recent projects

Greenovation - 41 Pearson

This project started with Jacob and Alicia Sessoms' 10-year-old infill bungalow on a tight, irregularly-shaped lot in Montford, a revived and thriving Asheville historic neighborhood. The Sessoms wanted a master suite addition that would look integral to the house, not added-on, and also wanted home-wide gains in energy efficiency.

To create a visually integrated, site-appropriate addition, we built a new, steeply-pitched roof gable, added new interior stairs outside the original footprint to preserve all the existing floor-space, and incorporated an open guardrail to bring light back into the living room where these stairs would otherwise have blocked it.

Inside the addition, we developed a contemporary interior with an open bath and bedroom plan, freeing up the downstairs bedrooms for the Sessoms' two young sons. The open shower/vanity area exchanges light and views with the main bedroom, and a small upstairs porch takes advantage of mountain views not often seen from this dense old neighborhood. Steel framing and detailing on the interior adds a modern, harmonious accent to the prevailing Arts and Crafts design.

For energy efficiency, we added open-cell foam insulation to all accessible spaces, installed a new, high-efficiency HVAC system, high-efficiency windows, and a tankless water heater. How effective were these measures? Even with the added space of the additions, the household gas bill went down from a high of $400 per month to just $37. "For people in my generation," Alicia Sessoms says, "going green is the way you have to do things. It's the only appropriate choice."