The rear view shows “Hillside House” climbing up the natural hill on site.
On Saturday, November 13, NCModernist.org will present a public “Trickle Tour” of Hillside House at 130 Old Pittsboro Road, Carrboro. Specific time slots and ticket information will be announced later.
NCModernist (aka NC Modernist Houses) hosts several tours of modern house each year. Executive director George Smart created the “Trickle Tour” format in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The format allows the public to visit new or newly remodeled modernist houses at a “trickle” of the normal rate for the nonprofit organization’s home tours. Timed admission assures that very few people are inside a house during each time slot.
Doug Pierson, AIA, and Youn Choi, founding partners and principal designers at pod architecture + design in Chapel Hill, created Hillside House for their own family of four on a wooded lot within walking distance of downtown Carrboro.
In April 2020, the house caught the attention of the Wall Street Journal. A few months later, Chapel Hill Magazine featured it in an article entitled “Labor of Love.” It has also been published in Builder Magazine, Architizer, and in Dwell and Architect magazines’ galleries of residential projects.
This will be the first public tour of the angular house on Old Pittsboro Road that’s wrapped in corrugated black metal and appears to be twisting and turning its way up a steep hillside.
To see more exterior and interior photos, go to the “Hillside House” page on Pierson’s and Choi’s website: podand.com/work#/carrboro-house.
Pictured Above: Doug and Sora on the first “living” level. Above them: Oscar at the cantilevered desk in the middle “work” level. Above right: Youn on the bedroom, or “sleep” level. (Photo by Cornel Watson for Chapel Hill Magazine.
July 28, 2011 (Hillsborough, NC) – Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH), the award-winning non-profit dedicated to promoting and preserving Modernist residential design, will host a Hillsborough Modernist Tour on Saturday, August 13, from 9 a.m.
The Hutchinson-Mauro house by Tonic Design + Construction
until noon, sponsored by Prime Energy Group and Hill Country Woodworks.
Hillsborough Mayor Tom Stevens will be on hand at registration to welcome tour-goers to his town.
The tour will offer the public a look inside two new Hillsborough Modernist houses:
The 2011 Stacy and John Crabill House, aka “Crabill Modern,” at 5204 Margon Place designed by Tonic Design and built by Tonic Construction.
The 2010 Michael Hutchinson and Gerry Mauro House, aka “Riverbirch,” at 3921 Red Hawk Road, designed by Rusty Long, AIA, of Rusty Long Architect.
Ted Arendes, Katherine Hogan, and Vinny Petrarca of Tonic Design will be at the Crabill House and Rusty Long will be at Riverbirch to answer questions about the houses, their design, and their construction. Photography is allowed and encouraged
The Crabill House designed by Rusty Long, AIA.
inside and outside both houses.
Tickets to the Hillsborough Modernist Tour are $8.95 in advance and $12 at the door. TMH Mod Squad members tour the houses first from 9-10am then the general public from 10am to noon. Registration and ticket sales for both houses start at the Crabill House.
Advance tickets are available at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/hbtour. As with all TMH events, tickets are not mailed. Will call is at registration at the Crabill House. The deadline for advance tickets is 5 pm Sunday, August 8.
Tour revenues support TMH documentation, preservation, and promotion projects to assure the continuation of great Modernist residential architecture in North Carolina. For more information, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com
About Triangle Modernist Houses
Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) is a 501C3 nonprofit established in 2007 and dedicated to restoring and growing Modernist architecture in the Triangle. The award-winning website, now the largest educational and historical archive for Modernist residential design in America, continues to catalog, preserve, and advocate for North Carolina modernism. TMH also hosts popular Modernist house tours several times a year, giving the public access to the Triangle’s most exciting residential architecture, past and present. These tours raise awareness and help preserve these “livable works of art” for future generations. Visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. TMH also has an active community on Facebook.
October 1, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) – Three Modernist houses that architects designed for their own families in West Raleigh will be the focus of Triangle Modernist Houses’ (TMH) Homes Tour to be held Saturday, November 7, from 1-4 p.m.
The tour will spotlight the private residences of architects Thomas Crowder, Raymond Sawyer and Brian Shawcroft.
Thomas Crowder is founder and principal of ARCHITEKTUR and currently serves as a Raleigh City Councilman. His 2400-square-foot residence at 1409 Ashburton Road was completed in 2000, replacing an earlier, more traditional ranch home that burned in 1998. A prime example of fitting modernist design into an established community, it was given an AIA Honor Award in 2004.
“It was almost therapy for me to deal with the loss by absorbing myself in the rebuilding and starting over,” says Crowder.
The house basically doubled in size with an addition on the back, and includes an art gallery at the front to display pieces that have replaced those that were lost. The house has a Japanese-inspired feel and includes large clerestory windows that provide ample light throughout the day.
The Sawyer house.
Raymond Sawyer, the first recipient of the American Society of Beaux Arts medal, designed his house at 1300 Lorimer Road in 1958. Exemplary of mid-century Modernist design, it features extensive glazing that blurs the line between indoors and out. Retired now and living in Brevard, NC, Sawyer lived in the house with his family until 2006. The current owner, Adrienne Joergensen, has done some renovation work, and the house’s Modernist “bones” remain very much intact.
One of Raleigh’s true “deans” of Modern architecture, Brian Shawcroft,
The Shawcroft residence
FAIA, designed almost all of the Modernist home inventory in the Triangle area from the 1970s through the late 1990s. He completed his current 2215-square-foot residence at 5215 Melbourne Road in 2002. In 1991, Shawcroft was awarded the prestigious Henry Kamphoefner Prize for achievement in Modernist architecture.
The November tour will begin at the Western Boulevard Presbyterian Church, 4900 Kaplan Drive, where a free shuttle service will take participants to the three houses.
Advance tickets are $9.95 and are on sale now via the TMH website: www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. TMH director George Smart recommends securing tickets early since TMH homes tours typically sell out quickly. Proceeds benefit future tours, TMH’s cataloging program and research grants, and provide infrastructure as the non-profit organization works to create public awareness for the preservation of modernist design.
Sponsors for the November tour include Element Lighting, Rock & Shop, Humphrey Homes, Bowman Designs, Alphin Design/Build, and Nowell’s Contemporary Furniture.
Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) is a 501C3 nonprofit established in 2007 to restoring and growing modernist architecture in the Triangle. Its primary public service is the website http://www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. The award-winning website, now the largest educational and historical archive for modernist residential design in America, continues to catalog, preserve, and advocate for North Carolina modernism. TMH also hosts popular modernist house tours several times a year, giving the public access to the Triangle’s most exciting residential architecture, past and present. These tours raise awareness and help preserve these “works of art” for future generations. Visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.
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