Eidolon Designs in Raleigh will once again host “Thirst4Architecture,” a networking event sponsored by North Carolina Modernist Houses (NCMH) and Emilie Huin of Triangle Modern Homes on Thursday, February 18, from 6-8 p.m. Free and open to the public, this month’s T4A event also includes Eidolon’s annual Oyster Roast.
T4A events are opportunities for architects, artists, building managers, contractors, engineers, furniture dealers, realtors, and anyone else interested in Modernist residential design to connect and create strategic alliances in a casual environment. The hosts provide refreshments and other entertainment while introducing T4A participants to their businesses.
Located at 414 Dupont Circle in Raleigh’s historic Boylan Heights neighborhood, Eidolon Designs handcrafts fine furniture, architectural millwork, doors, kitchen, bath, and office components, media integration pieces, and sculpture.
According to owners Ann Cowperthwaite and Mike Parker, who have supported NCMH events for many years, Eidolon team members “are artists and craftsmen, not manufacturers” and the company is “committed to environmental sustainability,” sourcing hardwoods from certified tree farms, sheet woods that are formaldehyde-free, and using only non-toxic finishes.
Those attending the February T4A can tour Eidolon’s workshop and speak with the owners and other Eidolon craftsmen while enjoying the annual oyster roast, soup, and other side dishes. For more information on Eidolon Designs visit eidolondesigns.com.
For more information on NCMH and the locations for future Thirst4Architecture events, visit www.ncmodernist.org.
About NC Modernist Houses:
North Carolina Modernist Houses (NCMH) is an award-winning, 501C3 nonprofit organizations established in 2007 and dedicated to documenting, preserving, and promoting Modernist residential design. The website is now the largest open digital archive for Modernist residential design in America. NCMH also hosts popular architecture events every month and frequent home tours, giving the public access to the most exciting residential architecture, past and present. These tours and events raise awareness and help preserve these “livable works of art” for future generations.
Standard Foods’ restaurant section designed by The Raleigh Architecture Co.
When Standard Foods opened in downtown Raleigh’s Person Street Plaza this fall, owners John Holmes and Scott Crawford finally revealed their vision for an all-locally sourced, farm-to-table grocery store and restaurant, both of which celebrate “the food, farmers, and artisanal production methods of our region,” according to the website.
Within the Plaza, a redevelopment project that includes Raleigh City Farm, Yellow Dog Bakery, and other locally owned businesses, something else happened. Standard Foods’ physical space revealed The Raleigh Architecture Company’s interpretation of a shopping and dining experience that is at-once modern, urban, and artisanal.
A few months earlier, while the project was still under construction, John Holmes told the Independent Weekly, “We want the design to reflect what we’re trying to do with the food.” With that in mind, he and Crawford turned to Craig Kerins, AIA, and Robby Johnston, AIA, of The Raleigh Architecture Co (RACo), a local firm well known for custom retail designs and quality craftsmanship.
“The challenge,” Kerins said, “was to create a design concept for the restaurant and bar that is reinforced by our selection of authentic and natural materials and honest detailing.”
Ted Van Dyke of New City Design served as architect of record for the project with RACo as design architect for the front-of-the-house (areas open to the public) and the exterior.
Standard Foods is a 3000-square-foot grocery store, butcher shop, and 80-seat restaurant. The restaurant side features a 26-seat communal table and a 16-seat bar.
Outside, weathered steel slats trace the upper edge of the one-story, matte-charcoal exterior and provide shading for large windows that frame views of the Raleigh City Farm 20 yards away. Eventually the slats will also support plantings to add more shade and elements of the farm to the façade.
Inside, market and restaurant spaces flow into each other and the matte-charcoal reappears on background walls that enhance natural sapele wood and slate wall panels in the market, and heart pine tables and chairs in the restaurant. Metal refrigeration cases gleam under energy-efficient lighting, and accents of marble and leather add upscale elements to the simple, natural materials.
