“This low-energy farmhouse is a net zero architectural re-set for a Californian client, an East Coast relocation for a more engaged and low-key lifestyle”
Photos by Tzu Chen Photography.
By Jonathan Bell
North Carolina, where this low-energy farmhouse is located, is a long way from California; but that was the scope of the move made by Arielle Schechter’s client when they decided on a wholesale change in outlook and lifestyle. The chosen site for [this] Net Zero Farmhouse was ideal for agricultural use, bordering a small creek. The surrounding land is a mix of native grass meadow and woodland, with unspoilt views in every direction. READ MORE
Designers/owners fuse authentic historic charm with modern interior architecture to create a multi-family residence befitting its cool community.
Rendering of the restored bungalow by pod architecture + design: History is honored on the exterior……but inside, the vibe is thoroughly Modern with open floorplans, cathedral ceilings, high-efficiency appliances, and the warmth of natural wood.
PRESS RELEASE — At 818 Haywood Road in West Asheville, architect Doug Pierson, AIA, LEED AP, BD+C, and experiential designer Youn Choi have completely gutted the two-level, 1930s bungalow there. Now the husband-and-wife team behind the award-winning studio pod architecture + design (pod a+d) in Chapel Hill, is reorganizing, rebuilding, and repurposing the house to accommodate three thoroughly Modern apartments. They call it “Phase 1” of the old bungalow’s rebirth as the stylish Haywood Apartments.
“Phase 1 is about restoring a dilapidated 1930s house on Haywood Road to its original and historic exterior beauty,” Choi pointed out, “and creating modern interiors befitting this hip, up-and-coming neighborhood environment.”
Although the house is on-grade at the front, it becomes two stories at the rear where the slope of the property drops sharply, thus allowing space for three units inside. The largest will have 1275 square feet, the other two one-bedroom units approximately 760 square feet each.
The couple expects construction to be complete in May with tenants moving in by June. And they’re determined to keep to that schedule because Pierson and Choi are not only the architect and interior designers for this project. They’re also the owners, developers, and landscape architects.
From Venice Beach to the Great Smokies
Doug Pierson, Youn Choi
Before Pierson and Choi moved their family of four to Chapel Hill, their personal and professional home base was Los Angeles, California. In L.A., Pierson spent several years working with world-renowned modernist architect Frank Gehry, FAIA, then helped found the award-winning firm “(fer) studios” in Irvine.
Meanwhile, Youn Choi was gaining international recognition as a lead designer for Walt Disney Imagineering and as Design Director for Landmarks, Cityscapes, and Signage & Wayfinding at Selbert Perkins Design in L.A, where she led the environmental design team on such high-profile projects as the Dallas Cowboys Stadium and LAX Airport.
In Venice Beach, the couple designed an innovative and highly published three-level house for their family on a seemingly impossible 700-square-foot lot. After relocating to North Carolina, they kept it as a rental property for several years.
In 2018, the couple purchased another challenging lot in an old, established neighborhood in Carrboro, NC. There, they designed a new house for themselves with a unique modern form inspired by the complexities of their land. “Carrboro Hillside House,” as they call it, also inspired them to let go of their West Coast attachments and focus on living in their new home state. (The firm has projects, however, from coast to coast.) They sold their Venice Beach house and other property in California last year and invested instead in the NC mountains.
“The Most Expressive Neighborhood”
Why Asheville? “Because Asheville is the hub of Western North Carolina,” Pierson explained, “with vibrant art and cultural identities. And West Asheville is the most expressive and intriguing neighborhood in the city, filled with novel restaurants, retro-cool music venues, vintage clothing shops, and great murals.”
They chose the property and bungalow at 818 Haywood Road because “the most sustainable act we, as designers, can do is to keep an existing building and make it better, more energy efficient, more livable, and more amenable to local needs,” he said. “It was always our intention to refurbish and repurpose the house to fit the needs of the community better — where there happens to be a drastic shortage of one-bedroom apartments – and to make that spot along Haywood Road vibrant again.”
Rendering of the bedroom in a lower-level apartment featuring space-saving “barn doors.”
On the exterior, they’re repairing and maintaining the low-pitched gabled roof and the German lap wood siding “all of which is typical of the old bungalows on Haywood Road,” Choi noted. Inside, they’re juxtaposing the original exposed brick with Modern plywood-paneled “cathedral” ceilings and exposed structural steel elements.
C&L Home Improvement LLC of Knightdale, NC, and Suttles Construction Inc. of Henderson County, NC, are the builders for the transformation. Al Sartorelli of Al Sortorelli Real Estate in Asheville is the property manager.
Site Plan including Phase 2.
