2020 AIA Northern Virginia Award of Merit
2020 James M. Scott Exceptional Design Award
Washington Post House of the Week

In 1960, Andre Bodor, builder, created a small development in a hillside lot overlooking Holmes Run Creek in Falls Church, Virginia. The cluster of eleven homes, situated on both uphill lots and downhill lots, remain close to their original state today. The existing condition of this home was in poor, with a leaky roof, mold, a rotten wood window wall, and the layout of the home was outdated. The design team aimed to preserve the essence of the original home and bring new life to the residence by taking cues from the original design.

Program requirements were to add one bedroom, resulting in a five-bedroom house, relocate the kitchen to a new 230 square foot addition that was created by infilling an existing screened in porch, and inserting a 23’ steel beam to support the roof at the old exterior wall. Existing finishes were modified by adding reflective white walls to change the somber character of the existing dark mahogany wood. This allowed the qualities of light to be active, rather than absorbed. Existing mahogany wood was reused as trim and siding along the back of the kitchen island. 

On the other side of the home, four existing windows in the bedrooms were enlarged to enhance the visual connection to the Holmes Run Creek, the wooded surroundings, and the hillside lot. 

On the lower floor, the existing dark 500 square foot mechanical room was transformed into a fifth bedroom/home office, providing a private exterior door to the back patio. Large windows were added, allowing natural light to penetrate further into the basement space.

The home has many sustainable upgrades: R38 rigid insulation on top of the roof decking, new ¾” insulated glass, cork floors, repurposed mahogany wood and T-fill siding.

This mid century remodel has been celebrated by the other ten neighbors living on the Bodor-designed cul-de-sac. Several of the neighbors had considered “pooling” their savings to purchase the house to prevent the home from demolition.The community is now strengthened by preserving a homogenous example of an eleven-home tract of classic post-and-beam mid century architecture.