Part handcrafted, part sophisticated, the total design creates a distinctive identity for Standard Foods. Yet the colors and textures of the food – in the market or served on the tables – are the main attractions.
To ensure a community-oriented shopping experience, the aisles in the grocery store area are tight, reminiscent of an urban bodega. The spacing creates an intimate experience with the products. Benches between aisles encourage shoppers to linger.
“Most of us view grocery shopping as a chore,” observed architect Robby Johnston. “Our goal was to make this grocery store an experience – to give shoppers a feeling that’s fresh and friendly with an immediate perception of value.”
Standard Foods is a joint venture between Holmes, the president of real estate firm Hobby Properties, and Crawford, the former chef of Herons at The Umstead in Cary and twice a James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef in the Southeast. The men call their partnership The Nash Hospitality Group. For more information, go to standard-foods.com.
The Raleigh Architecture Co. is frequently commissioned for urban up-fits in existing buildings in downtown Raleigh. A few of the partners’ completed projects include Arrow Haircuts and NuvoNivo on Hargett Street, Runologie and State of Beer on Hillsborough Street, Trophy Brewing Company on Maywood Avenue and Crank Arm Brewing Company on West Davie Street. For more information, visit www.raleigh-architecture.com.
About The Raleigh Architecture Company:
The Raleigh Architecture Company is an award-winning design-build firm specializing in Modern sustainable architecture and craftsman-quality construction. As licensed architects and general contractors, we consider designing and building to be one integrated process. This streamlined approach empowers the firm to meet clients’ economic expectations and to seamlessly execute high quality details, both small and large. The firm’s office and shop are located under one roof in downtown Raleigh’s Warehouse District at 502 S. West Street. For more information visit www.raleigh-architecture.com, call 919-831-2995, or email: info@raleigh-architecture.com.
Trig Modern, the only showroom and design service in downtown Raleigh that specializes in modern decor, has been hired to upgrade the lobby and the eight residential corridors in The Residents at Quorum Center, a luxury condominium building also in downtown Raleigh.
“An inviting lobby is the condo version of curb appeal and your first impression of a building,” said Trig Modern interior designer Ann Marie Baum. ”That’s especially important in high-end buildings. The Quorum’s lobby harkens back to a time of elegance and sophistication, and our design speaks to that. We want to emphasize the beauty of the Quorum’s tile floors and Venetian plaster walls by adding layers of texture and color.”
Baum proposed three different color palettes – teal, orange, and gray — that will ensure the modern elements she introduces are warm and inviting. The Quorum’s board will select one of them.
Each color “story,” as Baum calls them, involves replacing the wood-framed, Regency-style arm chairs in the lobby with either a pair of armless slipper chairs or a sleek, modern sofa in jewel-toned, patterned upholstery. She’ll complete the vignette with modern accent tables.
Each scheme also will replace the current console tables, lamps, and mirrors at the elevators – “which aren’t necessary,” Baum noted — with upholstered benches. She’ll upgrade the wall-to-wall carpet in the corridors with new striated carpet tiles that can be replaced easily if one of them is damaged or stained.
“And on every floor, above each bench, as well as in the lobby, I’ve recommended installing original works of art,” Baum said. “These pieces can be rotated among the floors and eventually rotated out of the Quorum so that new pieces can be brought in.” She will work with Kelly McChessney of Flanders Gallery in downtown Raleigh for the art rotation.
Baum also intends to remove all the artificial plants in the building and upgrade the lighting in the residents’ mail room.
Craig Kerins, AIA, and Robby Johnston, AIA, partners in The Raleigh Architecture Company (RACo) announce that Claire Craven has joined their firm as a project manager.
Claire Craven
Craven received her Bachelor of Architecture degree in 2012 from the University of Tennessee’s College of Architecture and Design, where she received a Faculty Design Award for the best design project of her graduating class. She also received an Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement (EURēCA) Award was a member of Tau Sigma Delta, the architecture honor society. She graduated Summa Cum Laude.
