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Award-winning two-level addition redefines a home's facade

FAIRFAX COUNTY TIMES MAY 7, 2009

Greater than the sum of its parts

Award-winning two-level addition redefines a home's facade

By John Byro bytdmaix comcastnei

Changes were imminent when Mike Martin bought his two-story contemporary on five acres' in Great Falls nearly 20 years ago. The house had many features that won his heart and an enviable loca­tion. But some of the bed­rooms in the 5,400-square-foot home were too small; so, too, were the closets and mas­ter bath. And, above all, the house itself lacked the much-desired "curb appeal."

After a few years of occupancy, Martin decided to uild a two-level addition. The homeowner followed proffered advice to a T, but not long after the addition was completed, Martin's old misgivings recurred. The 600-square-foot wing hadn't improved the situation.

"Essentially, the contrac­tor created ah addition in a contemporary wood-clad style, which he attached to the original nondescript brick box," Martin said. "The prob­lem was the front door faced west, and the street view is from the south. Ascending the drive, you were looking at a side elevation that simply had no cohesive style."

Moreover, Martin still hadn't gotten the family-use program he wanted, which now included a dramatic entrance and foyer, an upgraded kitchen, a home office, a larger master bath, an upstairs laundry, a largeguest suite, a two-car garage and substantial interior upgrades.

Reflecting on long-fore­stalled plans to shift the home's front elevation, Martin acknowledges that his unsatisfactory experience made him wary. As his ideas for a second addition devel­oped, in fact, he solicited feedback from both an archi­tect and a builder, yet took no action.

"1 had stockpiled a lot of ideas, but I was intent on finding professionals ... who would allow me to be in the middle of things," he said.

It was at this juncture that he learned about Michael Nash Kitchens and Homes.

"They proposed a concep­tual oudine that nailed down the cost range, yet allowed me to make transparent line-item decisions as the project moved forward," he said.

Finding their footing

Martin's list of new and enlarged rooms called for a 2,000-square-foot addition, which he wanted to site on the existing structure's south side as a component in the home's new facade.

Complications showed up early. While previous studies had'suggested that the addi­tion would require a three- to four-foot foundation, as the project matured, Fairfax County determined that the proposed depth was inade­quate. In fact, the excavation eventually reached 15 feet below grade — a significant increase in required opera­tion costs.

"None of us expected the soils compaction problem," Martin said.

Further studies revealed the need to firm up the grade on the structure's south side to accommodate a new drive­way. A well had to be relocat­ed from the front of the house to the rear. Structural sup­ports and changes to utility lines were required.

The art of the facade

Beyond site planning, the proposed addition's foremost consideration was architec­tural: how to present the home's new multilevel block within a balanced and well-articulated new facade. 

Out of the gate, Shawn Nazemian, designer at Michael Nash, proposed changing the old addition's cladding from wood to brick. Martin had envisioned a front entrance tower as the facade's defining component; Naze­mian suggested introducing blue quarry stone that had been used in the earlier addi­tion to vary the color scheme. Stone, thus, became the defining feature of both the tower and an architecturally sympathetic stairway further down the slope.

Nazemian also designed the new facade's roof slopes, recommending that the symmetry would be improved by bringing the tower forward. This led to a decision to incorporate two porches with pillars on either side of the tower as a unifying element.

Independent architects who have assessed the recent Contractor of the Year award finalist extol the new facade since it scales down the mass of the new front elevation, preventing it from seeming too monolithic.

"The idea is to give a view­er interesting, architecturally varied components,'

Nazemian said. 'The eye lingers because there are compelling constituent parts' within a balanced whole."

Since the redesigned facade necessarily impacted the interior design, assign­ing alternate purposes to old walls inspired a whole series of innovative solutions.

The former west-facing brick wall, for instance, was incorporated into a spacious foyer that unfolds as a pro­cession as one enters the new front door under the central tower. Referencing the brick's textures, the foyer flooring consists of multi-hued flagstone panels. The large Palladian window in the tower at the entrance invites natural light and draws the eye upwards. At the opposite end of the cor­ridor, a museum-sized piece of Indonesian driftwood draws attention forward.

Recessed lights and peri­odic objects d'arte complete the appealing gallery-like ambiance. To the left, through a pair of doors, one enters Martin's home office and library; on the right, the old front door and double-hung windows have been converted into generous archways accessing, respec­tively, the living room and a hallway that leads back to the dining room and new kitchen. A west-facing two-car garage (behind the office) is accessible through a door that parallels the archway. The addition's second floor accommodates a guest suite, the laundry and a substantially enlarged master bathroom suite.

"Overall, the addition is a seamless complement to the old house, with a very func­tional first-level floorplan," Martin said.

Reconfigured and upgraded

If the addition accommo­dates activities that previ­ously had no dedicated rooms, it's the clever recon­figuration of existing space that lifts the house into the realm of luxury living. Co-opting a portion of the new addition, the Michael Nash plan allocates 270 square feet for a master bathroom suite immediately adjacent to the existing owner's quarters while converting the former bathroom to walk-in closets.

