Level Up House | est. 2022
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INTRODUCTION Jones Pierce has a long-term working relationship with the client, spanning a generation of time over four projects on three homes. Looking back on our journey, from the fantastic view of our current result, we can see an evolved leveling up of how our clients wanted to live in each environment when they chose to make it their own.
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ABOUT THE CLIENT Our portfolio with this client began in 2006 as an interior renovation and two-story porch addition to their Decatur Home. Remember this porch. It becomes important later. This project involved creating a usable exterior room to blur the line between the inside and outside living space. The client eventually made their way to Buckhead, and in 2014, Jones Pierce helped renovate their new home’s kitchen, primary suite, and backyard. The project moved a mountain of dirt to fit and evolve the outdoor space of the site for a pool and outdoor living space for the way the clients wanted to live. In 2018 Jones Pierce helped in an additional second-floor and garage apartment renovation. Finally, in 2021, what every architect who has developed a long-time relationship with a client hopes for — the design of a treasured client’s new, ground-up construction. In the client’s words, they wanted a house “exactly where and how they wanted it.” In the evolution of the design team, the efforts were now led by Angel Shockey, who had been on every design team for the clients journey. Where the clients wanted their ground up construction was in the Waterfall Club subdivision on Lake Burton, a gated community located in the mountain lakes area of Rabun County, Georgia. Opened in 1999, Waterfall is an aspirational location for anyone looking to build their forever home. The community boasts beautiful homes and exceptional architecture governed by the Property Owners Association architectural guidelines. The Sheleys wanted to take advantage of both, but with their own interpretation.
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MOUNTAIN MODERN In a community of mountain homes with traditional Appalachian-style leanings — the clients knew they wanted something unique. This required Jones Pierce to be creative with the gray areas of the guidelines and work with the reviewing board early in the design process. As the architects, we wanted to push the design boundaries by introducing dynamic roof lines to create a compound look, sleeker materials, and atypical framing methods that would allow us to develop atypical window openings. We aimed to bridge the gap between the cabin and something a little more modern. In our project brief, we coined the approach Mountain Modern, an evolution from the dated 1990s development guidelines to a current time and place.
Photo: Martis Camp Realty, Architecture: Kelly & Stone Architects
Architecture: Locati Architects
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PROPERTY ANALYSIS The clients selected two lots in The Waterfall Club. The steeper properties in the club needed to be larger to deal with site planning to create proper drive slopes and entry courts. The client’s decision to buy two adjacent properties allowed us to analyze the site and maximize the home and site’s potential. We could plan a sense of privacy and protection from future adjacent development, create a more gradually sloped drive, and position the house “where we wanted it.” On a beautiful day in April 2021, the team trekked to the site, tromping through the wooded floor to get a feel for where the house wanted to live. There seemed to be a flat spot on the otherwise sloped site.
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SITE DESIGN The clients wanted a location “not too close to the road, and not too far below grade” while embracing the site and taking advantage of views. We needed to find the perfect “flat spot .” Or as flat as the steeply sloped site could offer. A pre-existing depression at the front of the lot we believed to be an old logging road expressed itself as the natural driveway entrance. Having experienced the site up close and personally, we determined the topo would solidify our findings. The flat spot that revealed itself to us on site agreed with the survey, where spacing between contour lines widened at the southwest corner. The flat spot became the landing place for the parking court and garage. With this settled, we could begin to organize the plan.
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MASSING CONCEPT The great room, which was to house all the public functions of the home, was to be the center. The cleints even had specific dimensions for the size of the space. 30’ x 40’ with an open floor plan. While the footprint was stretched and compressed as the plan was developed, early diagrammatic plans indicate the significance of this initial primary mass. From the great room, adjoining wings housing the owner suite and screened porch were skewed from the main body of the house to create 3-sided views and a treehouse-like experience from almost any space.
E A R LY D I AG R A M M AT I C P L A N
From the front, the massing reads compact and unassuming (image above). From the back, the footprint spreads and unfolds, revealing it’s complete grasp of the site and view to the mountains (opposite).
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Elevations — With Mountain Modern in mind, the elevations pushed the envelope of the design guidelines. Where metal roofs “may be considered” according to the requirements, we convinced the association of their stylistic significance. Where the “primary roof shape may not be flat”, we were able to work in flat portions of the roof to emphasize the compound massing of the gabled “treehouse” wings. Where “painted concrete, masonry units, and modular block, may not be displayed as finished surfaces,” we walked the line of interpretation, introducing modular fiber cement wall panels around the garage and “wood look” cementitious siding as the primary exterior cladding. Expressed Timber Brackets — Traditional gabled roof forms with expressed timber beams breaking though the flat roof planes, oversized timber brackets gesturing welcome at the front porch, and natural stone cladding, and an earthy material palette tied us back to the familiarity of the neighborhood (below).
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TERRACE LEVEL PLAN The terrace level houses bedrooms for the client’s children, a guest suite, a den, an exercise space, and his and her offices. The terrace den opens onto the glassrailed terrace porch through large sliding doors located under an outdoor living space on the entry level.
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TERRACE LEVEL The stairwell positioned at the home’s southeast corner creates a lightwell from the main level, allowing light to spill through the open riser oak treads. The result is a terrace level that is part of the finished space of the house and not a basement. The gallery hall leading to the clients’s office baosts something extra special, a hand painted mural by Atlanta artist Christina Kwan. The mural tracks down the hall, even spilling onto the opposite stair wall to connect the levels of the house.
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MAIN LEVEL PLAN
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ENTRY LEVEL & GREAT ROOM Walking in through an oversized Mahogany pivot door, guests are greeted immediately by a waterfall. A feature the clients asked to be incorporated as a nod to their new neighborhood. Through the entry, the sense of volume expands, as one enters the stained pine cathedral ceiling of the great room at over 23’ to the highest point. Two steel post and beam assemblies hold up the four primary timber beams that support the roof. The unconventional framing method allowed oversized clerestory windows to fill the gable ends without the need for vertical ridge support.
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Corner Windows — were introduced and structured wherever possible to maximize the unobstructed views made possible by the skewed footprint of the home.
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Clerestory Windows — also formed a consident line around the space and over the kitchen. The flat roof provides and cozier scale at the kitchen work area.
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PRIMARY PORCH A large picture window centered in the dining room, flanked by doors on either side of a central view window, invites one onto the primary porch. The porch column and beam organization creates a mini-me version of the structure of the great room. The glass railing does not obstruct the endless mountain views.
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SCREENED PORCH A hall leading from the great room opens onto a four-sided screened porch that abuts the house, made possible by the skewed porch orientation and corner connection at the end of the hall. The homeowners loved their 2006 Decatur porch so much that its dimensions were used as a reference point for the new porch. They achieved a next level screened porch.
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Owner’s Suite — Three-sided window bays tracking around the view-facing ends of the owner’s wings emphasize the tree house feeling.
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Architecture: Bryan Jones Angel Shockey Karlla Dreser with Jones Pierce, STUDIO J
Photography: Lukas Dreser
Interiors: Adam Maloney with Studio B
Graphic Design: Walden Jones
General Contractor: Jeff Dinkle with Eco Custom Homes Site Manager: Oliver Yowell with Eco Custom Homes Structural Engineer: Raman Latorre with Koblasz & Kennison Engineering Landscape Design: Russel Wilkinson with Wilkinson Landscape Group
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Creative Director: Foster Denney