Residential architecture competitions often end up praising homes of grandeur. This year’s jury for the AIA Baltimore Residential Design Awards gave accolades instead for restraint. The jury held closely to the judging criteria, particularly the requests that the design proposes new approaches to the development of the architectural form and that it is sensitive to the environment. As such, large, traditional homes are absent from this year’s awardees.
“Generally we’re commenting on the modesty and the fact that people have scaled things down to create a house appropriate to its site,” says David Benn, AIA, Leed AP, of Cho Ben Holback + Associates. Laura Melville Thomas, AIA, Leed AP, of Melville Thomas Architects, Inc., and Carl Elefante, FAIA, Leed AP, of Quinn Evans Architects, joined Benn on the jury. Of the 20 entries, the jurors deliberated over seven finalists and selected three winners.
HAMMOND WILSON ARCHITECTS
Photo courtesy Hammond Wislon Architects
Fish Camp
The jury was enamored of the whimsical “Fish Camp” designed by Hammond Wilson Architects, P.C. for a retired writer near Chestertown, Maryland. “The architecture and the concept are beautiful,” says Thomas. The jury applauded the design’s modest scale, site positioning, use of found objects, and understated detailing.
According to architect Robert Hammond, the homeowner was an active contributor to the design. “He always had the idea for a retreat house, a house made up of buildings related to the watermen’s shacks and wharf communities of the old Eastern Shore,” he explains. “These [shacks] weren’t designed, they were vernacular buildings that were just built. [The homeowner] called it a catawampus collection of flotsam and jetsam.”
To design a home that wouldn’t ultimately look designed, Hammond created sketches and models (also essential for obtaining waterfront building permits). “The design was a road map without really knowing where we were going,” he quips. He detailed the main forms, which include a small house, office and sleeping building, and a utilitarian storage structure. However, as the design went into construction it continued to evolve. The homeowner provided reclaimed materials such as old barn siding, beams from a former tavern, plumbing from Second Chance in Baltimore and even wood siding milled on-site from his own trees.
A fanciful home of found objects could easily become a big mess. Hammond credits the design sensibility of the homeowner and the strength of the architectural forms with keeping order. “This design is carried off with thoughtfulness and whimsy,” he states.
ALEXANDER DESIGN STUDIO
Photo courtesy Alexander Design Studio
Rowhouse Reimagined
The renovation of a rowhouse in Baltimore’s Charles Village was one of two projects by Alexander Design Studio to win an award. The project is designed for a couple in retirement that relocated from Washington, DC, to live in a lively and walkable city neighborhood in a house that encompassed green principles. As is typical of any rowhouse, this home was dark and featured small rooms. Charles Alexander explains how he opened the design and introduced light.
“We consolidated some core principles into one big gesture, which is the light atrium cut through the center of the house,” he explains. “Everything is organized around that.” While the use of a light well is not unheard of, Alexander explains how this is sculpted into interesting forms. Even interior spaces like the kitchen and powder room are exposed to natural light by way of interior skylights.
“The little surprises of light, like that in the kitchen are so nice,” says Thomas. Carl Elefante also appreciated the simple detailing of the steel and reclaimed oak staircase, though there was some debate regarding the design for integrating solar panels on the roof.
Alexander says the success of this project is in its fulfillment of the client’s wishes. “We really captured a lifestyle,” he states.
Photo courtesy Alexander Design Studio
Professorial Pleaser
Alexander Design Studio’s second winning project, a house for two professors, also captures a particular living aesthetic. The client purchased an old cottage that needed to expand but also wanted to respect the existing architecture. The addition mimics the cottage’s slim style and gabled proportions, but turns it on end with a bent extension featuring a tower form. The extension sits back from the original cottage as if in deference.
“It’s a nice, small-scale composition connecting the old and the new,” says Thomas.
“There’s strange geometry and geometric clashes and it’s totally delightful and fresh,” adds Elefante.
Most notable in the design is the use of a bookshelf that raises through the core of the building, the playfulness and appropriateness of which was not lost on the jurors. “They’re two professors and books are the center of their professional lives,” says Alexander, “so to unify all aspects of the tower we have the bookshelf as an anchor at the center of the project.”
Christianna McCausland is a Contributing Editor for ChesapeakeHome.
Contacts:
AIABaltimore: aiabalt.com or 410-625-2585
Alexander Design Studio: brokenboxes.com or 410-465-8207
Hammond Wilson Architects: hammondwilsonarchitects.com or 410-267-6041
