Modern Richmond: Spitzer residence

Thanks to the blogging I did back in April about artist Vicki Bruner's loft -- one of the coolest homes on this year's Venture Richmond Downtown Loft Tour -- I was fortunate enough to get connected with Andrea Levine, one of the driving forces behind Modern Richmond. Poke around their website a bit, and you'll discover that Modern Richmond sponsors a series of monthly tours showcasing some of Richmond's coolest modernist homes and offices (with short talks at each tour by the projects' architects). The July tour is this evening, and I'm particularly excited about this one, because the house is one that's just down the street from us and that we've been really curious about since they started remodeling it a few years ago. I'm eager to get inside!

Meanwhile, last month I made it to a Modern Richmond tour for the first time, but due to my crazy work schedule of late, I'm only just getting around to featuring last month's handsome residence: the home of Chip and Lynn Spitzer. Many thanks to Lynn and Chip for allowing me to photograph their home and share some of those pictures here at NestingBlog!

Chip Spitzer is a contractor who got hooked on modern design following his work on a cool renovation designed by 3North (and which our own architect had a hand in during his time working at 3North). So when the Spitzers bought a home in Richmond's near West End and wanted to renovate and expand the home before moving in, they turned to 3North's Jay Hugo for design assistance.

Originally designed by architect Eugene Brooks, the home was once a tiny modern gem in a landscape of traditional Richmond homes. Over the years, however, it was modified by various owners to make it look more like its neighbors. The home's once flat roof, for instance, got replaced with the current hip roof (a change the current owners decided to live with rather than dealing with the complicated prospect of returning it to its original design).

Jay and Chip have done an outstanding job restoring a modern aesthetic to this home and, in the process, adding some stunning new features. The house's crowning glory is the hallway pictured above, which connects the original house with a new bedroom wing. It is typical, however, of many of the home's new design features, which aim to create a smooth connection between indoors and out. In this hallway, this connection is achieved not only with the floor to ceiling windows, but also by repeating the same abstract metal "grasses" and gravel mulch on both sides of the window. See below for a couple more shots of this connecting hall.

Here are a few more photos of the home and some of my favorite indoor and outdoor features...

Like the stunning connecting hallway, another striking feature just visible from outside the home is this corrugated metal that hides the home's mechanical systems in the area adjacent to the kitchen.

I love this stationary panel at the edge of the living room. Such a clever solution for creating more privacy for the adjacent bathroom. And at the same time, the little bit of separation it provides helps define the area under the soffit as "hallway" instead of "living room". (Down the "hall" to the right of the panel are another bedroom and Lynn's small home office. To the right of the piano is the connecting hallway featured above.)

Another shot of the living room. I like the lighting treatment where the ceiling height changes; it makes the transition quite elegant. And more of those floor-to-ceiling windows here continue the indoor-outdoor connection.

On the outside of those big living room windows is this charming patio overlooking the backyard swimming pool. I love the yellow butterfly chairs, which look almost like outdoor sculpture in this context!

My favorite landscape element without a doubt was this water feature just outside the new master bedroom. I love the modern interpretation of a traditional Japanese garden. And the wall behind it is another clever solution that helps create privacy for the bedroom which, like the other new spaces, features floor-to-ceiling windows in the back.

I was charmed by this "still life" behind the sofa in a new sitting area at the back of the house. The home is filled with handsome arrangements such as this one, as well as many other original works of art adorning the walls. I suspect that Lynn's hand is at work here and throughout the home's interior design.

I was delighted to discover this driveway at the Spitzers' house, as it is exactly what I have been envisioning for the area by our entry and between the house and garage. (Except I plan to use terra cotta pavers instead to coordinate with the red brick and handsome new red windows on our own home.)

Again, thanks to Lynn and Chip for letting me share these photos here! And with a second field trip scheduled for this evening, hopefully I'll be able to bring you pictures of another handsome Modern Richmond home again sometime soon...