Urban Infill in Phase 2
Phase 2 of the partners’ West Asheville venture (date TBD) will be to develop and design a new 3500-square-foot, mixed-use “urban infill” building facing Haywood Road “as a contemporary compliment to the richly textured neighborhood,” Pierson said.
As owners and managers of the property, Pierson and Choi are working under the name “pod enterprises LLC.” Wearing that hat recently, they both smiled. “Right now,” Choi said, “we can’t wait to meet the future residents of the new Haywood Apartments.”
606 Transylvania Avenue, Raleigh, designed by NCSU professor and modernist master architect George Matsumoto. (Photo courtesy NCModernist.org)
PRESS RELEASE — The 1954 Midcentury Modern house at 606 Transylvania Avenue, Raleigh, designed by internationally renowned architect George Matsumoto for Bill and Betty Weber and once threatened with demolition, will begin its seven-mile journey to a new location on Saturday, January 20, at 6 a.m.
The destination: an empty lot on Delmont Street immediately next door to the Modern home of the Raleigh couple saving this architectural gem from demolition — Melinda and Andrew Knowles.
With a police escort yet several points along the route where power lines must be moved, the journey should take about three hours. The polemics surrounding the house have been churning for four months.
In September 2023, the Raleigh News & Observer reported that the people who purchased the property at 606 Transylvania Avenue for $1.8 million did so strictly for the land. They intended to raze the Matsumoto house and replace it with a much larger house. And the City approved the application for a demolition permit.
When the Knowles learned that the house was in imminent danger, they decided to approach the new property owner with a proposal: Instead of devoting the time and expense necessary to raze the house, why not let them move it onto the vacant lot beside their own home on Delmont Street? The Transylvania Avenue owners ultimately agreed.
According to George Smart, Executive Director of NCModernist and the Knowles’ consultant, the owners deeded the house to the Knowles with minimal fees. Then the Raleigh City Council approved a $250,000 loan for the Knowles to cover the expense of relocating the house. (The money comes from the Preservation Revolving Loan Fund the City established for this purpose.)
Exceptional from Inception
When the late Henry Kamphoefner became founding dean of North Carolina State University’s School (now College) of Design in Raleigh in 1948, he immediately began populating his faculty roster with architectural luminaries who would help him bring modernist design to the South. He encouraged them to build as well as teach — specifically, to design and build modernist houses throughout the area.
One of the stars of his elite faculty was the Japanese/American Modernist master George Matsumoto (1922-2016), who would receive over 30 design awards for residential projects during his 1948-1961 tenure at NC State. In 1956, the School of Design named the north wing addition to Brooks Hall, the “Matsumoto Wing.”
Matsumoto designed 606 Transylvania in 1954 both for and with his colleague, architect/homeowner Bill Weber. Shortly after completion, Architectural Record, the preeminent architecture design journal, gave the Raleigh house a five-page spread.
NCModernist’s prestigious design awards program for Modernist houses in North Carolina — the Matsumoto Prize — honors the man and the role he played in shaping Modernist architecture in the state.
For more information on George Matsumoto and his work, click here and here.
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Melinda and Andrew Knowles, and George Smart, will be available on moving day, January 20, for interviews.
THE REDDY-YU RESIDENCE NEARING COMPLETION. A LARGE SCREENED PORCH EXTENDS THE LIVING SPACE INTO THE OUTDOORS.
When transnational couple Satish Reddy (India) and Ping Yu (China) decided to relocate from California and Texas to Chapel Hill, NC, they dreamed of building their own custom-designed, net zero house to reduce their new home’s carbon footprint and environmental impact. To make this dream come true, they turned to Arielle Condoret Schechter, AIA, the award-winning, Chapel Hill-based architect whose residential design portfolio is defined by modern, net zero/net positive passive homes.
On Saturday, September 9, the recently completed Reddy-Yu Residence will be featured on the Fall 2023 Modapalooza Tour, the annual fall tour of modernist houses throughout the Triangle region organized by NCModernist, a North Carolina 501C3 nonprofit educational archive for the documentation, preservation, and promotion of Modernist houses from the mid-20th century to today.
THE REDDY-YU RESIDENCE, MAIN ENTRANCE, TWO-CAR GARAGE
Passive & Active Strategies: Like all of Schechter’s custom-designed net-zero houses, Reddy-Yu’s design is dependent upon various “passive” strategies, most notably a tight, leak-free building envelope, the barrier between indoors and outdoors encompassing the walls, windows, doors, and roof. Continuous high R-value insulation and triple-glazed, passive-house-suitable windows and exterior doors are vital elements of any net zero house, including this one.
