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CLOSE ENCOUNTERSTRADING LARGE, OPEN SPACES FOR INTIMATE ROOMS, THESE HOMEOWNERS GOT A PRIVATE SANCTUARY FULL OF BIG STATEMENTSBY MITCHELL ALAN PARKERPHOTOGRAPHS BYCASEY DUNNtep inside any number of ultra-modern homes today and you’ll likely be met with soaring ceilings, stark-white décor and very few walls (the living room is also the kitchen and dining room, for ex-ample). While this flowing, open space approach has increasingly defined the

contemporary design ethos (and we’re all for it), it’s left some homeowners on the fence about what to do when designing a new home. Those who want to embrace the modern motif but also harbor nostal-gic passions for warm wood and intimate spaces are often met with a tough deci-sion: Stick with the trend? Or buck it?

The design captializes on the lush view and outdoor space. The McVeys like to

watch movies projected on the limestone wall during

cool nights.

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Chuck and Suzanna McVey glori-ously bucked it. Their fresh design with personalized small spaces that open up to a leafy hilltop landscape and hard-to-get views of the Brightleaf Nature Preserve and Pennybaker Bridge is all about modern privacy. Instead of a few large, cavernous, multipurpose rooms, the McVeys wanted more rooms with specific purposes. “When I’m in the dining room, I want to feel like I’m in the dining room,” Chuck says

To get the separate rooms, the four-bedroom house—all Leuders limestone, glass and wood slats—forms a slight U-shape, with various pod-like areas that make up the living spaces. From the exte-rior “it’s almost like looking at an airport terminal,” Chuck says. Inside, the pods create a geometric feel, almost like being inside a Tetris game. Bulging forms create multi-level divider walls to distinguish

THE HOUSE IS GENEROUS BUT DOESN’T HAVE LARGE ROOMS. IT’S THE OPPOSITE OF TYPICAL DREAM-HOME DESIRES.

The fireplace wall creates a barrier between the living room and dining room, in line with the McVeys’ need for multiple intimate spaces.

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each room from the next. For example, the living room, with its mod furniture contrasted with a black Steinway piano, is disconnected from the sunken dining room by a limestone half-wall fireplace. Meanwhile, a wood slat wall separates the kitchen space, and so on.

“The house is generous but doesn’t have large rooms. It’s the opposite of typical dream-home desires,” says architect Ernes-to Cragnolino, who helped design the house and interiors with fellow AlterStudio partners Kevin Alter and Tim Whitehill.

And no place is this typical dream-home largesse bucked more than in the McVeys’ master bedroom. The space is lo-cated about midway up a tower, of sorts, an idea the architects had for feeling like you’re in the prow of a ship. While you’d expect the reclaimed old growth pine floored master suite to be one of the biggest rooms in the house, it’s actually one of the smallest, affirming their preference for intimacy.

“We’re not as comfortable in big rooms,” says Suzanna, who’s a stay-at-home mom. “We wanted something cozy. Oth-erwise that extra space just gets filled with some clunky piece of exercise equipment.”

At the top of the tower is another private space: the white room. It’s reserved specifically for listening to music. Chuck,

THIS PA G E The sunken dining room features modern furniture and views of

Pennybacker Bridge.

OPP O S ITE PA G E The wood-filled kitchen is separated from the dining room by a wall,

but is still open enough to feel connected to the other spaces.

who works as a psychologist, loves music and collecting re-cords—he had the living room turntable anchored through the walls to a second foundation so there’s no skipping or vibra-tion—and uses the room for his mono record collection, player and single mod chair in the middle.

“He thought it’d be cool and extra special,” says Alter. “It’s like the old Maxwell cassette tape commercial of the guy getting blasted by a wall of sound.”

The room is perched high at the top of the tower, and a few steps up leads to a rooftop patio that embraces the one-of-a-kind view. It’s one that will unlikely ever be spoiled, since the verdant green hills are protected as part of the Brightleaf Na-ture Preserve, which means the family has a lot of interacting with wildlife. Sightings of coyotes, skunks and deer are com-mon occurrences. The rooftop patio is also a good vantage point to view the winding, leafy landscape by Mark Word.

The siting of the house to magnify this view was difficult, since it looks toward the west. “As architects, we often find ourselves looking for trouble,” Alter says. “Creating a house with a stunning view to the north isn’t that hard. The west, with direct sunshine and heat gain, is an interesting problem to solve through the design of a building.”

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The McVeys wanted a small master bedroom with low ceilings for a

more intimate feeling.

Alter had help, not only in his part-ners, but through the homeowners, who were involved every step of the way, and builder Ken Burger, whose Wilmington-Gordon, Inc. company worked to make the plans come to life. “Architecture is a conspiracy between the client, site, builder and architect,” Alter says.

Burger and his crew had the task of making the cool ideas really come to life. For example, another instance of the McVeys going against the norm was the use of curves. The contem-porary home design mantra typically leads to an angular structure. Round-ed forms are just not frequent—they are costly and difficult to build.

But Suzanna insisted on having some curvature to the house, creating an all-in-good-fun debate between she and

architect Cragnolino. “I was seen as the anticurve person,” says Cragnolino. “I’m not. I just like to pretend. They’re harder to build. But we came up with a more economical way. I think they look great. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

The collaborative process influenced the homeowners decision to open their house to the AIA Homes Tour Oct. 6-7. Though the couple was hesitant at first, they’d been going on the tour for 15 years and wanted to showcase their appreciation to the design process, all the craftsmen involved, and especially the architects and builder.

“Really, it was a gift to Kevin, Ernesto, Tim and Ken,” Chuck says, a sentiment that is easily reciprocated back on the homeowners.

“They should feel it’s theirs,” says Alter, “and be proud of it.”

The master bathroom is one of seven in the house,

though there isn’t one in every bedroom.