AIA Atlanta announced the winners of its first annual Residential Architecture Design Awards in Atlanta on April 22 as part of the 2004 Art + Architecture of Home Design celebration. The jury of renowned residential architects: Sarah Susanka, AIA, Raleigh; Frank Harmon, FAIA, Raleigh; and Mark McInturff, FAIA, Bethesda, Md., chose to present two honor awards, two merit awards, and four citations to outstanding residential designs by Atlanta architects.

Honor Awards

Mountain Tree House, Dillard, Ga., by Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects
This freestanding addition completes a house built five years earlier, and both new and old structures offer inside-outside places. The new portion houses a concrete garage, glass bedroom that cantilevers over the yard, steel bathroom with walls that swing open for outdoor showers, and bamboo-enclosed deck. The bamboo starts in planters on the ground and grows up through narrow slots in the deck above. “This is a little house with big connections—a small room with a big entry sequence,” the jury said. “In it, a ramp, a bedroom, and a deck are put together with world-class skill.”
Photo © Timothy Hursley.

Private Residence, Seattle, by Surber Barber Choate & Hertlein Architects Inc.
This 8,000-square-foot private residence on a secluded 8-acre site in the Pacific Northwest results from the client’s request for an architecture that reflects and responds to the organic nature of the site environment and is both “primitive” and “Modern.” The architect configured the spaces to respond to the motion of the sun to deliver natural light in desired spaces at desired times. The design employs a palette of often hand-wrought materials, including poured-in-place concrete, stacked granite rubble, and reclaimed timbers to evoke the “primitive,” while the architectural forms generate a “Modern” mode of defining space. “This is a stunningly beautiful composition, inside and out,” the jury remarked. “The landscape and the building integrate perfectly.”
Photo © James F. Housel.

Merit Awards

Bailey House Studio, Atlanta, by Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects
This private residence and artist’s studio sits on a 7½-acre, heavily wooded hillside in southwest Atlanta. The house and studio are connected on the upper level by a library that floats over the entry. Lifted above the ground, it allows the landscape and woods to flow between the house and the studio. A large outdoor porch and breezeway relate the house and the studio and at the same time merge the building with the landscape. The jury particularly liked this house’s clarity of plan and massing. “The breezeway, simple massing, and the low-cost materials have much in common with the traditional rural Georgia architecture, yet they are unquestionably Modern,” they remarked. “Beautifully done.”
Photo © Timothy Hursley.

Copenhill Lofts, Atlanta, by Surber Barber Choate & Hertlein Architects Inc.
This new mid-rise condominium building on a hilltop site offers 40 residential units. The architects employed a loft aesthetic to create a variety of sizes and layouts. They report that the site presented unique opportunities with parkland on two sides and a commanding city skyline view to the west, and that they wanted a building that “turned around the belief that a new building has to look like an old building.” “It seems well nestled in its site, and we responded to the honest expression of materials and function,” said the jury.
They particularly liked the interior space, which they pronounced, “comfortable and well planned.”
Photo © Phillip Spears Commercial Photographer.

Citation Awards

Houser Home, Atlanta, by Hank Houser, AIA
This renovation and addition project adds 270 square feet to an existing 1,260-square-foot, 1950s split-level house purchased for the location and conveniences of the neighborhood. The architects report that the bones of the existing house worked well so that they could concentrate on adding a master bathroom, clothes storage space, and exercise room, plus increase the kitchen’s functionality. They also emphasized improving curb appeal and adding a front porch. Given their constraints, the jury believes that the architects created a well-done solution, especially the “inventive” bathroom. The jury said they particularly responded to the fact that “this is a relatively modest single-family dwelling that an architect has given a lot of love and attention to, which is quite remarkable these days. This project would well serve as a role model for many of our older neighborhoods.”
Photo © Hank Houser AIA

Mr. & Mrs. David Dowler Residence, Highland Park, Tex., by Merrill and Pastor Architects
“This is a carefully put together essay in the Arts and Crafts style, complete with garden and site design,” said the jury of this new house in the beautiful, established residential neighborhood of Highland Park, three miles from downtown Dallas. This mid-block house faces north to the street and south to the alley, with a guesthouse, pool, and garage at the rear property line. The architects derived the form of the main house from a contrast between the north and south orientations.
Photo © Casey Sills Photography.

Freedom Lofts—National Linen Warehouse, Atlanta, by Smith-Dalia Architects, LLC
The historic building that has become Freedom Lofts was formerly National Linen’s original headquarters facility. The architect carefully carved 62 residential units within the existing structural framework. Multilevel dwelling spaces culminate in rooftop decks with spectacular views of downtown Atlanta. “What we liked about this project was that the architect had interpreted and modified the volumes of the original building. The development of sections so that each unit had a rooftop terrace was especially good,” The jury said. “The architect kept the plan like it was and played with the section.”
Photo © Rion Rizzo, Creative Sources Photography Inc.

Contemporary Residence, Atlanta, by Surber Barber Choate & Hertlein Architects Inc.
This project offers a contemporary renovation/addition to a neo-traditional style home. The owners, avowed Modernists, favored a more abstract addition to provide space for a new master bedroom and a home office. Although the renovation resulted in a decidedly Modern structure, the “ghost of the traditional” can be read through its new skin in an abstracted form. The jury heavily favored the addition portion on the project, which they described as “masterfully done . . . The relationship between the inside and the outside of the building is exemplary. This building has moments that are quite beautiful,” they remarked. “The additions to the house ‘grow’ out of the gardens. There is an incredibly strong connection between the addition and the newly landscaped backyard.”
Photo © Rion Rizzo, Creative Sources Photography Inc.

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