Interior Design :: blueplate PR

River Bend NC To Host Special Tour of Waterfront Homes and Gardens

Categories: architecture, charity, entertainment, events, garden design, Interior Design, non-profit, people with disabiliites
Comments (0)

Including a memorial tour of Chick Wooten murals.

August 24, 2011 (New Bern, NC) — A special tour of five waterfront homes and gardens, along with a memorial tour of murals by the late North Carolina artist Chick Wooten, will be held in River Bend, NC, on Saturday, September 17, from noon to 4 p.m. during the “Homes on the Waters of River Bend Tour.”

The homes on the tour offer a variety of architectural styles at different locations along the waterways of River Bend, including the Trent River, Plantation Canal and Island Lake. Interior designs range from contemporary to traditional. One of the homes features artifacts from all over the world. And all five have waterfront views.

Homes on the tour can be visited any time and in any order during tour hours, and refreshments will be served. The featured homes are:

The Camille and Jim Hoffman residence at 104 Plantation Drive
The Catherine and Richard Ewan residence at 318 Plantation Drive
The Lynne and Phil Seymour residence at 250 Shoreline Drive
The Debbie and Al Alcoff residence at 114 Mariners Court
The Marci and Gerry Crawford residence at 103 Raft Road

Chick Wooten’s primitive murals are located throughout RHA Howell’s River Bend Center for the developmentally disabled at 140 Pirates Road, New Bern. The center will be open during tour hours. Wooten was known for his paintings of life in the Carolina countryside. The central themes of his work are family life, togetherness especially in tough times, and the importance of faith and community traditions.

Advance tickets to the tour are $10 and are available at The River Bend Market, the River Bend Country Club, Trent River Realty, and the RHA Howell River Bend Center. Tickets on the day of the tour are $12.

The River Bend Garden Club, The Epiphany School, the Girls Scouts Troops 279 & 1184, and the New Bern Woman’s Club are sponsoring the home and garden tour. All proceeds will be donated to the RHA Howell River Bend Center and the Rhems First Responders.

River Bend is a small community located near New Bern, NC. For more information on the September home and garden tour, contact: Samantha.annunziata@rhanet.org or call her at 252.638.6519.

For more information on RHA Howell, visit www.rhahowell.org.

About RHA Howell, Inc.:

RHA Howell is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization that has been helping people with disabilities and special needs, and their families, make choices to live more independently for nearly 40 years. Integrity, high standards for quality, and hard work are at the core of every RHA Howell disability assistance program. Proven leaders in caring for people, RHA Howell, Inc. is a pioneering force in the field of human services, particularly supporting infants and children. For more information, go to www.rhahowell.org.

RHA Howell To Host “Put It On The Table” Design Competition, Fundraiser

Categories: art, business, charity, entertainment, events, fundraising, Interior Design, news, non-profit
Comments (0)

To benefit children and adults with disabilities in the Tar River and Greenville group homes.

July 26, 2011 (Greenville, NC) – Creative holiday table settings and table top design are the themes for a special fundraiser to benefit RHA Howell’s Tar River and Greenville Group Homes this year entitled, “Put It On The Table.”

On Thursday, November 3, from 4-7 p.m., local businesses — interior designers, florists, gift shops and jewelry stores, restaurants, and other entrants — will use tables, chairs, linens, dinnerware, center pieces and other elements to capture the spirit of the holidays. The event will promote their brands and work, while raising funds for children and adults with disabilities. Professional designers will serve as judges to select the “Best in Show” winner, while the attending public will determine the “People’s Choice Award.”

Businesses that enter the “Put It on the Table” competition and fundraiser will pay a $100 entry fee and provide a raffle or silent auction donation valued at $100. All items may also be priced for sale. RHA Howell will provide each entrant a 48-inch unadorned table and any number of chairs.

“We can’t wait to see how creative the table top designers will be,” said RHA Howell marketing director and events planner Debbie Valentine. “And we hope those who come to see the results will be inspired to get creative with their own table tops back home for the holidays.”

For their entry fee, participating designers and businesses will receive advertisements in the “Put It on the Table” program, two tickets to the event, their companies’ names in RHA Howell press releases, and a link to their businesses on the RHA Howell website. The event will also have its own Facebook page and Twitter account. The deadline for entering the competition is September 15.

