Gardner Architects LLC

canal house

The Intracoastal Waterway runs along the east coast of the United States, connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico and comprising many kinds of waterways.  This project sits on one of those waterways – the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal – in a coastal maritime forest with sandy dunes, and facing grassy marshes and perennial wetlands. 

The design agenda called for a sensitive response to climate and site. The house is sited to maximize views to the canal and wetlands, while providing a variety of protected and shaded exterior spaces. The form of the house is split by a glazed entry foyer, offering views along a continuous boardwalk from the streetside through the foyer to the canal and marsh.   

Creating a shaded place, saving all the trees on site, capturing yet sheltering from sun and breeze, maximizing views, creating habitat – these are some of the project’s sustainable strategies employed to decrease energy demand and enhance building-site synergies.  The project focuses on passive and active sustainable strategies in order to decrease energy demands and burden on the local utilities. By creating a strategically shaded, highly insulated building envelope, employing a geothermal system and an energy recovery ventilator, energy costs are minimized. Carefully positioned operable windows and skylights, including in the open, gabled stairway, allow for natural ventilation and take advantage of the stack effect.  The strategic location of shading devices – exterior solar shades and a trellis – rounds out the suite of passive approaches.  

The home is a home for the beach, not a suburban home transplanted to the beach.  The design recalls the traditions of the cabins that used to comprise this community.  The heart of the home is where the towels are! Spaces for circulation, gathering, and chance encounters of the extended family and friends who gather and hang about the inside and outsides spaces.   The kitchen bridges the interior and exterior, linking a porch with the living and dining areas.   Materials are matter of fact, rough-hewn, utilitarian.  A home for the grill, kayaks, laundry, outdoor showers, and beach storage were as important as spaces for sleeping, eating, and gathering.

Project Team
1200AE Architectural Engineers PLLC 
Beachwood Inc.
Jennifer Gilmer Kitchen and Bath Ltd
John Hynes & Associates
Jordan Honeyman Landscape Architects 

flint hill

The house is a porch....  

Rappahannock County, a county located in the northern Piedmont region of Virginia, and adjacent to Shenandoah National Park, is the home for our project at Flint Hill. Much of the land in Rappahannock County consists of small mountains that culminate in the west at the Blue Ridge mountains of Shenandoah National Park. The county is primarily rural in nature, and as a certified International Dark-Sky Park it is one of the last places on the East Coast with a view of the Milky Way. These characteristics - rolling, mountainous, foothills to the Shenandoah, with clear skies allowing views for great distances - form the context for this project.

The design agenda called for a house compound comprising living and sleeping wings, carport, garden, pool and bocce court, connected to the sixty-four acre site. Interior and exterior spaces are connected to each other, where movement between and among them allows for constant engagement with the distant views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The house forms are borrowed from local farm outbuildings such as grain storage sheds. Oriented to capture light and breeze, two wings are guided by the site topography and split by the view to the Blue Ridge mountains captured upon entry. With the view and topography demanding that the house be oriented towards the west, shade is created by the porch and exterior motorized shades. While the orientation of the house runs counter to conventional wisdom regarding the solar gain that comes from a westerly orientation, the strategies for shading systems, building envelope, and mechanical systems achieved a HERS rating of 21, incorporating an 8kW photovoltaic system.

Along the predominantly east-west axis, spaces unfold in layers wherein the living room opens to a deep terrace-porch overlooking the meadow. The spaces along the almost north-south axis are aligned with each other and blend interior to exterior, living to pool, via views and materials such as tile and cast-stone pavers. There are several kinds of landscapes that comprise the setting of the house compound - meadow, manicured, growing landscapes. These landscapes join the buildings to the hillsides and natural terraces.

Team Credit:  
1200AE Architectural Engineers PLLC				
Gregg Bleam Landscape Architects
Jennifer Gilmer Kitchen & Bath 	
Josh Catlett Engineering

Photography:
Scouting photos - John Cole Photo
Landscape and evening porch photos - Emily Hagen Photography
Miscellaneous photos - Amy Gardner

treehouse

Residential building fabric is all too often razed in order to create new residential structures that maximize the zoning envelope, to the detriment of the neighborhood fabric and scale. 

By contrast the design approach for this project integrates analysis of typical characteristics of construction vis-a-vis the era of construction, building-site relationships, and sustainable strategies in order to join competing interests, save the building and preserve its role in the community. 

This house, built in the 1960s, faces south on a wooded lot in Bethesda, Mary- land. The house had limited and lifeless connections to its site, and a dearth of habitable spaces that adjoined the landscape.  
With excessive energy consumption, poor construction characteristic of its era compounded by considerable deterioration as the baseline condition in which we found the home, the house then suffered a major blow--burst pipes rendered the house uninhabitable. This last event prompted the owners to either raze or resuscitate their home. 

We implemented passive approaches for daylight and ventilation, a new vapor-managed building envelope, a state-of-the art insulation strategy, and updated high-efficiency mechanical systems.  
We stewarded the development of a masterplan that manages stormwater, creates habitat for indigenous species, and selectively embraces trees thereby preserving the quality of the community. Our strategy saved the existing building, preserve the site and the existing trees contributed to the preservation of the neighborhood history. 

The renovated home includes 25% increased fenestration with glazing type and area tuned towards exposure, and a new building envelope achieving a 35% improvement over the new International Green Construction Code code baseline. 