Craven worked with Gray Organschi Architecture, a design-build office in New Haven, CT, before relocating to Raleigh and joining The Raleigh Architecture Co.
Her skills range from drawing in all design phases to project and construction management. She is also fluent in French and an accomplished graphic designer.
In addition to design, Claire’s interests include teaching, traveling, and working with “off-the-shelf materials because everything can be beautiful if treated thoughtfully.”
The Raleigh Architecture Company (RACo) is a full-service design-build-fabrication firm with its offices and workshop under one roof in Raleigh’s warehouse district. For more information, visit www.raleigh-architecture.com.
About The Raleigh Architecture Company:
The Raleigh Architecture Company is an award-winning design-build firm specializing in Modern sustainable architecture, and craftsman-quality construction. As licensed architects and general contractors, we consider designing and building to be one integrated process. This streamlined approach empowers us to meet our clients’ economic expectations and to seamlessly execute high quality details, both small and large. Our office and shop are located under one roof in downtown Raleigh’s Warehouse District at 502 S. West Street. For more information visit www.raleigh-architecture.com, call 919-831-2995, or email: info@raleigh-architecture.com.
Free and open to the public, the event will be held at the firm’s offices in the Warehouse District at 502 South West Street, near the corner of West and Cabarrus streets. Food, beverages, and entertainment will be provided.
Emilie Huin, broker/owner of Triangle Modern Homes Real Estate LLC, a specialist in Modernist real estate throughout the Triangle, is the 2015 T4A series sponsor.
According to NCMH Executive Director George Smart, “T4A offers architects, artists, building managers, contractors, engineers, furniture dealers, realtors, and anyone else interested in Modernist residential design” the opportunity to connect and create strategic alliances in a casual fun environment.” As the host business, The Raleigh Architecture Co. will provide refreshments. NCMH will provide door prizes.
Johnston and Kerins founded The Raleigh Architecture Company in 2012. Since then, the young firm has completed 15 Modern residential projects and 15commercial projects, including retail up-fits within existing historic buildings from Raleigh to Asheville. Their very first projects, two side-by-side houses on Edenton Street, recently won an Honor Award from the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Their work has also been “People’s Choice” favorites in NCMH’s annual Matusumoto Prize for Modernist residential design. For more information visit www.raleigh-architecture.com.
For more information on NCMH and the Thirst4Architecture events, visit www.ncmodernist.org and click on “T4A Happy Hrs” under Events.
About NC Modernist Houses:
North Carolina Modernist Houses (NCMH) is an award-winning, 501C3 nonprofit organizations established in 2007 and dedicated to documenting, preserving, and promoting Modernist residential design. The website is now the largest open digital archive for Modernist residential design in America. NCMH also hosts popular architecture events every month and frequent home tours, giving the public access to the most exciting residential architecture, past and present. These tours and events raise awareness and help preserve these “livable works of art” for future generations. For more information: www.ncmodernist.org. Find NCMH on Facebook,Twitter, and Instagram.
Three new, modern, for-sale houses in east-central Raleigh.
Three new, modern, for-sale houses on Wynne Street in downtown Raleigh, designed by The Raleigh Architecture Co. (RACo), will be part of the “Modapalooza Tour” on Saturday, October 10, sponsored by North Carolina Modernist Houses, an award-winning non-profit organization dedicated to documenting, preserving, and promoting modernist residential design from the 1950s to today.
The annual “Modapalooza Tour” takes participants by bus to a selection of new and mid-century modernist houses around the Triangle area. The 10 houses on this year’s tour, however, are all “new,” dating from 2012 to 2015.
RACo partners Robby Johnston, AIA, and Craig Kerins, AIA, are working in collaboration with Monarch Properties to design and develop the Wynne Street houses, which are nearing completion, in an established inner-city neighborhood in east-central Raleigh.