The high-performance exterior walls are clad in gray fiber cement panels with wood accents providing warm visual and textural contrast.
A solar array on the butterfly roof and backup batteries in the garage supply the “active” technology needed to produce all the energy required to meet net zero status — to produce as much energy as the house uses.
Water conservation: Schechter also designed the house to collect rainwater for irrigating vegetable gardens the homeowners plan to install later this year.
Aromatic Kitchen Culture: “Satish and Ping are both gourmet cooks, so the kitchen is a room of great importance to them,” Schechter noted. “Their kitchen will produce multiple cuisines: Chinese, Indian, and more.”
Because the two often cook fragrant foods at very high temperatures, their architect needed to find a way to isolate the cooking aromas from the rest of the house. To that end, she made sure the kitchen could be completely closed off when necessary.
Passages: An abundance of windows and sliding glass doors provide a strong connectivity to the outdoors. On the northern elevation, a screened porch and deck structure, under the protection of a broad roof, extends the living space into the backyard.
Between the public spaces that Satish and Ping share with family and friends and the primary bedroom suite is a small “bridge” that provides a clear transition to their private “quiet zone.”
Arielle Schechter will be in the Reddy-Yu residence during the tour to speak with participants and answer any questions. For more information on the architect and her work, CLICK HERE
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According to George Smart, founder and CEO of NCModernist/USModernist, the 2023 Fall Modapalooza Tour is sold out. However, a waiting list is available by clicking HERE. For more information on the Tour, including photos of all seven houses included, CLICK HERE.
North Carolina’s highest honor for Modernist residential architecture.
First Prize in last year’s Matsumoto Prize Peoples Choice voting: The Hancock Residence in Winston-Salem by STITCH Design Shop, Winston-Salem.
June 19, 2023 (DURHAM, NC) — Public voting is now open at NCMHCOMPETITIONS.ORG to select the best modernist house among 19 submitted from across the state in the 2023 George Matsumoto Prize, the annual design awards program hosted by NCModernist and sponsored by Fitch Lumber / MARVIN.
Anyone, anywhere with an email address can vote (one vote per address) from now until July 5th at 5 p.m.
The Matsumoto Prize is this state’s highest honor exclusively for Modernist residential design. The houses entered must be in North Carolina, but the designers can be based anywhere. Public voting determines three “Peoples Choice” winners. A jury comprised of internationally recognized architects and related professionals also selects first, second, and third prize “Jury’s Choice” winners. And often they overlap.
NCModernist, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving, promoting, and documenting modernist residential designs from the mid-20th century to today, created the Matsumoto Prize in 2012. The name honors George Matsumoto, one of the founding faculty members of North Carolina State University’s College of Design who created some of North Carolina’s finest Modernist houses.
The 2023 houses range in size from modest to large and in locations from tiny Sylva, a mountain village southwest of Asheville, to Greensboro. All the designers/architects are NC-based this year.
Voters may view multiple photos, plans, and drawings of the houses by clicking on the names of the designers highlighted in blue on ncmhcompetitions.org. Instructions for voting are also on that page.
The winners will be announced at the 2023 Matsumoto Prize Awards Ceremony to be held Wednesday, July 26, 6-8 pm, at Leland Little Auctions, 620 Cornerstone Court, Hillsborough, NC
Hillside House, designed by pod architecture + design, in neighborhood context.
(CARRBORO, NC) – “Hillside House,” the modern, metal-clad home designed by architect Doug Pierson, AIA, and designer Youn Choi of pod architecture + design for their own family of four, received a prestigious Jury Award during the 2022 George Matsumoto Prize competition recognizing excellence in modernist residential design.
Leland Little Auctions in Hillsborough hosted this year’s awards ceremony on Thursday, July 28.
NC Modernist, a nationally acclaimed non-profit organization and website based and maintained in Durham, created the Matsumoto Prize in 2012 to honor modernist architect George Matsumoto, FAIA, one of the founding faculty members of North Carolina State University’s College of Design. The MatsumotoPrize is North Carolina’s highest honor exclusively for modernist residential architecture throughout the state.
Located on a wooded lot in an established neighborhood near downtown Carrboro, Hillside House is a long, slender, three-level home that directly responds to the natural terrain in form and plan. Its black metal exterior and a cantilevered corner as it zigzags up a steep hill decrease its impact on the landscape and natural hydrology.
Doug Pierson, Youn Choi
According to NC Modernist’s founder and director George Smart, the jurors appreciated the symbiosis between the architecture and the land. Yet they were most impressed by Pierson’s and Choi’s design decisions that, as parents, they knew would enhance daily life for their young-adult child with autism. As they explained in their awards submission:
“An ideal floor plan developed within the long, narrow form…[that] offers visible connectivity across the length and height of the house to facilitate communication. It also provides retreat spaces for privacy.”