“Put it on the Table” will be held at St. Peters Catholic Church at 2700 East 4^th Street in Greenville, NC. Tickets to the event are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. Limited advance tickets will be available from the website at www.rhahowell.org.

Event sponsorships are also available from $250 (“Friends” level) to $2500 (VIP). Benefits for each level of sponsorship will be available soon on the RHA Howell website.

RHA Howell is a non-profit, statewide organization that has been serving children and adults with disabilities for nearly 40 years. Tar River is home to 30 children with complex medical needs who require round-the-clock medical care. The Greenville Group Homes provide care for12 adolescents with special needs.

For more information about RHA Howell Tar River contact Crystal Garman at 252-758-1101 or cgarman@rhanet.org.

For more information about Greenville Group Homes contact Jill Liles at 252-327-2063 or jliles@rhanet.org.

About RHA Howell, Inc.

RHA Howell is a not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) organization that has been helping people with disabilities and special needs, and their families, make choices to live more independently for nearly 40 years. Integrity, high standards for quality and hard work are at the core of every RHA Howell disability assistance program. Proven leaders in caring for people, RHA Howell, Inc. is a pioneering force in the field of human services, particularly supporting infants and children. For more information, go to www.rhahowell.org.

Kenneth Hobgood Architects Renovates, Enlarges A Classic Fifties Modern House

Categories: architecture, business, historic preservation, Interior Design, mid-century architecture, modern architecture, news, vintage
Comments (0)

Sensitive phased project respects the architectural integrity of the original residence.

July 13, 2011 (Raleigh, NC) – Kenneth E. Hobgood Architects in Raleigh recently

1950s photo of the northern elevation.

completed the renovation phase of an exemplary, mid-century modern house in Durham and is about to begin construction on phase two: a 1200-square-foot addition that will honor, without imitating, the original house.

When new owners and Duke University professors Mimi and Mark Hansen hired the firm to renovate and enlarge the 2337-square-foot house that architect Kenneth Scott, AIA, designed for Binford and John Carr in 1958, the design team immediately recognized the challenges they faced.

“We knew it was going to be difficult because of our respect for the original house,” said project architect Bob Thomas, AIA, a principal in the firm. “This was a renovation, not a restoration, so it needed to accommodate a family of five, including three young children, and lifestyle changes from the Fifties to today. So we had to strike a balance between opening up the space yet transforming the interior respectfully.”

As for the addition: “It was challenging, and interesting, to add onto a house we

CG rendering of the addition with the cantilevered office at night.

respect so much without mimicking, or repeating, what’s there,” said Kenneth Hobgood, FAIA, principal. “We knew the idea had to come from the existing house, in terms of materials, scale and siting. We also knew we had to be very careful since the new owners hope to have the house designated as an historic property.”

According to Thomas, the renovation involved preserving the fundamentals of the mid-century house – the carport and enclosed courtyard entry, the floor plan organization, the cruciform footprint, and the planar language of the house (interior spaces are defined by brick planes) — while enlarging the kitchen and bringing the house up to current building codes.

By relocating a staircase in the middle of the house that once led to the basement, the firm made the kitchen not only larger but literally the center of the house. This also allowed them to remove walls that made the kitchen an enclosed room and visually connect to it the rest of the living spaces as is more typical of modern residential design.

“Where we did intervene, we made it more of a true modern house,” Thomas noted.

The living room, a glass-fronted space that overlooks the rebuilt deck outside under the house’s deep roof overhangs, was touched very lightly, he said. “Other than cosmetic upgrades, the living room is perfect the way it is. We couldn’t do anything to make it better.”

The original house is organized so that living spaces are on the northern side of the east-west axis/circulation hall with bedrooms on the southern, street-facing side. A hallway/gallery leading to the bedrooms features a glass wall overlooking the courtyard.

The addition will continue this organizational plan, including a glass-fronted gallery. This gallery, however, will also be a 25-foot-long bridge between the old house and the new addition, following the original east-west axis and circulation pattern.

