Year: 2025 Design & Honor Awards | Category: Built Project over 5,000 SF

Gathering House is a multi-use event space for residents and guests of The Homesteads – Reynolds Lake Oconee community. The surrounding site is heavily forested and defined by the abundance of large granite boulders. Due to this unique environmental condition, the building’s programmatic components were situated between existing boulders. The result is a building that is intentionally dispersed while simultaneously framing the context it occupies. Transparency between programmatic elements maintains visual connectivity allowing visitors to flow naturally between interior, exterior and the surrounding landscape. The building itself is defined by its timber structure and simple material palette of glass and stone.

Design Challenge

The client, who controls a 12,000-acre resort development, had an underdeveloped parcel that they wanted to divide and sell for high end, lake front, luxury residences. Each lot was large enough to allow for a family compound, with multiple structures. The concern was that the 1,300-acre new enclave would have no sense of community. The client was looking for a feature that would attract a resident to leave their well-appointed home and socialize with neighbors.

The site selected for the project was not on the waterfront, because those sites were too valuable. This presented further challenges, because the design needed to attract guests away from their luxurious, lakeside homes, to a place without an expansive view.

Additionally, there was no precedent for the project program. It wasn’t a country club; it wasn’t a restaurant, and it wasn’t a typical residential amenity with pools and tennis courts. Part of the design process was working with the client to determine what this new building type could become.

The placement of the different elements needed to be thoughtfully done, to provide residents with a facility that they could explore while providing a variety of experiences. The program included a communal living room, a bar with personalized liquor lockers for each family, a kitchen where guests could have a chef prepared breakfast or reserve the dining area for a family dinner, a game room with card tables, and a screened porch with a stone fireplace and a view of the meadow beyond.

Firm
Blur Workshop

Project Location
Greensboro, GA

Completion Date
8/10/2023

Architects and Designers
Scott Sickeler

Structural Engineer
EMC Structural Engineers

Additional Team:
Simonton Engineering
BLUM Consulting
Mobile Fixture & Equipment Co.
Lighting Design Alliance
Yonah Mountain Timber Frames, LLC

Photographer
Garey Gomez Photography