Residential ArchitectureFeatured Houses

Record House Revisited

Architects & Firms

David Jameson Architect

Owings Mills, Maryland

Four decades after their project was featured in the 1969 Record Houses issue of Architectural Record, the owners sold the house to a young couple. A condition of the sale was that the new owners would respect the character of the project, yet be able to revisit and alter the closed-off nature of the interior rooms to create a continuous living space visually connected to the woodland site.

Design concept and solution:
The renovation takes the original seven-bedroom house back to its structural shell, repositioning the interior spaces and finishes, including replacing all electrical, plumbing, and other systems. The existing large girder truss system in the house rendered the interior walls non-load bearing, allowing the architect the opportunity to eradicate several walls, yielding unencumbered public and private pavilions throughout the house, linked together by a new glass entry node. Existing floor-to-ceiling windows were kept and now serve to relate the pavilions to each other and to the outdoors.

The new interior design uses a conceptual allée of walnut casework, which weaves together and provides clarity to the various living areas. The quarter-sawn casework and flat-sawn flooring employ walnut in a chiascuro manner, creating bold contrasts to the existing white-painted brick walls and plaster ceiling. Corian casework elements are positioned as kitchen, mudroom, and bath objects, further juxtaposing a smoothness with the existing textural brick and plaster.

The original brick fireplace and the skylight around it at the center of the house is exposed and left unchanged, allowing for additional connection to the site.

Total construction cost:
Withheld