“We talked the owners into buying a portion of the lot next door so that we could leave some distance between the original house and the addition,” Thomas said. “The bridge keeps us from having to mimic the old house because it’s separate from the original, not grafted onto it. It takes its cues in plan and materials, for the most part, from Kenneth Scott’s design. Yet it will provide visual and physical clarity between the old and new.”

Along with the bridge, the addition will include a master bedroom suite, a guest room and another basement, as well as Mark Hansen’s 36-foot-long, 8-foot, 8-inches wide office that will be cantilevered off the addition’s northern elevation.

“The office is the only true departure from the planes and materials of the original,” Thomas said. “It will be a separate object that will float above the landscape in a cantilevered box, framed in dark, anodized metal that will form ‘blinders’ on the east and west, except for one slender, floor-to-ceiling window. The northern wall will be all glass with Mark’s desk built into it. The southern wall will be covered in bookshelves to accommodate Mark’s vast collection of books.”

Thomas expects the addition to take about a year to complete.

Bayleaf Buildings of Raleigh is serving as contractor for the project. Kaydos-Daniels is the structural engineer.

For more information on Kenneth Hobgood Architects, visit www.kennethhobgood.com.

About Kenneth E. Hobgood Architects:

Kenneth Hobgood, FAIA, founded Kenneth E Hobgood, Architects in Raleigh, NC, in 1992. Since then, the firm has received 39 design awards from the American Institute of Architects North Carolina chapter and its work has been published and exhibited in the United States, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, England and Germany. In 1997, Kenneth Hobgood as awarded the Kamphoefner Prize from North Carolina State University’s College of Design for “consistent integrity and devotion to the development of modern architecture” in North Carolina. He has served as a visiting critic at Auburn University, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, and the University of Kentucky, and as an adjunct professor at North Carolina State University since 1988. For more information, visit www.kennethhobgood.com.

Triangle Modernist Houses Hosts Tour of 1959 Carter Williams House

Categories: advertising, events, garden design, historic preservation, Interior Design, landscape architecture, mid-century architecture, modern architecture, non-profit
Comments (0)

“Blue Haven” will be open to the public for one day.

Inside the Carter Williams House

July 6, 2011 (Raleigh, NC) — The 1959 Carter Williams House Tour, designed by prolific Raleigh architect F. Carter Williams, FAIA, for his family, with landscape design by Dick Bell, FASLA, will be open for public touring on Saturday, July 23, from 10 a.m. until noon.

The tour of this classic mid-century modernist house, nicknamed “Blue Haven” for the distinctive “Carolina Blue Stone” used in its construction, is presented by the Triangle Modernist Houses and sponsored by Eidolon Design.

The two-level house is typical of mid-century modernist houses in many ways. Lower level floors are terrazzo and glass walls flood the spaces with natural light while opening the interior to the exterior. Upstairs, multi-columned stone construction visual divides the entrance hall from the great room beyond, where floor-to-ceiling glazing offers panoramic views of the landscape and forest beyond the house. Built-in casework throughout the house is walnut.

Current owner Jill Maurer has filled the Williams house with high-end mid-century

Entrance, showing landscape design by Dick Bell.

modern furnishings, including a Florence Knoll lounge, chairs and tables by Bertoia and Eero Saarinen, and an Isamu Noguchi coffee table. Her art collection, including abstract paintings by such North Carolina luminaries as Claude Howell and George Bireline, also complements the house’s architecture and ambiance.

Metro Magazine’s Diane Lea called the house “one of Raleigh’s acknowledged early Modernist jewels” in her feature on “Blue Haven” in November of 2010.

Over his 40-year span, Carter Williams and his firm designed more than 600 projects throughout the state. From 1939 to 1941, he was an assistant professor at the NCSU School of Design. The highest honor AIA North Carolina presents each year to an individual for a distinguished career or extraordinary accomplishments is named the

Rear elevation

F. Carter Williams Gold Medal.

In the study Post-World War II and Modern Architecture in Raleigh, North Carolina, author Ruth Little writes, “It is safe to say that Williams’ elegant understated modernism had a bigger impact on Raleigh architecture than any other architect in Raleigh from 1945 to 1965.”

The Carter Williams house is located at 6612 Rest Haven Drive. Tickets are $5.95 in advance until July 16 and $8 at the door. To purchase advance tickets and get directions to the house, go to http://trianglemodernisthouses.com/tour.

