also got the clean, modern treatment, with black granite countertops and cabinets with simple facing geometries. Only a gray cabinet stain sets the room apart from the main kitchen and gives it a distinct feel.

“[Rob] should probably just build us a new house at this point, but we like this one,” says the homeowner. 

The low-rise condominium and commercial mixed-use structure Eleven:30 was completed several months ago, but for now, all you can do is sit back and enjoy the view. As of last month, buyers had snapped up all the available spaces.

So, about that view. Local architect Richard Price purchased two dilapidated homes at 1130 E. High St. five and a half years ago. The homes weren’t salvageable, so Price conceived of a condominium space in which the units open in the front on a courtyard. 

Price says the relatively unique condo style dates back to the 1920s and is popular in other areas of the country—Los Angeles, New Orleans, even Richmond—but less so in Charlottesville. According to Price, because the units directly face a central communal area, residents are naturally drawn into social situations. 

“With the front doors facing onto the courtyard, it is a space where the neighbors stop and talk to each other,” Price says. “They have get-togethers, they have a certain pride in it.” For a structure located on a main thoroughfare like High Street, Price thought the design would work especially well, sheltering the living areas from traffic at their rear.

Eleven:30 now contains 12 spaces in total, with two commercial business units facing High Street and 10 residences above them. The structure is decidedly contemporary in styling, Price says, with simple geometric shapes and colors and “not a lot in the way of ornamentation.” Price also strived for sustainability in his design, and Eleven:30 features extensive bioretention and a native plant landscape. Price commissioned Kennon Williams Landscape Studio to assist on the development’s landscaping and hardscaping.

Realtor Roger Voisinet, who worked with Price to market and sell homes in the award-winning River Bluff neighborhood, a 19-acre conservation community with 22 sustainably built homesites, notes the Eleven:30 condos are a short walk from the Downtown Mall in their Martha Jefferson neighborhood location.

In addition to its unique courtyard configuration, Voisinet says Eleven:30 gives residents the ability to occupy an office on one floor and live in the space just above it, another rarity in Charlottesville. 

“[Richard] had a real vision for this courtyard housing project,” Voisinet says. “Ultimately, they had to be condominiums, both business and residential…I only wish we had more.”

Was Price successful in realizing his vision? Eleven:30 may not exactly be Melrose Place yet, but give it time.

“Well, we are done. That’s definitely success,” Voisinet says. “From what I have heard from the residents, it is being very well received.”

Sociable medium

Architect Richard Price wanted his new condo development at 1130 High St. to be a uniquely social space spilling onto its interior courtyard. Why not go all out on the courtyard area itself?

Price worked with land­scape architect Kennon Williams to bring the outdoor space in the Eleven:30 condominiums alive. As the centerpiece of a decidedly contemporary and green structure, Williams focused on those two areas in his landscape design. “Richard’s background is in sustainable design and modernism, and we wanted the landscaping to be consistent,” Williams says.

Williams opted for native plants with only one or two exceptions, a simple geometry and cleanliness to the planting layout, a long-term view of shading and heat control (i.e., trees destined to grow taller), and biofilters—vegetation designed to pull contaminants from the air—throughout the Eleven:30 courtyard space.

“We are trying to create as much delight as we can with plants that are wonderful to look at but also that benefit wildlife,” Williams says.