Info, Video, Images & Plans
· Click here to view the video pod a+d created for the competition, narrated by Doug Pierson.
· Click here for more information on pod architecture + design, and here for information, photos, drawings, and plans for Hillside House.
· Click here to view all the modernist houses submitted for the Matsumoto Prize this year.
Go to ncmhcompetitions.org, scroll down a bit, and VOTE for this unique, modern, sustainable, custom-designed home in Carrboro, NC, where the land dictated the form and the family’s specific needs informed the plan. Thanks so much!
RENDERING OF FUTURE MILLER-McWEENEY HOUSE, NORTHSIDE
Calling the site for this project “one of the tightest little corners I’ve ever had to make something fit,” Chapel Hill architect Arielle Condoret Schechter, AIA, has designed a modern, sustainable home on a mountainside in Swannanoa, NC, a tiny township between Asheville and Black Mountain, NC.
Designed for P.J. Miller, a musician, and artist Katie McWeeney, the two-story, modern, thoroughly “green” house will hug the flat part of the couple’s cliff-side property and include three bedrooms, two baths, an open kitchen/dining/living core, two studios/workspaces, two carports, and abundant decking for outdoor living and connectivity between the indoors and outdoors.
Chief among Schechter’s inspirations for this design was the couple’s lament over never having enough kitchen, workspace, or studio space in previous homes. “We’re trying to remedy that in this house,” she said, accepting the challenge despite the restrictive size of the property’s buildable area.
RENDERING OF MILLER-McWEENEY HOUSE, SOUTHWEST ELEVATION
Actually, the site’s verticality helped her solve the studio/workspace problem. She’s tucked two studios beneath the living spaces, along with carports/loading zones on each end. The loading zones will create sightlines and open-air spaces within the entire volume, she pointed out, “and create the sort of positive-negative composition I like.”
Along with art and music, Miller and McSweeney enjoy cooking, baking, and hosting cooking classes. To enhance their passion, the Schechter-designed kitchen will provide a profusion of natural lighting along with an open, professionally planned interior.
Will the Miller-McWeeney home contribute to Schechter’s ever-expanding portfolio of net-zero residential designs?
“Yes, of course,” she said emphatically. “Our goal for all our houses is to be net-zero, net-positive or at the very least, net-zero-ready.” The latter means that the completed house will be wired and plumbed for solar panels to be installed in the future. “That, plus rooftop water collection for gardening should make this a very sustainable house for this great couple to enjoy.”
For more information on the architect and her work, visit acsarchitect.com.
pod architecture + design’s “Hillside House” gets national press.
Abundant glazing provides views of the wooded site from every room. (Photo by Allen Weiss)
by Christopher Brinkerhoff, Associate Editor
Zig zagging down a hillside in Carrboro, N.C., a black-clad house blends into a wooded site. The home is the vision of partners and design duo Douglas Pierson and Youn Choi, pod architecture + design PLLC, Chapel Hill, N.C.
The house comprises three forms that are connected. At their simplest, they are rectangles that connect to form a Z pattern, descending the slope of the hill toward a creek.
Corrugated metal panels give texture to the lengthy façades that are punctured by horizontal windows, which emphasize their length. To keep the lines clean, the architects specified limited trim.
Two Appearances
The home blends in with other houses in the neighborhood in terms of size and scale, but because of the slope, the two lower forms disappear from the street view. The buildable area on the hillside site was limited to a triangular, northeast corner of the site. Instead of facing the streetside to the east, the house faces the creek bed to the southwest. READ MORE
North Carolina is one of the most popular states to live in the country. The “Triangle” region of the state, which includes Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, provides visitors and residents with a myriad of reasons to enjoy the state…
For those considering relocating to the region and those seeking to upgrade their North Carolina homes, the best residential architects are necessary.
The [HBD list] showcases the best residential architects in North Carolina. These firms were selected based on their experiences in residential designs, awards won, years in the industry, and media coverage, and they are the best in the industry. (Click here to see the entire list.)…
…Arielle Condoret Schechter, AIA, Architect
A fine example of the firm’s accomplished projects is Wolf-Huang Residence on Lake Orange, NC. Photo by Tzu Chen
What separates multi-award-winning firm Arielle Condoret Schechter, Architect, from the other architects is a clear understanding of how each project is about more than designing an exceptional space. Each project has the capacity to enhance people’s lives and lifestyles, and this small firm is dedicated to doing exactly that. READ MORE
Client News and Media Recognition 