Bringing in daylight and natural cross ventilation, the new design maximizes the benefits of available sun in winter and abundant shade in summer provided by the wooded context while retaining the tie between house and site that inspired the original design. 

river's edge

A new home joins an established community on a bluff to the river below. A breezeway links the house to the site and the landscape and water. An open plan connects entry to south terraces; exterior decks and terraces are joined to interior spaces; living, dining and kitchen are interconnected, with the kitchen as the "hub" and center of the joined interior and exterior spaces.  North-facing galleries connect the breezeway to all the south-facing living spaces.  In fact, every room faces towards the south -- built-in shading and solar protection are calculated and designed to provide shade in the summer and allow passive gain in the winter. Ground source heating and cooling, a solar photovoltaic system, and a high-performing building envelope round out the home's response to energy, climate and comfort.

Team:
1200 Architectural Engineers	
Charles P Johnson & Associates
Campion Hruby Landscape Architects
Wyant Heating and Cooling
Jay Hall and Associates
Coventry Lighting
Steele Engineering
GeoLabs 

around the courtyard

This project for the new construction of netzero buildings around a courtyard comprises a single family home with detached ADU.  A sensitive approach to the neighborhood maximizes the use of the tight semi-urban lot yet maintains areas for gardening and gathering.  A high-performing building envelope including a "monopoly roof", passive and active sustainable strategies including a solar PV system, and balanced ventilation round out the suite of energy-saving and comfort enhancing approaches.   A modern open plan for each building connects to the courtyard, yet allows two different sets of inhabitants to enjoy the landscape with privacy. 

Project Team
1200 Architectural Engineering
Jay Hall and Associates

The Custom Residential Architects Network (CRAN) Knowledge Community develops knowledge and information to benefit architects who are engaged in, or who are interested in learning more about, custom residential practice. CRAN presents information and facilitates the exchange of knowledge and expertise to promote the professional development of its members via discussion forums, national symposia and conventions, publications, and local activities. Further information about CRAN, its leadership, subcommittees, local chapters, symposiums, newsletters, and emerging professionals can be found here http://network.aia.org/cran/Home/

AIA Custom Residential Architects Network

Sharing your passion for creating better places to live, work, and play. Based in Washington, D.C., the AIA has been the leading professional membership association for licensed architects, emerging professionals, and allied partners since 1857. We carry out our goals through advocacy, information, and community. Each year the AIA * Sponsors hundreds of continuing education experiences to help architects maintain their licensure * Sets the industry standard in contract documents with more than 100 forms and contracts used in the design and construction industry * Provides countless Web-based resources for emerging architecture professionals. Conducts market research and provides analysis of the economic factors that affect the business of architecture * Hosts the annual AIA National Convention and Design Exposition * Serves as an advocate of the architecture profession * Champions architects’ future by enhancing public belief in the value of design * Promotes design excellence and outstanding professional achievement through an awards program

The American Institute of Architects

AIA Potomac Valley (AIAPV) is a local chapter of the American Institute of Architects based in College Park, Maryland. Our mission is making a better environment through leadership in architecture. We empower members to advance their roles in service to society; act as a collective voice to help cultivate the future of the architectural profession; foster innovation & sustainability in design; are a knowledge resource to members and the public, raising awareness of the value of the architecture profession.

AIA Potomac Valley

Best of Houzz 2023

Best of Houzz 2023 - Design

Best of Houzz 2023 - Client Satisfaction

Best of Houzz 2022

Best of Houzz 2022 - Design

Best of Houzz 2021

Best of Houzz 2021 - Design

Best of Houzz 2021 - Client Satisfaction

Best of Houzz 2020

Best of Houzz 2020 - Design

Best of Houzz 2019

Best of Houzz 2019 - Design

Best of Houzz 2019 - Client Satisfaction

Best of Houzz 2017

Best of Houzz 2017 - Design

Best of Houzz 2017 - Client Satisfaction

Best of Houzz 2016

Best of Houzz 2016 - Design

Best of Houzz 2016 - Client Satisfaction

Best of Houzz 2015

Best of Houzz 2015 - Design

Best of Houzz 2014

Best of Houzz 2014 - Design

Best of Houzz 2014 - Client Satisfaction

Best of Houzz 2013

Best of Houzz 2013 - Design

Houzz Pro Software User

Star Houzzer

5 Star Houzzer

Houzz Barometer

Houzz Industry Research - Barometer

Influencer

Houzz Influencer

Recommended on Houzz

100,000 Ideabook Saves

header

center

craftsman teahouse

footer

Home

Awards

Blog

Connect

Featured Project Page

Gallery

Go Greener!

Our Story

Press

Privacy Policy

Sustaining

Testimonials

modern + sustainable

Project Highlight Video

Floor plan preview

Is this your business? <t1>Log In</t1> to your account on Houzz Pro to reactivate your profile.

Houzz Pro Account Suspended

We will get back to you by email as soon as possible.

We have received your inquiry!

Map for {location}

Privacy Policy for this Site

This website stores cookies on your device and handles your information in accordance with the <t1>Houzz Privacy Policy</t1> and <t2>this website privacy policy</t2>. Select your preferences below. When you click “{ACCEPT_ALL}” this website can give you the best possible user experience.

This Website Uses Cookies

Your privacy is important. You can select your cookie preferences as described below. You can modify your preferences at any time.

Read more about the <t1>Houzz Privacy Policy link</t1> and <t2>this website privacy policy</t2> for more information about how these cookies are used.

This website uses cookies and similar technologies. Strictly necessary cookies are necessary for our website to function properly. If you consent to the use of other cookies, we use them to personalize your experience, serve you relevant content, and improve our products and services.

This Content Requires Cookies

Open a dialog to customize your preferences

Gardner Architects LLC

modern + sustainable

Sustainable, artfully crafted buildings and places.

Your home is a reflection of you.

Follow our journey.

Transform your home today.