Truly a “Romantic Revival”, this house has fulfilled a long awaited dream of its owner.
With a long history leading up to it’s popular revival during the 1850’s, the Octagon style home consists of an arrangement of spaces organized around a center core which cuts through the second floor and is capped with a windowed belvedere. The continuous verandah encircles the exterior and opens the house to the out-of-doors – a part of the Octagon mystique.
This update of the classic Octagon expands upon the basic concept to include an open central atrium complete with glassed elevator connecting all three levels. The first floor spaces, including the foyer, living room, dining room, and kitchen, all radiate from the atrium and flow easily into each other making this level ideal for entertaining. Each first floor room gains its own natural lighting through multiple eight foot tall windows which capture the eight different panoramic views available from the home’s elevated position on the large cul-de-sac lot in McLean, Virginia.
The eight corners of the octagon and the center atrium core are set with steel columns. Structural steel floor beams span from the outside wall columns to the core wall columns in a “spider web” pattern. The second floor steel beams cantilever over the walls of the atrium to form a continuous open hallway on the second floor. The hallway with its low railed wall allow easy access to the upstairs bedroom suites, master suite, and laundry room while providing the most dramatic views of the exposed heavy-timber framing of the belvedere roof above and the radial pattern of the Saltillo tiles reflected below. The relaxed and rustic feel of the hand made Mexican tile has been carried out in all of the bathrooms and the full height kitchen splash.
The finished basement, with nine foot high ceilings, houses another bedroom suite and an expansive family room and bar area that opens to a large areaway and wide exterior stairway.
Emphasizing and expanding the “out-of-doors” mystique is the twenty-six foot wide covered breezeway that connects the verandah to the two story garage. The breezeway roof has been framed with a sixteen foot x sixteen foot skylight that adds to the open air feeling of the large space and enhances the atmosphere for enjoyable outdoor entertaining. The porcelain tiled verandah and breezeway spaces are lined with tapered white columns and a distinctive architectural balustrade. Building components include painted masonry walls, deep red standing seam metal roofing, and dark green louvered shutters with hammered hinges and locks. The copper-topped louvered cupolas on the house and the garage add the final “romantic” touch to this warm and welcoming home.
