(Chatham County, NC) — Perched above a rocky knoll overlooking the Haw River in Pittsboro, the Matsumoto Prize-winning, net-zero Haw River House in Chatham County will be open for public touring on Saturday, May 3, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
This special tour has been organized by George Smart, CEO of NCModernist, the nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and documenting modernist houses from the mid-century to today. Smart calls the house’s location at 196 Paces Mill Road in Chatham County “one of the most extraordinary sites in central North Carolina.”
Designed by Blueplate PR client, Chapel Hill architect Arielle Condoret Schechter, AIA — who is listed on Forbes Magazine’s “Top 200 Residential Architects in America” for 2025 — the 2600-square-foot house embodies net-zero performance (meaning it creates as much energy as it uses). Among the features creating such high performance for a residential design are a 22.5 KW PV rooftop solar array, geothermal heating and cooling, triple-glazed European passive-house windows and doors, an Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) for an extremely tight house, and one of the state’s most advanced water catchment systems with a butterfly roof to collect all the rainwater that falls on it and funnel it into dual 5000-gallon above-ground cisterns.
Along with environmental sustainability, Schechter designed the house to be perfectly at home within its harsh, wooded site. In form, footprint, and materials, it defers to the towering deciduous trees and evergreens that rise among craggy rocks and boulders along the riverbank. The architect was inspired by the trees that are bent and floating out over the riverbank, she says, and she echoed these forms by floating the house out over the knoll toward the western view of the river.
“But the most important green feature of all is livability,” Schechter says, noting the open, flowing floor plan, abundant windows for cross ventilation, and bright, daylit spaces “to enhance the owners’ enjoyment of life on the river.”
Three major exterior elements extend the living space toward the river view among the trees: a cantilevered screen porch, a deck off the house’s main volume, and a private cantilevered deck off the main bedroom.
The Haw River House is currently on the market for $4.2 million.
Tickets to the one-day-only tour are $14.95 per person with timed entry and $24.95 VIP “anytime” tickets. To purchase tickets and see the tour’s fine print, go to ncmodernist.org/trickle. Scroll down past the photographs.
Smart expects the tour to sell out quickly, so he recommends anyone interested reserve tickets right away.
- For more information on the house on the architect’s website, click here.
- For a critique of the Haw River House, read Architects + Artisans, March 21, 2025.
- For more information on NCModernist, click here.
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