HOME LIFE | INSIDE HOMES
hen John Lueders first saw the site of his future home in 1990, it was not love at first sight. The scenery and McLean location were ideal, but the dilapidated 1949 rambler on the lot was far from perfect. Lueders made do for years as a bachelor, but when he married Beth Larson in 1997 he knew it was time for an upgrade. Having had a lifelong dream of designing his own house, he took matters into his own hands. “We redecorated with a bulldozer,” he says. Lueders and Larson met with architect Mark McInturff to begin designing a new house from scratch in 2000 and it was completed in 2003. Lueders came to the table with a clear idea of what he wanted: a lot of stone, wood and glass to show off the greenery of the site, a pinwheel shape and a modern, “humanist contemporary” style. “John wanted a stone house, but it was Mark’s vision to reverse the plan, making the exterior walls stucco and bringing the stone inside,” Larson says. While the stone and wood dictated the muted color palette of the interior, Lueders and Larson preferred the airy and clean vibe that materialized due to the lack of vibrant colors. The couple, who recently spent two months on a cruise from Hong Kong to Venice, are very influenced by the simplicity of Japanese style and modeled the house after a Japanese Minka- a traditional rural home with the dwelling level raised above the ground, much like a Swiss chalet. To them, it was both an efficient design in terms of circulation as well as an aesthetically pleasing style. “The Japanese have a very elegant way of expressing beauty in a way that relates to nature without being sterile,” Lueders says. When Lueders and Larson aren’t traveling, which they usually do at least once a week every month, the retired pair, a former Booz Allen Hamilton senior vice president and a former congressional staffer, respectively, split their time pursuing hobbies, entertaining and dining out. For Lueders, constructing a 1964 Shelby Cobra USRRC
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