Rising side-by-side on previously empty lots, the houses are two-story, 1805-square-foot structures with open living/dining/kitchen spaces, three bedrooms, and two-and-a-half baths. They feature open, double-height space on the first floors filled with natural light from an abundance of energy-efficient windows and skylights. The kitchens will have simple, modern European-style cabinetry systems.
Covered front porches on each house face out towards the neighborhood, while sliding glass doors and covered second-floor balconies provide private access to the backyard.
Each of the houses also features a host of structurally sound, energy-efficient elements to ensure their durability against decades of use and North Carolina-specific weather conditions.
One of the RACo partners will be on site for the sold-out tour to discuss the design concept and to answer questions. For more information on the houses, visit the development’s website www.liveonwynne.com.
The Raleigh Architecture Company is an award-winning design-build firm specializing in Modern sustainable architecture, and craftsman-quality construction. As licensed architects and general contractors, we consider designing and building to be one integrated process. This streamlined approach empowers us to meet our clients’ economic expectations and to seamlessly execute high quality details, both small and large. Our office and shop are located under one roof in downtown Raleigh’s Warehouse District at 502 S. West Street. For more information visit www.raleigh-architecture.com, call 919-831-2995, or email: info@raleigh-architecture.com.
An award-winning Modern home in Raleigh’s old “Hungry Neck” neighborhood, designed and built by The Raleigh Architecture Company (RACo), will be open to the public during the sixth Residential Tour sponsored by the Triangle Section of the American Institute of Architects’ North Carolina chapter (AIA Triangle). The tour will take place on Saturday, September 26, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
One of only seven residences selected for the 2015 tour, the Hungry Neck house received an AIA Triangle honor award for design excellence and construction quality this past spring.
“Honor awards are granted to projects that exemplify excellence of architectural design on all levels of analysis and are reserved for those projects that stand out,” said design jury chairman William Carpenter, FAIA, of Decatur, Georgia.
This house is actually one of a cluster of compact modern houses in the old neighborhood just east of downtown Raleigh. Designed by RACo partners Craig Kerins, AIA, and Robby Johnston, AIA, it perches on an infill lot overlooking a busy thoroughfare. In the spirit of the neighborhood, the partners turned a corner of the façade into a front porch.
The owner is a chef by avocation, so the interior revolves around cooking and entertaining. A light-filled, double-height space in the center of the house connects the open kitchen to the rest of the house. At the rear of the house, large operable glazing lets the dining room expand outside and focuses the view on a 100-year-old oak tree. A balcony off the master bedroom suite provides outdoor living space on the second floor.
AIA Triangle encompasses members in Wake, Durham, Orange, Lee, Chatham, Franklin, Warren, Vance, Granville, and Person counties. The houses on the 2015 tour are located in Raleigh, Durham, Creedmoor, and Pittsboro. The tour is self-guided. Tickets are available at http://aiatriangletour.com/tickets.
The Raleigh Architecture Company is an award-winning design/build firm specializing in Modern sustainable architecture, and craftsman-quality construction. As licensed architects and general contractors, we consider designing and building to be one integrated process. This streamlined approach empowers us to meet our clients’ economic expectations and to seamlessly execute high quality details, both small and large. Our office and shop are located under one roof in downtown Raleigh’s Warehouse District at 502 S. West Street. For more information visit www.raleigh-architecture.com, call 919-831-2995, or email: info@raleigh-architecture.com.
The Raleigh Architecture Company and Monarch Property Company have teamed up to design and build three new, modern, for-sale homes side by side on formerly empty lots within a re-emerging central neighborhood in downtown Raleigh.
The team calls the project Live On Wynne. The houses are located at 608, 612, and 614 Wynne Street near Chavis Memorial Park in what’s known as Olde East Raleigh.