Fundamentally, the mas­ter bathroom is a luxury spa in every sense. A whirlpool bath on a raised ceramic dais is neatly tucked under a front window. A large glass shower complete with L-shaped Tuscan marble seats provides a perfect chamber for relaxing after a steamy bath. Marbleized porcelain floor tiling in diagonal pat­terns emphasizes the room's spaciousness while confer­ring unity.

"The interior design real­ly went very quickly," Martin said. The new gourmet kitchen is finished in an elegant Craftsman-style interior. Dark cherry cabinet facings in conjunction with Brazilian Verde Marinace marble surfaces lend tonal and textural contrast. Diagonally arranged mosaic backsplashes, interspersed with copper tiles embossed with a floral motif, add visual rhythm.

A dual-purpose island provides a cook's sink, dish­washer and food prepara­tion area while a slightly lower lunch counter spares diners a too-close view of the clean-up.

In all, a pleasant place to call home.

Home & Design "Front & Center"-Michael Nash Design, Build and Homes

Home & Design March/April 2011

Born and bred in Alabama, Gina Jones is drawn to the stately demeanor of many traditional Southern homes. When she and her husband, Dennis Porter, purchased their Oakton, Virginia, house, however, it was sorely lacking in stateliness. "The house had great bones but not much personality," Jones recalls. One of a row of model homes belonging to an adjacent development, it was positioned sideways on its one-acre lot, without a formal front entrance. After living in the house for some years, Jones, an Internet publisher, and Porter, an Air Force officer, were ready to renovate.
They tapped Sonny Nazemian of Michael Nash Custom Kitchens & Homes, Inc., for the job, which originally entailed pushing out the back of the house to get extra space. "I drew up plans," Nazemian says, "but none of it satisfied what Gina really wanted. When we sug­gested adding onto the front instead, it all fell into place."

Jones had long been frustrated by her home's uninspired front facade. "I wanted a Southern, antebellum look like what I grew up with," she says. She requested a two-level porch, and once Nazemian and his team re-oriented the entry to the front and painted the HardiePlank siding a vivid, inviting blue, the gracious, Southern-style home Jones had always wanted began to emerge.
Inside, the two-story addition includes a spacious foyer that has been embellished with wide crown molding and pillars to commu­nicate traditional elegance. The foyer opens seamlessly into an open-plan living room/dining room that is more contemporary in style, and injects a welcome formality to the rest of the house.
Adjacent to the foyer, Nazemian added a guest suite with a private entrance and a Brazilian slate-tiled bath that boasts granite countertops and cherry cabinetry. This convenient guest suite is intended to accommodate long-term visits from Jones's aging parents.

The transformation of the front facade took the house from non-descript (center and above) to inviting yet grand (top). From the newly constructed foyer (opposite), the open-plan living and dining rooms beckon.






RENOVATION DESIGN/BUILD: SONNY NAZEMIAN, CID, CR, CKBR, Michael Nash Design Build & Homes, Inc. Fairfax, Virginia.

The brightly hued foyer (right) instills the home with a sense of formality and elegance; It opens into the adjacent guest suite. The spacious master bedroom (top) includes access to the second-floor porch and a gas fireplace that Nazemian built Into the comer (opposite, bottom). The adjoining master bath (opposite, top) includes a soaking tub (opposite, center) with a structured porcelain tile surround.


Upstairs, a new master bedroom suite more than doubled the size of the old one, and includes a roomy walk-in closet that borrowed space from the bedroom next door (which belongs to Jones's college-age daughter). The master suite opens out onto the upstairs porch, where an expansive view of the wooded property stretches ahead. In a corner of the room. Nazemian installed a gas fireplace, elevating it so that the cou­ple would be able to see it from their bed. Elaborate cornices and swags, fabricated by Nazemian's staff of interior designers, adorn the windows.

The master bath includes a double vanity and soaking tub, a walk-in shower with one hand-held and two attached showerheads, and heated floors and towel racks. Nazemian chose structured porcelain, which has a textured, rugged look, for the floors and shower and tub surrounds, along with cherry cabinets and granite countertops. Warm, cream-colored walls give the space a restful, inviting air.

Nazemian updated the home's interiors throughout by replac­ing standard oak floors on the ground floor and wall-to-wall car­peting on the stairway and second floor with richly stained Brazil­ian cherry wood. He removed a half-wall that had separated the living room area from what was formerly the entryway to impart a sense of openness, and clad wood pillars in wainscoting to formal­ize the living room space.

According to Nazemian, the main goal of the project was to cre­ate an addition that would seamlessly blend the new and existing sections of the house. "Nobody should feel that this was added," he says, pointing to the exterior expanse that now constitutes the front of the house.

In fact, this was easier said than done. "Changing the elevation and adding the porch were the most challenging aspects," Nazemian recalls. "Grading was extremely difficult because of the sloped front yard and trees. The foundation had to be deeper than we originally thought."

The results of his firm's labors have been well worth it: The proj­ect just received a 2010 Contractor of the Year Award. Meanwhile, Jones and her husband are thrilled with their transformed space. "It gave me exactly what I wanted," Jones says. "It has been enjoyed and lived in.

Photographer June Stanich is based in Fairfax, Virginia.