NEWH Concept Formulation

While I really am trying to write out a distinct concept for the NEWH Competition due at the end of February, it's a struggle.  I'm good with words, but conceptually speaking, it's rough.  I find I always want the same thing in my designs--white, light, wood, natural, brightness, clean, transparent, translucent, experience, journey, different perspectives, and colorful aspects.  I feel like this would fit perfectly into the competition criterion.  We are asked to design a restorative/regenerative hospitality project.  Lisa Tucker (my wonderful and intelligent, all-knowing professor) picked our site for our studio--Sweet Springs in West Virginia.

Old photograph of Main Building porticos.

Main building.

A "sister house", not part of the main building.

Porch of Sister House.

Sister House.

First of all, why have I never known this place existed?  It's thought to have been designed and built by Thomas Jefferson (seeing as UVA [ew] is not that far away), but there's also speculation that it could've been done by one of his main architects/sidekicks.  Either way, it's a gorgeous place, with traditional UVA-ish style.  Seeing as I am a Hokie, I should not be saying "UVA" and "gorgeous" in the same sentence, but I am.  My parents brought my sister and I up with the notion that UVA was the place we belong.  They are both from Vermont, and aimed to build a home with colonial influence.  At one point in my childhood, I remember our TV room (appropriately called the "parlor") being painted with light pink walls.  Green and beige couches.  Yeah, colonial.

After my sister went to Radford (a smaller university just 30 minutes from my beloved Virginia Tech campus) and I settled in as a Hokie, they abandoned all hope that they would one day be able to visit their daughter at the birthplace of TJ Architecture.  Sorry, parents.

It was not until my spring 2011 semester that I realized colonial color palettes actually fit my design aesthetic.  I was using my Frank Lloyd Wright restoration project as a competition entry for the Sherwin Williams Stir Competition and had to use their colors specifically.  I noticed a "colonial revival" section of their color library and was stunned that they actually went together with my project.  Most people would think pastels are the main palette for colonial revival, but I've always been a big fan of greys and beiges, especially together, with pops of color.

My house in my hometown is the only one on the block without shutters.  My parents took them off.  It wasn't colonial with the shutters still attached.  After all, they weren't functional shutters, merely for decoration.  Understandable.  HOWEVER, there is one house up the street from us that to me, is true colonial wannabe.  The people that moved into this house knew what they were doing.  Grey wood-paneled house (not vinyl siding. never vinyl siding; or so my mother tells me... always) with a red, almost coral-tinted door.  It reminds me of the times my mom and I pass through Deerfield, MA and check out the actual original houses from that era.

I also recall visiting a property not far from Mount Vernon in northern Virginia, which is also next to a FLW building (Pope Leighey House).  At the moment I can't recall the name of this property, but I absolutely do remember the main living/dining room and the excellent shade of blue/teal/green the walls were painted.  This is when I came to believe I was in love with colonial decorating.

*Gasp* decorating?  I almost can't believe I just said "love" and "decorating" in the same sentence.  But we need to come to grips with reality.  As designers, we love to decorate.  It's most likely what we started doing as children and how we got into the design field itself.  I know through my entire years of having my own room at home and school, I loved to decorate.  I love pretty things.  I love well-designed things--especially antique things.  My parents are huge antique shoppers as well; go figure.

Why am I rambling?

This is what I do to formulate concepts.  I ramble.  Yesterday in class, I sat with my sketchbook on my desk and just wrote down whatever came to mind.  Here's what came out:

• Revival of Sweet Springs as a place of aristocracy & elegance
• strength & fortitude through rehabilitation
• restoring the interior to a natural lightness / cleanliness that encourages well-being and relaxation
• heavenly / clouds / rolling hills
• home away from home: escape from reality
• NO WIFI
• reclaimed materials
• in country hills of WV away from everything and everyone

If I did not make myself clear in the beginning...  We are to design a restorative/regenerative place, that both restores the campus of Sweet Springs and also the people that come to it.