Alleghany County House

Year: 2025 Design & Honor Awards | Category: Residential Over $1 Million

The project includes two related houses designed for multiple generations of a single family on a North Carolina mountain estate. Our work began with careful study of a 40+ acre mountaintop property, arriving at a site selection which balanced views, solar gain, and protection from prevailing winds. In positioning the houses relative to each other we were careful to consider privacy and autonomy while wanting to facilitate communal gathering. The houses, which take on somewhat traditional forms, are bridged by a modern, glazed connecting structure which contains much of the communal activities while orienting towards spectacular long-range mountain views.

Design Challenge

Viewed at large the initial challenge of the project was in situating the houses relative to one another. The houses were designed for two different generations of the same family, one with younger kids and the other in retirement. As such it was important to locate the houses in a way that allowed connectedness and shared amenities while at the same time taking account of each family’s need for privacy and autonomy. With the client’s participation, critical for such an intimate site planning process, we feel like we were able to arrive at a balanced arrangement achieving the stated goals.

At a more house-specific level, given the broad mountain top views across the north of the site, the clients wanted to orient as much ground level program as possible, including living room, dining room, and kitchen, towards those views. This created a challenge in how to design driveway circulation to deliver people to these spaces, particularly the kitchen, without the driveway taking up prized view-facing real estate. We solved this by aligning the requested program on the north side of the site, facing the view, and adding a porte cochere that cuts through the house at the ground level. This provided proximate access to the kitchen from the driveway without it demanding prime space on the site. On the south, non-view side of the porte cochere we located an office and guest bedroom, program that suggested more privacy and that benefitted from the relative disconnect from the main house.

Firm
Point Office Architecture & Design

Project Location
Roaring Gap, NC

Completion Date
10/01/23

Architects and Designers
Clark Tate AIA
Matt Weaver

Structural Engineer
Shear Structural

Landscape
Jeff Allen Landscape Architecture

General Contractor
Shaw Brothers

Interior Design
Liz Carroll Interior Design

Photographer
Keith Isaacs