For more information on Triangle Modernist Houses, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.

About Triangle Modernist Houses

Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) is a 501C3 nonprofit established in 2007 to restoring and growing modernist architecture in the Triangle. The award-winning website, now the largest educational and historical archive for modernist residential design in America, continues to catalog, preserve, and advocate for North Carolina modernism. TMH also hosts popular modernist house tours several times a year, giving the public access to the Triangle’s most exciting residential architecture, past and present. These tours raise awareness and help preserve these “livable works of art” for future generations. Visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. TMH also has an active community on Facebook.

Cool Without AC: Dewees Island House Featured in Mother Earth News

Categories: architecture, environmentalism, environmentalist, green architecture, Interior Design, landscape architecture, modern architecture
Comments (0)

Vacation home by Whitney Powers, AIA, one of three projects selected.

May 24, 2011 (Charleston, SC) – A sustainable beach house on Dewees Island, SC,

The Yost House, designed by architect Whitney Powers, AIA

houses selected by Robyn Griggs Lawrence whose blog “Natural Home & Garden” is carried in Mother Earth News to demonstrate successful “passive cooling” without air conditioning.

“Over the years, I’ve been in enough naturally cooled homes—in brutally hot and humid climates—to know that passive cooling works,” Griggs Lawrence writes. She visited the house Powers designed for Rives and Walter Yost to experience the effect herself.

Powers’ two-level, 2700-square-foot Yost house features eight screened porches, an abundance of French doors and sash windows, high ceilings, and ceiling fans to facilitate natural ventilation.

“We didn’t come all the way from Pittsburgh to close the windows and doors,” Mrs. Yost told Griggs Lawrence.

A view from the kitchen through the living area and out to the porch and trees.

The ventilation system Powers designed pulls air in through the windows on the lower floors and up through the house to windows located beneath the gables. Reflective window coatings deflect the sun and reduce solar heat gain. Screened-in sleeping porches also provide naturally cool places to rest.

“The Yost house is designed for indoor/outdoor living, with porches on the front, back, and corners of the house that provide outdoor living space and permit windows and doors to be left open for constant access to island breezes and the sound of birds, rustling trees, and crashing waves,” the article states.

The article also spotlights a small co-housing unit in Carrboro, NC, by architect Giles Blunden, and an oceanfront home in Florida’s Upper Matecumbe Key by Jersey Devil Design/Build for their passive cooling systems.

Griggs Lawrence calls passive cooling “a fast-growing trend that’s not likely to go away soon.” To read the entire article, go to www.motherearthnews.com/natural-home-living/cool-without-ac-3-homes-in-the-south-prove-it-can-be-done.aspx.

For more information on Whitney Powers, AIA, and to see more of her sustainable residential designs, visit www.studioa-architecture.com.

About Whitney Powers, AIA:

Whitney Powers, AIA, LEED AP, founded Studio A, Inc. in downtown Charleston, SC, in 1989, as a full-service architectural firm that proposes that the responsibility of architecture is to cultivate a language of form that promotes a sustainable culture and landscape, and that touches the emotions of delight, surprise and wonder. From cutting-edge contemporary architecture to the preservation and restoration of historic homes, structures and sites, Studio A is committed to an interactive relationship between the natural and built environments, conservation of energy and natural resources, and an appreciation for a “sense of place” where living, working and playing are connected with the specific idiosyncrasies of culture, climate and natural landscape where they take place. For more information visit www.studioa-architecture.com.

Triangle Modernist Houses.com Debunks Modernist Houses Myths

Categories: architecture, green architecture, historic preservation, Interior Design, landscape architecture, mid-century architecture, modern architecture
Comments (0)

Founder/director George Smart counters “flat-roof” prejudice.

The Strickland-Ferris House by Frank Harmon, FAIA

May 12, 2011 (Durham, NC) – George Smart of Durham, NC, has spent the past four years working to document, preserve, and promote Modernist residential design through his award-winning website Triangle Modernist Houses.com. Modernist residential design typically features open plans, extensive use of glass to blur the line between outdoors and indoors, flat or low-pitched roofs, and aesthetic geometric forms.