The Raleigh Architecture Company (RACo), which works with its partner business The Raleigh Construction Company, is the same firm that introduced five modern, single-family, urban-infill houses on the 500 block of Edenton Street and New Bern Avenue in the Hungry Neck neighborhood, also just east of downtown. Each of those houses was designed on commission, however. The firm’s office and shop are located in the old Capital Tire building in the Warehouse District and both founding partners – Robby Johnston, AIA, and Craig Kerins, AIA – live in downtown Raleigh. (Johnston and his family live in one of the Edenton Street houses.)
Jason Queen of Monarch Property is a local developer who has dedicated his efforts to preserving the history and character of downtown Raleigh. He has extensive experience in renovating and preserving old existing homes in Raleigh’s central neighborhoods, from 1940s shotgun houses and early 1900s bungalows, to large, two-story homes built in the 1890s. His home and office are also in the downtown district.
As a partnership, Monarch and RACo say they are committed to creating “sustainable, preservation-conscious homes” that will endure for generations, enhance their owners’ quality of life, and help to reinvigorate the city’s old, urban communities.
“The Wynne Street homes are a manifestation of our shared vision to combine smart design with quality craftsmanship,” said Craig Kerins. “Modernist design is of our time, just as the 1940s shotgun houses also on adjacent streets were of their time. We’ve employed best current practices and technologies for construction because we intend for these houses to last for decades, just as those shotgun houses have.”
Like Johnston and Kerins, Monarch’s Jason Queen is passionate about downtown Raleigh to the point of becoming the inner city’s unofficial historian. “He knows the history, the property, and the people,” Kerins noted.
“I’m passionate about historic preservation,” Queen said, “but I want to preserve Raleigh’s history in a way that is relevant to its future.”
Now well under construction, the 1800-square-foot Wynne Street houses are two-story structures that will have open living/dining/kitchen spaces and a half bath on the first floor and three bedrooms plus two baths and a laundry room on the upper level. Large energy-efficient windows and skylights will flood the interiors with natural light. The kitchens will feature simple, modern, European-style cabinetry systems.
The RACo partners studied the neighborhood extensively to bring elements from it to the new houses. As a result, the houses are set back from the street the same distance as the existing houses nearby, and they include covered front porches that present a friendly “face” towards the neighborhood. Glass doors and covered second-floor balconies provide more private access to the backyard.
The Wynne Street houses will also feature a host of structurally sound, energy-efficient elements that will ensure their durability against decades of wear and tear and North Carolina-specific weather conditions.
For details on exterior and interior materials and energy-efficient elements and to see the floor plans of each house, go to www.liveonwynne.com.
The Raleigh Architecture Company is an award-winning design firm specializing in Modern sustainable architecture, and craftsman-quality construction. As licensed architects and general contractors, we consider designing and building to be one integrated process. This streamlined approach empowers us to meet our clients’ economic expectations and to seamlessly execute high quality details, both small and large. Our office and shop are located under one roof in downtown Raleigh’s Warehouse District at 502 S. West Street. For more information visit www.raleigh-architecture.com, call 919-831-2995, or email: info@raleigh-architecture.com.
About Monarch Property Co.
Jason Queen founded Monarch Property Co. and Raleigh Restoration Group, LLC to close the gap between real estate development and city inhabitants seeking sustainable, walkable communities. The company is comprised of passionate citizens, architects, preservationists, contractors, business owners, and other like-minded individuals who advocate for urban environments that seamlessly integrate the experiences and needs of pedestrians and cyclists. For more information visit www.monarchproperty.co, call Doug Jackson at 252.432.9716, or email: info@monarchproperty.c
L-R: Robby Johnston, AIA, and Craig Kerins, AIA, partners in The Raleigh Architecture Company
The firm will help bring Chef Scott Crawford’s market and restaurant to downtown Raleigh.
The Raleigh Architecture Company has been commission to serve as design architect for Nash Hospitality Group’s “Standard Foods,” an upscale neighborhood market and restaurant planned for the Person Street Plaza retail center in downtown Raleigh.
