Open-air art - An unusual cabana reflects its owners' spirit of fun
--------------------------------------------------
Greensboro News & Record (NC)-May 20, 2012
Author/Byline: JANET BRINDLE REDDICK
Edition: News & Record
Section: LifePage: D1
GREENSBORO - You might notice something is a little different as soon as you pull up to the home of Drs. Larry Ransom and Kathleen Lucas.
A bright bird of paradise is painted on the mailbox. The entry is a stained-glass work of the plant, too, one that blooms into a brilliant plume of yellowish orange, purple and green.
Proceed down the long driveway. And listen. You'll hear the sound of a … waterfall? Where is it coming from? Is it the carport?
Nope. That's their car cabana.
"Par-ty, par-ty, chi-chi-chi," Lucas chanted one recent morning as she described the mood that she and her husband wanted to create when they built the open-air structure.
Is it functional? Sure. But it's also a piece of art, it's fun, and it captures their spirit.
The car cabana features a skylight, a water feature, a cupola and a one-of-a-kind, built-in sculpture by renowned Greensboro artist Jim Gallucci.
Lucas bought the home in northwest Greensboro in 1998, a year before she married Ransom.
The couple honeymooned in Aruba and then got their first bird of paradise. The plant now stands nearly 4 feet tall in their living room and blooms every year. The colors and its spirit of calm run through their home and her office.
When Ransom, a neonatologist and a Master Horticulturist, leaves his tiny patients, he comes home to a sanctuary that he has spent years cultivating - one that includes a fruit orchard, mini vineyard, greenhouse and, now, this project.
The couple had a practical need for a carport. But they had other storage spaces, so the new building didn't need to be a garage.
"The car cabana isn't just about a place to park," Lucas said. "It's a place to gather and entertain."
Lucas' home and office are decorated in the colors of the bird of paradise: shades of purple, aqua blues and lush greens.
"I like things that are art as well as practical," Lucas said.
Enter architect Carl Myatt, who helped Lucas redesign her pediatric practice years ago.
"The idea is to start the job with a concept and then figure out how to interpret the idea," Myatt said. "It's got to fit the style of the house and bring in the idea."
And in this case, the technical requirements weren't easy. The cabana is open on all four sides, with no support beams in the middle, and requires a pump for the water feature.
But the extra, exposed structural beams underneath just provided an opportunity for more colors to be injected into the project.
With the help of builder John Fields, Myatt, Gallucci and other experts, they did it. The pitch of the roof and even the shingles match the home's roof.
Though the carport faces the front of the house, the custom cupola, the water feature and the skylight all face the home.
"I wanted to relate the structure to the existing home," Myatt said.
All of the artistic details happened organically, too, Lucas said.
Whether it was solving problems of splashing or finding creative new touches (such as using a Chinese takeout box as a sculptural element to slow the flow of water on each side), there seems to be a story about every detail.
Lucas and her sister, Gina Lucas, created a tile mosaic in the catch basin of the water feature, and each capstone in the base of each support beam has a special meaning.
Even after the space was finished, elements were added. During a trip to Asheville, Lucas found an albatross mobile that now hangs in the middle of the space, almost serving as a protector of the domain.
When the car cabana was finished, Ransom got to work on other projects, including a Japanese rock garden and a bamboo installation to blend into a nearby koi pond.
Ransom said the whole project - including the landscaping, cabana and four tons of gravel that he shoveled into the Zen garden - probably cost between $15,000 and $20,000.
But the end result? A veritable oasis.
Lucas has advice to other homeowners who might want to make improvements to their homes.
"Don't be afraid to go out of the box," she said. "Use all of your senses. And then find someone to help you design it."
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Sunday, September 18, 2011
General feature: Habitat works with local builder to go green for large family
GREENSBORO – Architect Steve Johnson has designed several homes for Habitat for Humanity. Four of his plans have been used at least three times, many to create homes for Greensboro families.
But during their latest partnership, they needed to design a home for a larger family – and on a specific site that had its own limitations, all while keeping Habitat’s commitment to quality and to green building practices.
The house at the corner of McConnell and Dunbar streets will soon be home for a Montagnard family with seven children. So this building needed to be larger than a typical project. The trick was planning a space big enough for the needs of the family, without being out of character of the rest of the neighborhood.
“This is probably the first home where the site was an important factor in the design,” Johnson said. “We had to be consistent to the scale of the other homes.”
Johnson, a principal architect for Southern Evergreen in Summerfield, worked with Megan Ackerman, a 5th year senior at Auburn, on the designs for the home. When the home is finished sometime in February, the family will be able to move into a 1,700-square-foot, two-story home, with an open floor plan and a wrap-around porch. The Craftsman design matches the architecture of other existing homes. It is just across the street from the new Willow Oaks neighborhood. The master suite with lots of storage is on the first floor and four more bedrooms will be upstairs – all big enough for bunk beds.
“There was a little more planning on the front end,” said Phil Barbee, director of construction and land development for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Greensboro. “It is an older neighborhood, so we tried to pick up on the Craftsman flavor of the neighborhood.”
