Fox Knoll Farmhouse

The desire to be near and have daily and active relationships with their daughter, son-in-law, and their children drew this couple to the landscape of western Albemarle.

The open pasture adjacent to their children’s home provided a gentle ridge with a filtered view through the woods to a small lake to the northwest. The gentle slope to the building site, just off the ridge, provided the setting for a traditional home to foster strong relationships among the three generations on the property.  

The design strategy configured the one-story plan along the topography of the ridge with careful attention to capture views of the lake.  The plan was organized around an entrance with a formal portico, leading to a great room with a central fireplace and a generous visual connection to the lap pool, bluestone terrace and outdoor living room and guest house oriented toward the wooded view of the lake.  

To achieve the high level of traditional detailing the couple desired a close collaboration between the builder’s finish carpenter and our office to create a system of custom cornice and facia details which accentuated the horizontal composition of the home.  Supplementing the large-scale detailed drawings were weekly site meetings focused on creating seamless transitions between the major sections of the exterior composition.  

The stylistic references to rural classicism generated an arrival composition of strict symmetry with a central portico and barrel-vaulted entrance porch and front hall.  The private side of the home toward the lake offered a more casual composition connecting the main home to the guest house, terrace, pool and outdoor living room. The 25 meter pool offered both training for triathlons and a social center for all three generations.