Photography by Maxwell MacKenzie

Featured in The Local Scoop Magazine
Written by Karen Newton

Timing is everything. Although a New York couple first approached Randall Kipp about building them a house a decade ago, it wasn’t until they returned five years later that the project really got underway.

The White Stone property overlooking Little Bay was low-lying, so the first thing Kipp did was bring in engineered fill to raise the property five feet for storm protection. Because the couple wanted minimal landscaping, the house sits on a simple plain of grass surrounded by a rusticated stone plinth that serves as a seawall on the waterfront side and a more refined plinth on the street approach side.

With a nod to Florentine architecture, the house was designed with a rusticated base and stone arch on the lower level. While the Florentines would have used that level for carriage storage, here it houses the rooms not central to the couple’s daily lives: laundry room, guest bedrooms and office. “The real living is done on the second and third floors,” Kipp explains. “And on those levels, the materials are much more polished.”

At the second level, a prow-shaped deck points out toward Little Bay and the screened porch becomes an extension of the interior space. Separated by a three-story glass atrium, the great room is on the right side and the primary bedroom on the left, far removed from everyone.

Because the clients didn’t want a garage, Kipp designed a carport that sits on V-shaped supports tucked under the bedroom. “I like how it floats,” Kipp says. “This house is literally two buildings, each with its own HVAC system.”

Glass panels, each 30 feet long, create a wall, with the panels sliding open and stacking to make the screened porch and the interior one expansive space. Stairs are made of steel with open risers to extend sight lines. Built as a steel structure much like a community building, the framework was then wrapped, and stucco applied, leaving the steel framing exposed inside.

Modern materials—Weather Shield glass and Unilux windows and doors—along with rusticated block, stucco and bronze mullions combine seamlessly. Says Kipp, “We were going for as much transparency as we could get.”

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Photography by Anice Hoachlander

Featured in The Local Scoop Magazine
Written by Karen Newton

The lot was long and narrow, but the views of Dymer Creek were outstanding.

The Northern Virginia couple who bought the lot did so, anticipating they would eventually have architect Randall Kipp design a second home for them. That moment arrived two years ago, and the resulting home was worth waiting for.

Essentially three buildings, the house encompasses a two-story great room combining all the shared spaces: living room, dining room, kitchen, exercise room and office; a primary suite; and on the second floor, two guest bedrooms connected by a bridge overlooking the living and dining areas and providing privacy for guests. “Every room looks out to the water,” Kipp says. “They wanted expansive glass and big views to have a sense of being part of nature.”

Although Kipp had set aside room for a swimming pool, it wasn’t decided until well into the process to build it as part of the original construction.

The pool is adjacent to the primary suite and accessed by a few steps down from the couple’s bedroom door. “That way, it makes the pool almost a private gesture,” he says, adding that while guests may use it, it’s situated most conveniently for them. “An Ipe fence screens the pool area from the street, creating a sweet little courtyard.”

The fireplace in the great room is two-sided, with the outdoor side fronting an outdoor living room area boasting views of the creek to one side and the pool to another. All the expansive windows inside the house have motorized roll-down shades for privacy and sun protection.

In addition to extensive hard and soft scaping of the landscape, the area between the house and creek got a much-needed makeover. “It was mostly conifers and deciduous after we got rid of all the scrubby growth,” Kipp says. “Once we had the canopy of trees limbed up, it left just the right amount of vegetative screening to help with solar shading.”

Working with Coastal Builders, Kipp’s longtime go-to builder, resulted in a seamless process. “It was a simple project, but the results were grand.”

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