The Nash Hospitality Group is a partnership between John Holmes of J.T. Hobby & Son real estate and celebrated Chef Scott Crawford, formerly of The Umstead Hotel in Cary. Crawford earned the hotel’s “Herons” restaurant both Forbes’ five-star and AAA five-diamond awards.
Lead by partners Robby Johnston, AIA, and Craig Kerins, AIA, The Raleigh Architecture Company (RACo) is frequently commissioned for urban up-fits in existing buildings in downtown Raleigh. A few of the partners’ completed projects include Arrow Haircuts and NuvoNivo on Hargett Street, Runologie and State of Beer on Hillsborough Street, and Crank Arm Brewing Company on West Davie Street,.
Standard Foods will feature its own butcher shop and display cases for fresh meats and fresh fish from the North Carolina coast. According to Chef Crawford, it will be a “modern version of a neighborhood market.”
The restaurant side will feature a 20-seat communal table, room for 60 more, and a long bar.
Ted Van Dyke of New City Design will serve as architect of record for the project. RACo will serve as design architect for the front-of-the-house space (areas open to public view) and the exterior.
Standard Foods completion is scheduled for the summer of 2015.
The Raleigh Architecture Company is an award-winning design/build firm specializing in Modern sustainable architecture, and craftsman-quality construction. As licensed architects and general contractors, we consider designing and building to be one integrated process. This streamlined approach empowers us to meet our clients’ economic expectations and to seamlessly execute high quality details, both small and large. Our office and shop are located under one roof in downtown Raleigh’s Warehouse District at 502 S. West Street. For more information visit www.raleigh-architecture.com, call 919-831-2995, or email: info@raleigh-architecture.com.
Co. will join a panel discussion on “Redefining The American Dream: Housing Preferences of Millenials and Boomers,” presented by the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Young Leaders Group of the Triangle. The event will take place in downtown Raleigh on Tuesday, April 28, from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. in the Raleigh Grand Ballroom at the Capital Club Building, 16 West Martin Street.
The panel will examine how the shifting tastes and preferences of Millennials (people born from 1981 to 1997) and Baby Boomers (born 1946 to 1964) are influencing new speculative – or “for-sale” — housing development in the Triangle area.
Along with the latest insights from local real estate economists, marketers, developers, and builders, Kerins and Johnston will discuss urban infill housing.
For the past two years, The Raleigh Architecture Co.‘s partners have been developing, designing, and building urban infill houses – a series of modestly sized Modern, sustainable homes — on vacant lots in an old, established neighborhood just east of downtown Raleigh. The neighborhood includes all generations, from Millenials to senior citizens. Johnston, a “Generation Xer,” lives with his family in one of the houses on East Edenton Street.
Other members of the panel will be: Jay Colvin, director of the Triangle/Triad Metrostudy; Rick Bagel, developer of Wetrock Farm; Will Yadusky, director of Acquisitions and Development for Baker Residential; and Jonathan Barefoot, vice president of Business Development for Fonville Morisey Barefoot. Joseph Martinez, development manager for Northwood Ravin, will moderate the discussion.
The Raleigh Architecture Company is an award-winning design/build firm specializing in Modern sustainable architecture, and craftsman-quality construction. As licensed architects and general contractors, we consider designing and building to be one integrated process. This streamlined approach empowers us to meet our clients’ economic expectations and to seamlessly execute high quality details, both small and large. Our office and shop are located under one roof in downtown Raleigh’s Warehouse District at 502 S. West Street. For more information visit www.raleigh-architecture.com, call 919-831-2995, or email: info@raleigh-architecture.com.
About the Urban Land Institute and Young Leaders Group:
Founded in 2005, ULI Triangle has grown quickly to become the premier real estate organization in eastern North Carolina providing leadership in the responsible use of land, educational programs, and community outreach to address land use challenges. The Young Leaders Group is comprised of ULI members under the age of 35 who want to be actively involved in shaping the future of the real estate industry in the area. For more information: http://triangle.uli.org/.
About NC Modernist Houses:
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