The son of a Raleigh architect, Smart believes Modernist houses are “sculpture for living.” He is disturbed by the number of Modernist houses being destroyed in the wake of rising land values.

“The key,” said Smart, “is keeping these houses occupied and in the hands of appreciative owners, but there are several myths about Modernist houses that keep buyers away.”

Smart recently noted five primary myths about Modernist houses.

Myth #1: Modernist houses leak.

Reality: “Mid-century modern architecture often exceeded what materials science could support, creating houses with all sorts of problems, usually involving water and buckets,” Smart said. “By the time those problems were resolved, the word on the street was ‘don’t buy a flat-roofed house.’ Today, materials science is so advanced that you can build anything with confidence. Keep in mind that most of America’s office buildings have flat roofs. Like the brontosaurus, leaks in new construction are virtually extinct.”

Myth #2: Modernist houses are hard to sell.

The Smart-Stell House by Tonic Design

Reality: “This is true for any house larger than 3000 square feet or $600,000 in the current economy,” Smart said. “However, if a Modernist house is small, well-designed, kept in good condition, and features up-to-date kitchen and bathrooms, it should resell comparably to traditional homes. We do our best to publicize these houses to readers looking for Modernist houses.”

Myth #3: Modernist houses lower surrounding property values.

Reality: “Translated: This means your neighbors don’t share your design tastes,” Smart said. “Unless the house is falling down or you plan to paint it purple, your Modernist house will, if anything, raise property values.”

Myth #4: Modernist houses are cold and sterile.

The Crowder House by Thomas Crowder, AIA

Reality: “Modernist houses, like ice cream, come in many different flavors,” Smart said. “Some Modernist houses can feel intimidating, almost clinical. Others are warm and inviting. The use of color and texture and different building materials, especially woods, tend to warm up even the coolest geometries.”

Myth #5: Modernist houses are expensive, and getting an architect just pumps up the cost even more.

Reality: “Any contractor can build a nice house, but getting an architect often means getting a house you’ll dearly love,” Smart said. “Architects are trained to efficiently use 3D volumes, not just 2D square footage, in ways that can make a 2400-square-foot house live like a 3000-square-foot house. That can result in significant cost-savings, or more money for furnishings. And through green, sustainable design features, architects can reduce your gas, electric, and water costs.”

Triangle Modernist Houses.com features the largest archive of Modernist houses in America, including profiles of their architects. It also offers an exclusive, free listing of Modernist houses for sale or rent throughout North Carolina. For more information, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.

About Triangle Modernist Houses:

Triangle Modernist Houses Presents ModShop III

Categories: architecture, entertainment, events, historic preservation, Interior Design, leisure activity, mid-century architecture, modern architecture, non-profit, travel
Comments (0)

A Homes Tour + Shopping Day Trip to Charlotte

The 1960 Mann Residence designed by Alan Ingram.

April 12, 2011 (Durham, NC) – Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH), the award-winning nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting modernist residential design, has announced ModShop III, its third tour of modernist houses and shopping trip to Charlotte.

The popular day trip will take place Saturday, May 14, leaving from the Fast Park near the RDU Airport aboard a luxury, Internet-equipped tour bus at 7 a.m. and returning by 6:30 p.m.

For this particular trip, TMH’s ModShop III group will join Historic Charlotte, Inc.’s, Modernist Homes Tour that is being held on the same day. The TMH group will visit exceptional Charlotte Modernist houses from the 1950s and ‘60s as well as newer homes open exclusively for ModShop III participants.

The mid-century Levine Residence.

The tour will include the Lassiter Residence designed by A.G. Odell, the oldest modernist house in Charlotte, which will be torn down if a buyer doesn’t come forward by June. To see all six houses ModShop III will tour, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/ctour.

As with other ModShop trips, the day will conclude with a shopping excursion to Ikea, the international homes furnishings retailer featuring Scandinavian modern furniture and accessories. Purchases of any size can be accommodated in the luxury tour bus’s

The event will include shopping at Ikea.

stowage space.

“By joining the ModShop group, tour goers won’t have to worry about directions or parking to see the tour,” said TMH founder and director George Smart. “Our bus will take us to each house, and to Ikea. And we’ll be doing our part to reduce the tour’s carbon footprint by going together on the bus.”

