Yikes!

"Scene" just outside of Gatlinburg. What were they thinking.

We had absolutely nothing to do with this-well, except I took the photo from the moving car!

Monteagle House

While we're waiting for photos of some of our "new" projects, we thought we would include a house that we worked on in 2003, but just visited again last weekend. This home is in Monteagle, Tennessee- which is between Nashville and Chattanooga.

Although the house has the feel of a "retreat", it is actually a year-round home that is designed to "connect" to the land in a very regional and responsible fashion. Board and batten siding, lap siding, metal and asphalt roofing, and local Monteagle stone contribute to the regional nature of the residence. The car-court is gravel as opposed to the usual poured concrete.

As one winds around the house, there are several different outdoor areas for different uses and seasons. This shady side courtyard is just a few steps from the car-court through a small breezeway that connects the garage and utility area. Apologies for the photographs- I blame a hazy, alternately sunny and then cloudy day, and my limited skill in photography!

As you continue around to the "back" of the house there are a collection of varied outdoor spaces: an angled screened porch that allows for views of nearly the entire back "yard", and a covered porch just off of the Living Room through a set of french doors.

Here are interior views of the kitchen, screened porch, and living room. Again the regionalism of the design carries from the exterior to the interior. All of the rooms on the main level have a close connection to the outdoors. The kitchen and the living room have windows to both the front of the house and the back allowing for a visual connection to the entire property. Peter Mollica was /is the builder. Elizabeth Hickman contributed greatly to all aspects of the design- but especially the interiors ( she also took the interior photographs ).

As usual, the real people behind most enjoyable ( and hopefully successful ) projects are the clients.

Center Hill Lake House- A Few Teaser Photographs

Here are some construction shots of a home in the Center Hill Lake area of Tennessee- about an hour east of Nashville. This home is now complete and we should have photos of the finished project very soon. It's a bit of a "modern lodge" structured with tree trunk columns and glulam beams and trusses.

This is the carport as seen from the screened porch ( yet to be screened in this view ). the carport also doubles as a covered dining/party area, and because of the way it is angled, has a great view of the lake- the same one as in the screened porch photo below.

This is the screened porch- looking toward the fireplace and the lake. A deck wraps around this porch, but is dropped a couple of feet so its railing won't get in the way of the view from here. The low surrounding wall still gives a hint of shelter and enclosure, and gives you a place to leave your beverages.

This is the living area as viewed from the kitchen, and shows the glulam trusses. The fireplace and television are toward the far end of this view, and a stair wraps around behind the fireplace.

All of the windows are aluminum storefront, and on the lake side of the house, the glass zig-zags around the tree trunk columns leaving some of them to the exterior and capturing others on the interior. Photos by Kevin Coffey

Brentwood Tennessee Custom Home (Updated)

This is a recently completed custom home in the Brentwood area of Tennessee. The development has a rural character- each house is to be designed in a rural vernacular style that compliments the original farm house and its stables and outbuildings.

This is the first preliminary sketch of the front elevation. As you can see from the picture below of the finished product, not too much changed from the original concept. Exterior wall surface materials are stone, painted Hardi-board, and stained cedar shingles. Asphalt shingles and Galvalume are used on the roofs.

I would include a plan, but believe it or not, "people" have been trying to copy it.....( why, I oughta!!!...). It's actually a very open, modern plan with the Dining Room being the only true "traditional" room.

This is the side / friends / every day entrance and car court. Stephanie Gilboy did the interior design and Rob Tallman was the general contractor and heavy equipment operator. Photos by Kevin Coffey.

Here are some photos of the rear terrace, pool development, covered back porch and screened-in porch. Photos by Don Burke.

RIP Prarie Avenue Bookstore

This was a great place. Sad to see it go. It is rare to find any store where every item seems to be there just for you- in this case the items are books and they are there for me because they are about every facet of architecture. I mean "were" there for me. The great Prairie Avenue Bookstore has met its demise.

The last time I was there a couple of years ago, I picked up a copy of the "New York Five" for $7.95 or so. Where else are you gonna find that? I also found some great out-of-print Phaidon "Architecture 3" books that I had been trying to find for years. My last purchases from Prairie Avenue were done from my office, on-line, the drawback being that their website could never achieve the feeling of being in the actual store, and didn't seem to try.

I was thinking about Prarie Avenue a couple of weeks ago when I was in a Barnes and Noble which had pretty much done away with their architecture "department" except for a few Frank Lloyd Wright books, maybe a copy of "The Not So Big House" and the "Field Guide to American Architecture". That's what was great about Prarie Avenue: they had those marketable books, but they also had books that were far from mainstream (which tend to be the ones I would most likely buy). RIP, and Amazon.com it is, I guess.