Unique Mountain Retreat |Virginia | Montgomery + Townsend Architecture and Design

The Mountain Retreat is an interior renovation for an eclectic and unique mountain retreat located on a mountain top in central Virginia. Originally designed by a mathematician in the 1970’s, the plan is designed around a pentagon, and placed strategically in a large cleared meadow.

The strategy was simple in the end - white washing the eclectic palette and simplifying all materials in the home while still maintaining the unique geometry and eccentricity of the original design. White washed oak floors from a fallen oak tree on the new owner’s property replace the existing flooring. Similarly, a new walnut kitchen uses reclaimed walnut from the owner’s land. A new bathroom layout is introduced to have more of a contemporary plan while maximizing the space, and is lined in clear cedar. A simple kitchen is introduced as well to maximize the small area, and clear up the island for dining and entertaining. A new powder room, and built in bunk beds transform the lower level into a usable and comfortable space.........more

Modern Vernacular Guest Cottage | The Palatine Studio | Charlottesville | Virginia | Montgomery + Townsend Architecture and Design

The Palatine Studio is a small backyard jewelry studio, wood shop, and guest cottage sited on a steep hill. With its gabled form and horizontal exterior cladding, the Palatine Studio is a vernacular reference to the neighborhood’s surrounding houses. This referential exterior form is then manipulated by outwardly sloping the east and north walls, creating an unexpected disruption to the form. Beyond this visual experience, the sloped walls compress the space above the eastern entrance path. The minimal sculptural details of the exterior not only shed the viewer’s assumptions of the form, but also draw the focus back to the simple experience of the form in its simplicity, and the space it inhabits. Upon entering the studio door threshold, the stairwell--painted the same color as the exterior, with the same slate chips--creates a material relationship to the exterior while also unfolding a notably tall space for such a small building. As the viewer ascends the stairs, the space again compresses to the top, leading to a small opening filled with contrasting white light. This is the jewelry studio, which is open and lined--walls, floor, and ceiling--with white pine. The expansion of light continues, though, with a frame-less floor-to-ceiling window, which, when standing against it, draws the viewer’s perspective from the building itself to the view of a mountain beyond......more