Barbee said this floor plan works for larger families, but it might also work for another growing client base – migrant families with multiple generations or extended families living in the same home. This plan can be used as a prototype for other Habitat groups elsewhere.
“I like this plan,” Barbee said, “and we hope to use it again.”
Besides the extra space, the appeal of the design is that it is so energy-efficient and will be built using green building techniques and green materials. But that approach was not unique to this home.
Barbee said Habitat homes have had energy-saving components since 2002. It just makes more sense for the homeowners to have more affordable energy bills.
The group took it to another level in 2008 during the Raising Roofs Builders Blitz, a biennial event with the Greensboro Builders Association. It was during that time that Southern Evergreen’s plans were used to build four homes that met NAHB Green Building-Gold standards.
And those sustainable building practices have carried through to projects today – including this home, which is also being built to that standard.
Some of the sustainable materials include:
• The foundation is made from North Carolina bricks, which only travel 300 miles to arrive at the site.
• The insulation is blown cellulose made of recycled newspaper.
• Light-colored shingles applied on foil-backed roof sheathings reflect the sun’s heat and keep the attic cooler.
• Plants used in landscaping are low-maintenance, drought-resistant and are planted in such a way to provide shade to the home in the summer and to allow sun in the winter.
The methods of construction they use matter as well. Builders now use closed crawl spaces and design a fresh air intake into the design. Framing techniques are used to allow for less material waste and greater efficiency.
Finally, homeowners are educated in the maintenance of the home, and the ways that they can make their homes most energy-efficient.
Habitat is leaving its green mark in the community in more than just the 350 homes that it has built in Greensboro. Johnson, who serves as a co-chair for the Greensboro Builders Association Remodelers Council, said that during the 2008 Builders Blitz, more than one of his colleagues told him that they learned a lot and that they had increased their awareness of sustainable building practices – which they are now using in their work today.
“We have seen some commercial, for-profit builders adopt some of these techniques,” Barbee said. “We are setting a new standard for low-income housing that’s above and beyond.”
But during their latest partnership, they needed to design a home for a larger family – and on a specific site that had its own limitations, all while keeping Habitat’s commitment to quality and to green building practices.
The house at the corner of McConnell and Dunbar streets will soon be home for a Montagnard family with seven children. So this building needed to be larger than a typical project. The trick was planning a space big enough for the needs of the family, without being out of character of the rest of the neighborhood.
“This is probably the first home where the site was an important factor in the design,” Johnson said. “We had to be consistent to the scale of the other homes.”
Johnson, a principal architect for Southern Evergreen in Summerfield, worked with Megan Ackerman, a 5th year senior at Auburn, on the designs for the home. When the home is finished sometime in February, the family will be able to move into a 1,700-square-foot, two-story home, with an open floor plan and a wrap-around porch. The Craftsman design matches the architecture of other existing homes. It is just across the street from the new Willow Oaks neighborhood. The master suite with lots of storage is on the first floor and four more bedrooms will be upstairs – all big enough for bunk beds.
“There was a little more planning on the front end,” said Phil Barbee, director of construction and land development for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Greensboro. “It is an older neighborhood, so we tried to pick up on the Craftsman flavor of the neighborhood.”
Barbee said this floor plan works for larger families, but it might also work for another growing client base – migrant families with multiple generations or extended families living in the same home. This plan can be used as a prototype for other Habitat groups elsewhere.
“I like this plan,” Barbee said, “and we hope to use it again.”
Besides the extra space, the appeal of the design is that it is so energy-efficient and will be built using green building techniques and green materials. But that approach was not unique to this home.
Barbee said Habitat homes have had energy-saving components since 2002. It just makes more sense for the homeowners to have more affordable energy bills.
The group took it to another level in 2008 during the Raising Roofs Builders Blitz, a biennial event with the Greensboro Builders Association. It was during that time that Southern Evergreen’s plans were used to build four homes that met NAHB Green Building-Gold standards.
And those sustainable building practices have carried through to projects today – including this home, which is also being built to that standard.
Some of the sustainable materials include:
• The foundation is made from North Carolina bricks, which only travel 300 miles to arrive at the site.
• The insulation is blown cellulose made of recycled newspaper.
• Light-colored shingles applied on foil-backed roof sheathings reflect the sun’s heat and keep the attic cooler.
• Plants used in landscaping are low-maintenance, drought-resistant and are planted in such a way to provide shade to the home in the summer and to allow sun in the winter.
The methods of construction they use matter as well. Builders now use closed crawl spaces and design a fresh air intake into the design. Framing techniques are used to allow for less material waste and greater efficiency.
Finally, homeowners are educated in the maintenance of the home, and the ways that they can make their homes most energy-efficient.
Habitat is leaving its green mark in the community in more than just the 350 homes that it has built in Greensboro. Johnson, who serves as a co-chair for the Greensboro Builders Association Remodelers Council, said that during the 2008 Builders Blitz, more than one of his colleagues told him that they learned a lot and that they had increased their awareness of sustainable building practices – which they are now using in their work today.
“We have seen some commercial, for-profit builders adopt some of these techniques,” Barbee said. “We are setting a new standard for low-income housing that’s above and beyond.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)