Bagels and coffee will be served at the point of departure and a catered lunch will be provided on the bus during the tour.

Admission to ModShop III is by advanced ticket purchase only. No tickets will be sold on the day of the tour. Tickets are $79, including transportation, breakfast and lunch. For all the details of the trip and to reserve tickets, go to www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/ctour.

About Triangle Modernist Houses:

Triangle Architecture Fans Head “Downeast”

Categories: architecture, environmentalism, events, green architecture, historic preservation, Interior Design, mid-century architecture, modern architecture, news, non-profit, travel
Comments (0)

Spotlighting three Modernist houses in Rocky Mount and Greenville, NC.

The 1952 Dowd residence in Rocky Mount

February 15, 2011 (DURHAM, NC) – Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) will host its first “Downeast Modernist Tour” of three houses in Rocky Mount and Greenville, NC, on Saturday, March 12. The tour is open to the public with advance reservations through the TMH website.

“When most people in the Triangle area think ‘modernist houses,’ they don’t realize that there are some true gems in Rocky Mount and Greenville,” said George Smart, TMH founder and director. “They’ll change their minds after they see these gorgeous homes.”

The Downeast Modernist Tour will take participants to the 1952 Jesse Dowd residence designed by George Harrell. According to Smart, the Dowd house is “the finest surviving example of mid-century Modernism in Rocky Mount.” Harrell grew up in Rocky Mount and went on to a very successful architecture career in Texas.

The 1962 Yenne/Hammer residence in Rocky Mount

The tour will also stop at the 1962 Matthew and Edna Yenney residence in Rocky Mount, designed by John L. Thompson. Current owners John and Megan Hammer have since renovated the house extensively, including adding a 1500-square-foot guesthouse.

In neighboring Greenville, the tour will visit a much newer Modernist house: the 2009 Bobby and Kristi Walters residence designed and built by Tonic Design + Tonic Construction. Within the sleek modern structure, the 4042-square-foot house includes environmentally sustainable features, such as photovoltaic technology for generating electricity, solar hot water, and a geothermal heating and air conditioning system.

Vinny Petrarca, president of Tonic Construction and a partner in Tonic Design, and architect Robby Johnson, AIA, who served as project manager for Tonic on the Walters house, will come along for the tour as special guests and to answer questions about the design and construction of the house. (Johnson is now with Clearscapes Architecture.)

The 2009 Walters residence in Greenville.

As an added bonus, the group will stop at Smith’s Red & White Grocery in Rocky Mount on the way home for authentic North Carolina barbecue, sausage and other pork products.

The tour will depart RDU’s FastPark on a luxury internet-equipped bus at 9 a.m. on March 12 and return by 3:45 p.m. Tickets are $49. Architects can receive self-reported continuing education credit if arranged in advance with the American Institute of Architects.

For more information on the tour, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/downeast.htm.

For more information on TMH, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.

About Triangle Modernist Houses:

Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) is an award-winning, 501C3 nonprofit established in 2007 to archive, preserve, and promote modernist residential architecture from the 1950s to new construction. The TMH website, now the largest educational and historical archive for modernist residential design in America, continues to catalog, preserve, and advocate for North Carolina modernism. TMH also hosts popular modernist house tours several times a year, giving the public access to the Triangle’s most exciting residential architecture, past and present. These tours raise awareness and help preserve these “livable works of art” for future generations. Visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.

Charleston Architect Serves on Custom Home Design Awards Jury

Categories: architecture, business, furniture, garden design, green architecture, Interior Design, luxury living, modern architecture, news, people
Comments (0)

Studio A’s Whitney Powers helps select the nation’s best custom-designed

Whitney Powers, AIA, LEED AP, principal of Studio A Architecture in Charleston, SC

houses.

February 10, 2011 (CHARLESTON, SC) – Whitney Powers, AIA, founder and principal of Studio A Architecture in Charleston, flew to Washington, DC, late last month to serve on the jury for the 2011 Custom Home Design Awards program, sponsored by Custom Home Magazine.

The judging took place on Wednesday, January 26, in the downtown Washington offices of Hanley Wood LLC. Hanley Wood publishes Residential Architect magazine as well as Custom Home and Custom Home Outdoors. The jury made its selections independent of the magazine’s editorial staff.

