A certain brick building on a corner in Alexandria, VA, features two walls of huge storefront windows. At first, it’s not clear whether this is a commercial or residential space. A quick glance inside from the street reveals a stylish Italian kitchen. A longer glance reveals an eclectically modern setting. A lingering glance reveals a very cool space.
As it turns out, what had been a penny candy and dry goods store for more than half a century, then an antique shop, and most recently an art gallery, is now home to April Burke and Dick Flynt, two empty nesters who have five grown children between them.
“Once the kids were gone, we decided we wanted something in an urban setting,” says Flynt, 61, a partner at Roylance, Abrams, Berdo & Goodman LLP. The gallery had been vacant for three years before the couple walked in.
“It took us 10 seconds to decide to buy this,” says Burke, 56, president and founder of Lewis-Burke Associates LLC. The couple knew what they did and did not want. “I wanted something that didn’t involve Colonial wing chairs, dentil moulding, or chair railings,” Flynt says.
The biggest challenge of the space, which was basically a blank slate, was figuring out what to do with the nine expansive windows that are each 8 feet high and 46 inches wide. After persuading Mark McInturff, 60, principal of McInturff Architects, to transform the building from a commercial space into their home, he convinced the couple to keep the storefront windows.
Urban Interaction
“The thrill of this whole space and the urban/voyeur, anti-privacy thing was fun,” McInturff says. “I enjoyed playing with the unexpectedly high degree of transparency out of – and into – a residence that was essentially part of the streetscape, which is not a typical situation.” McInturff custom designed sliding shoji-style translucent screens that veil the windows, leaving about a foot open near the ceiling.
“I like to make the sidewalk sort of part of the house,” Flynt says. “April likes the screens closed and more private.”
McInturff says, “I love the idea that on a Sunday morning, Dick and April can throw the screens open and be fixing breakfast while people are walking by. It’s the whole voyeuristic thing. They fit in this house amazingly well. Dick opens the screens and April closes them.” He adds, “It’s a little bit like the old fashioned front porch. You sit on the front porch and people walk by. This porch happens to be inside the home.”
“The best part about the house is that it’s all one room. In our old, traditional house, we had rooms that never got used. There were so many different spaces to be in that it didn’t bring people together. We wanted a communal space,” Burke says. “The one downside of one big room is you can’t clutter it up.”
By contrast, the lower level, which is also one large open room, has no windows, but wonderful art, including posters and signs from the early 20th century that Burke has collected over many years. A huge sign of a hamburger on a bun, for instance, was found at a hamburger stand that was closing in Pittsburgh. As Flynt sums it up, “It’s a fun place to live.”
