PROJECT His, Hers & Theirs
ARCHITECT McInturff Architects
LOCATION  Garrett Park, Maryland US

PROJECT COMPLETION DATE  11/15/2022
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN TEAM  Mark McInturff FAIA
OWNER/CLIENT
CONTRACTOR/CONSTRUCTION MANAGER  Acadia Contractors / Paul Jeffs
PHOTOGRAPHER  Julia Heine - Photos. Renderings - McInturff Architects
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT MKSK Studios / Jonathan Fitch, ASLA
CIVIL ENGINEER
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER Neubauer Consulting Engineers / Robert Neubauer
MECHANICAL ENGINEER
ELECTRICAL ENGINEER
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SUMMARY DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT
The result of a retirement gift between husband and wife gave each what they wanted. For her, a slight addition opened up the house to the rear yard and allowed for outdoor entertaining. For him, two studios — one for painting and one for woodworking — provided needed room for two passions that had outgrown the spaces available in the house interior. And for both, a garden in between.

The garden came first. The project was started by the landscape architects, who designed the site with the two additions in mind, even before there was an architect on board. Our job was to frame the garden. This was done with two small buildings, one attached and one freestanding, clad in a common language of asphalt shingles and fiber cement panels,

The studio building is a take on the dogtrot house of the American South, where two volumes frame a center exterior passage. Here, the passage doubles as outdoor workspace.

The house addition adds only six feet to the depth of the house, just enough to reorganize and liberate the interior and open it to a new terrace and garden.

As the buildings began to take shape, the architect and landscape architect worked together to merge the designs, each playing off the other. A lawn path between meadow plantings, contained by gabion stone walls arriving at gabion super steps benches, answers the dogtrot gap. The central portion of the garden is structured by bands of ornamental grasses interplanted with perennials and ephemerals that emerge in late spring and remain a textural element through the winter months. A low grass walking path cuts through the central garden leading from the outdoor dining terrace at the main house up to the studio pavilion located at the top of the site, surrounded by existing large canopy trees.

The woodland garden occupies the east edge of the site, offering contrasting plant species, types and textures. Flowering understory trees dot this edge garden and create soft visual screening and a sense of intimacy within the garden as well as seasonal color, blooming in early-mid spring.

A gabion wall at the intersection of the dining terrace and the central garden mitigates down slope drainage from the sloping central garden. The gabion wall element is repeated at the oversized amphitheater steps that lead from the central garden path up to the studio platform.

Bluestone paving elements, wall caps, steps and stacked bluestone walls highlight edges and site circulation and link directly back to the use of bluestone throughout other areas of the garden.

JURY COMMENTS (If applicable)

“This submission checks all the boxes. The design is very well articulated and presented. Attention to existing site conditions and sustainable green strategies go above and beyond. There is a distinct language of each structure that adds to the beauty of this project. They work together and complement each other. As if to form a wonderful, implied dialogue across the site. Nature flows effortlessly and fluidly to and through both structures as the deliberate connection between indoors and outdoors is immediately apparent.

This project is a beautiful transformation whose concept of connected individuality is wonderfully done. The designers’ attention to detail, careful consideration of orientation, and methodical re-use of existing materials all add to the high appreciation of the final product. And while “His” is very different from “Hers” in a way, they both celebrate the importance of individual expression while providing very intimate as well as public opportunities for connection.” –Anson Stuart

MEDIA FOR DOWNLOAD
Project PDF

IMAGES (Captions and Photographer Credit)
1. Studio viewed over garden from terrace / PHOTO Julia Heine
2. Studio viewed over garden from terrace / Photo Julia Heine
3. The painting studio opens to the dogtrot and garden beyond / Photo Julia Heine
4. Stairs leading from garden to studios / Photo Julia Heine
5. The studios connect to house via bluestone walk and center garden path. / Photo Julia Heine
6.  The new studio and house addition flank a new garden, filling the site. / Photo Julia Heine
7.  A small addition to the house opens the interior to a new terrace / Photo Julia Heine
8. Garden and studios at dusk, viewed through new living room window wall. / Photo Julia Heine