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long,” the architect said. “The house, garden, and pool,
they all need each other to make sense.”
Like the Charleston houses, this house flows out
to its garden via an extended deck and screened porch
off the main living level. On the second level, a glassy
interior gallery walkway looks out to the pool, garden,
and street beyond. A series of projecting louvered
screens provides privacy from the street without
obscuring views to the outside.
Exterior cladding is a mix of white stucco and
fiber-cement siding in a restrained palette of white
and grey. This modern horizontal calm is punctuated
by several slender red steel elements supporting the
second-level louvered structure. The horizontality
of the house and pool is reinforced in the louvered
screens and steel railings that run the length of the
wooden deck, and by the fencing that separates the
pool from the street.
The architect points out that due to zoning
requirements and the significant slope of the lot, the
site dictated the placement of the pool on the north
side of the house. To ensure that the garden and pool
receive as much sunlight as possible, he carefully
inclined the roofline.
Although the pool side of the house is clearly the
project’s focal point, McInturff is quick to note that the
other three facades were not neglected. “We worked
hard on all four elevations; each one faces a neighbor
and we wanted to respect that.” He recalled that during
construction neighbors and others would pass by and
linger on the sidewalk trying to make sense of the very
skinny and very deep work site.
Because landscaping was essential to ensure
privacy for the pool, garden, and glass-dominated
house, the McInturff team brought in Lila Fendrick
Landscape Architects very early in the process. “We
worked hard to enhance the architectural design
here,” said Fendrick. Two-tiered hedge plantings
feature a dense outer row of skip laurel bushes along Photo © Anice Hoachlander
the street edge of the property, backed by an inner View from kitchen toward living and dining areas.
line of taller tree-form hollies. “In five years those
hollies will mature and be in scale with the house.
Views from inside were also very important so that
the owners could look out on a buffer of trees.” In
addition to plantings that provide year-round interest
in the garden, the Fendrick team assisted with grading,
drainage issues, and site lighting.
The interior of the house is a classic McInturff
light-filled, clean-lined, highly crafted space. The
principal entry, located on the narrow end of the
house, extends into an enfilade of open living areas:
living room, dining room, kitchen, and a guest suite.
The second floor is set back from the garden façade,
allowing window walls to extend the full height of the
house. White oak flooring and exposed steel structure
set the minimalist stage. The steel elements provide
rhythm and structure to the sweep of open space. “If
you make an open modern house you need plenty of

36 PARALLEL LINES Dining and living areas. Photo © Anice Hoachlander