An experienced design awards juror, Powers is an award-winning architect and LEED AP professional whose own work includes a variety of historic restorations and modern, sustainable residences, including the Dewees Island vacation home that was featured on HGTV’s “Extreme Living” show. She was named one of Charleston’s “Most Influential Home & Design Professionals” by Charleston Home & Design magazine in 2010 and one of the 40 most outstanding U.S. architects under the age of 40 in 1995.

The Custom Home Design Awards program accepted entries in 10 different categories from custom home-builders, remodelers, architects, designers, and other industry professionals. The jurors also chose a Best Residential Project of the Year from among the Grand Award-winning built entries. The winning entries will be featured in the May 2011 edition of Custom Home and presented at an awards dinner held concurrent with the American Institute of Architects National Convention in New Orleans in May of 2011.

Joining Whitney Powers on the jury were John Murphey, AIA, of Meditch Murphey Architects, Chevy Chase, Maryland; Matt Risinger, of Risinger Homes, Austin, Texas; and Ken Vona, of Kenneth Vona Construction, Waltham, Massachusetts. The group met for a Hanley Wood-sponsored Judges Dinner at The Jefferson Hotel the night before the jury officially convened.

“It was a wonderful experience,” Powers said. “I really enjoyed the camaraderie of the jury and I believe the winners are really the best of the best in the custom-home category.”

For more information on the Custom Home Design Awards, go to www.customhomeoneline.com.

For more information on Whitney Powers, visit www.studioa-architecture.com.

About Whitney Powers, AIA:

Triangle Modernist Houses Launches Second Frank Lloyd Wright Tour

Categories: architecture, historic preservation, Interior Design, mid-century architecture, modern architecture, non-profit
Comments (0)

Frank Lloyd Wright's world-famous Fallingwater house, commission by the Kaufman family.

Architecture fans’ weekend trip includes Wrights’ Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob

January 25, 2011 (DURHAM, NC) – Responding to demand to repeat last year’s Frank Lloyd Wright / Fallingwater Architecture Tour, Triangle Modernist Houses and director George Smart have offered another weekend excursion for architecture enthusiasts: a trip to Frank Lloyd Wright’s world-famous Pennsylvania houses on April 23 and 24.

The tour’s highlight, according to most of the 27 people who participated last year, will be the Sunset Tour and private reception on Fallingwater’s famous Bridge. The Bridge overlooks the waterfall that inspired the name of the house originally commissioned by the Kaufmann family of Pittsburgh.

“There is no photograph, or video, or even a 3D model that does Fallingwater justice,” wrote one member of last year’s group at the TMH website. “You just have to be there. It is one of the most incredible places I have ever been. And the special reception they gave for us at sunset was a delightful ending to one of the world’s most storied houses.”

Once again, the tour will visit Wright’s nearby Kentuck Knob house and sculpture garden, which is still privately owned, and Robert Venturi’s dramatic Betty and Irving Abrams house with its ship’s wheel-inspired façade in Pittsburgh.

Tickets include round-trip direct air to Pittsburgh, private bus transportation while there, catered lunches, overnight hotel accommodations, and tour admissions. Architects receive self-reported CEU hours if arranged in advance with the AIA. Proceeds benefit TMH’s ongoing documentation, preservation, and promotion projects.

The TMH Frank Lloyd Wright / Fallingwater Tour marks the sixth Modernist architecture trip organized by Triangle Modernist Houses. Previous tours included New York City, Charlotte, Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C.

For all details, including schedule and pricing, go to www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/flw.htm. At the time of this release, there were only nine seats available.

For more information on Triangle Modernist Houses, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.

About Triangle Modernist Houses

Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) is a 501C3 nonprofit established in 2007 to restoring and growing Modernist architecture in the Triangle. The award-winning website, now the largest educational and historical archive for Modernist residential design in America, continues to catalog, preserve, and advocate for North Carolina Modernism. TMH also hosts popular Modernist house tours several times a year, giving the public access to the Triangle’s most exciting residential architecture, past and present. These tours raise awareness and help preserve these “works of art” for future generations. Visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. TMH also has an active community on Facebook.

Archive for: Interior Design