Our team at Gaines Group Architects was honored to be named one of the “Best Tiny Home Architects in the US” and the only firm named in Virginia and West Virginia.
Home Builder Digest blog named 35 firms in their recent list of The Best Tiny House Architects in the US. The tiny house movement or small house movement is a social change in our country where people want to live simply and shed their stuff. The most recent definition of a tiny house that I could find is a maximum of 400 sf excluding lofts. So our small house mentioned in the article is actually large at 448 sf.
Built by Beck Builders, this house was an experiment for our client to see how economical we could create detached housing in the City of Harrisonburg. Our client wanted to help solve the affordable housing issue that we are facing and this project shows us a solution. Smaller footprint homes along with more density, smaller lots, a variation of project types, land trust, and new zoning solutions will all have to come together to solve our local affordable housing challenges.
While the national trend is for larger houses, we are seeing renewed interest in more intentional design that is smaller and more affordable. I hope this trend continues as we need more diversity of house types in the area and I love working on these smaller footprint homes! Here is one I designed with hopes of seeing it built in the future – maybe a cottage/office for a future backyard infill project?
I love it when a project starts taking shape off the paper and in real life. This luxury custom home is now under construction in Rockingham County being built by Herr & Co. We get to work on a wide array of beautiful homes around the Valley and throughout Central Virginia. This one is our most recent to break ground and start to take shape.
The views from the site are incredible and I think we did a good job framing them from each room.
Even the terrace level has some incredible views from this site.
A the upper living level starts to take shape and the walls get lifted into place the rooms are feeling just about right for scale and proportion. I love this phase of construction before all the walls are in place and the sheathing is not all installed. It creates such wonderful views through the home and to the site.
As the roof gets put into place and sheathing installed we will have a good idea of how we did during design.
The roof trusses were being lifted in place when I was there last creating this wonderful view.
There are some special details that will soon be revealed on this one. The steel on the front porch will give some indications, but I cannot wait to show you more.
Finding a building site in the city surrounded by trees is rare. This is the second opportunity we have had to design a home for just such a site. How cool is it to be minutes from parks, shopping, and work, but feel like you are in the country. The goals of this home in the woods is to create a small footprint that feels open and light inside. We worked hard to maintain proportions and balance of the elements. The house is set up so that it can be accessible with a simple addition of a covered connector between the future garage and the house.
Working with the builder, Herr and Company, through the design process we were able to hit the budget goals for the home as well as the aesthetic goals.
Creating a lot of connections to the exterior on this lot were very important. When you are building a home surrounded by trees there is a lot of shade, so to have a “light” house you have to position windows carefully. This home is also set up to maximize solar production so a “solar alley” is cut into the site along with the driveway. Adding solar pv to the roof of the garage will provide for clean energy for years to come.
Of course we also wanted to incorporate incredible outdoor spaces into the design. This back deck should lead to hours of family fun.
The culinary arts classroom at Massanutten Technical Center was in need of a revamp. The existing classroom was built in 1972 and according to MTC Director Kevin Hutton “It just wasn’t up to date with where it needed to be.” He worked with his staff to develop a revised layout to meet the needs of today’s culinary arts curriculum. He then gave us a call to work with the school to develop a construction plan. We did a code review of the plan, made a few modifications, evaluated the removal of the existing wall, and developed permit plans for their construction use.
The culinary arts program has 50 students. There are 30 first-year students and 20 in their second year. The Bistro at MTC will reopen to the public in February of this year. The students and instructor, Tara Roberts work together to develop a menu that is feasible and works within their budget. The students prepare the meals, find out more about the menu on the MTC website.
The bistro serves lunch on Wednesday, Thursday, and Fridays. Kevin Hutton says the renovation took a 70’s kitchen to a state of the art facility. The space is available for rental as a kitchen and banquet room. “It’s totally open to the community,” Hutton said. “We’re making it a place that you can reserve and we can provide the catering for events.”
Dr. Weiler gave us a call with a challenge. He wanted to update his clinic, Weiler Orthodontics in Harrisonburg, to reflect his personality and better represent his current patients. The existing aesthetics of the space were handed down by the previous business in the space and it was showing the impacts of time. The space was not functional to the modern and innovative practice Dr. Weiler had built and the space had some comfort challenges. Here are some photos showing the existing conditions when we started.
The colors, materials, and textures were dated and needed to be changed. There was wear showing on the materials, but the styles were also from another era and did not reflect Dr. Weiler’s style or that of his current clients. We developed a plan to align with his current goals. The other opportunity that this renovation provided was to upgrade the comfort systems in the building. The insulation and heating and cooling systems were not adequate to keep the energy bills low and the people comfortable in the space.
These are easy problems to solve during construction so the experts at Elite Insulation and Excel HVAC came in solved the problems.
The most important challenge we needed to overcome was the need to keep Dr. Weiler in business during construction. He was able to use an adjacent space for limited service and was able to work the schedule of his clients to offer a few weeks for complete access to the space by Herr & Co. Yes, that is right, a highly successful business that serves clients 5 days a week wanted to keep serving their clients while the contractor did a major renovation that touched every part of the space.
Herr & Co. expertly coordinated schedules with all the subcontractors, planned out the schedules, mapped out the process, and I am sure crossed their fingers that there would be no surprises. This kind of teamwork does not often happen on construction projects and requires flexibility and expert knowledge by everyone on the team.
We are thrilled with the finish product and I think it is exactly what the space needed for this successful and innovative orthodontist.
Now that the work is done and Caitlin Funkhouser Photography has documented the finished product, I can share it with you here.
This client asked for a small cottage on their horse farm. The goal was to fit into the landscape, minimize the trees impacted, and tuck it in between the barn and horse rink. There was limited space, but huge opportunities.
On either side of the cottage there are tucked away patio spaces.
The space for the structure was wedged into the slope next to the barn. This keeps the it in close proximity to the other structures protecting the existing views.
When designing a small cottage, the most important thing is to provide an open floor plan to maximize space.
The second floor of the structure provides a covered space for viewing the riding rink.
Now the other opportunity is the amazing views out over the barn from the second floor space.
