Richmond Row House

Richmond, Virginia is a city of orderly row houses and an historic urban context as rich as Charleston, Georgetown, or Philadelphia. It is rare to happen upon a vacant urban lot, and even rarer that it be in a designated Historic District. SMBW Architects has designed a decidedly modernist urban Row House in Richmond’s historic Jackson Ward neighborhood for a client from Georgia. It is a place of tall narrow houses with front porches, cast iron balustrades, bay windows, and intricate brick cornices. The design is born of this context but extends a lineage of tradition reinterpreted for this time and the client’s lifestyle. The result is a taut 20′x48′ rectangular box on three levels with a centrally located sky lit light-well inside that bathes the heart of the house with light. The light well bisects the plan and cross section front to back nearly symmetrically. Black steel plate bridges span across the vertical shaft of light and white walls. A projecting glass and metal window bay on the front facade was inspired by the bay windows that punctuate many of the historic houses on the street. Ground floor wood shutters, black steel and iron porch details, warm gray brick, and a solid mahogany entry door complete the expression with a nod to its place in the city, but also its place in time. Due to the historic location, the project was required to be approved by the City of Richmond Commission of Architectural Review. Construction will begin in the Summer of 2013.

learn more>