Sunlight streams into the ground level of a Spout Run home and accents a single wall of color – all made possible by a David Jameson transformation.
Jameson, principal of David Jameson Architect Inc., took a traditional 1970s floor plan bound by partitioning walls that separated spaces and distilled it into a wide-open design where ground, mid, and top level floors are woven together in a continuous spatial flow.
Winner of the 2007 American Institute of Architects Northern Virginia Chapter’s Residential Architecture Award of Excellence, the home presented multiple challenges at first, especially when it came to its topography. Situated on a bluff overlooking a Spout Run ravine and the Potomac River, the Arlington residence kept its footprint, but little else.
Adding the Interest
The owners not only wanted more space, but also interesting spaces, Jameson says. “When I first saw the house, there was too much going on,” he says. “I wanted to find a way to erase some of that and create more unified spaces – to conceptually reinvent the house.”
Jameson eliminated multiple rooflines and incorporated a planar roof with clerestory windows. Heavy, thick stucco walls conceptually anchor the project into the site. He says, “There’s not much new square footage, but the house feels so much more open. The spaces are better proportioned than before.” It’s all about reinventing and reconfiguring.
Outside, Jameson added an outdoor terrace with hot tub and skylight above the garage, a metal deck off the kitchen, and a concrete patio at grade level. “We call the upper level deck the storm porch because during a rain storm, you feel at one with nature and are enveloped by the house itself,” the architect says.
Spaces as Art
To begin, Jameson envisioned the landscape at one with the house. “Before, there was little connection to the site,” Jameson says. He proposed making incisions into the floor plates, opening the home to the terrace and adding an entry bridge overlooking multistory spaces. In total, he designed three levels of living.
A lone Venetian plastered wall surrounds the ground level fireplace in the main living area. “It creates a single source of color … the idea was to add a focal wall that anchored the spaces together,” Jameson says.
“I believe in modernism as a way of life,” Jameson adds. “Architecture can become like living in a piece of habitable art.” Jameson says one should curate the environment with furniture, instead of having furniture overflow within the space.
To achieve this here, the owners were open to Jameson’s suggestions, including placing iconic chairs by Hans J. Wegner within the house. Furnishing sparingly enhances the quiet nature of the interior spaces.
While the design is dramatic, Jameson describes the home as a serene place. “The natural light that paints the house at all times is very calming,” he says. The family’s lifestyle then activates the living areas.
Order is Serenity
If there are common threads in Jameson’s body of award-winning work, they would be his consistent ability to paint with light and elevate a project beyond just a place to live. “The fact that the clients get engaged in the pursuit of architecture is crucial,” he adds. For this redesign, you can’t tell how big or small the house is, he says. He broke down the scale of the house and the clients embraced his ideas.
“I strive to go far beyond a home as a place to eat or sleep. Architecture has a way of touching one’s mind and soul,” he says.
Jameson often hears from clients that they don’t want to clutter the spaces he has designed so they use minimal furnishings. “It’s a reductive quality of living … you don’t have to have too many things in a room,” he says. Order equals serenity in this David Jameson-designed home.
