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ArchDC Summer 2017.qxp_Summer 2017 5/24/17 10:48 AM Page 29

Project: Renovation of Ulrich Franzen House,
Gibson Island, MD
Architects: Rill Architects
Landscape Architects: Rivendell Landscaping
Kitchen Design Consultants: Snaidero DC Metro
Contractor: Horizon HouseWorks

Foyer and main staircase. An elevator that had filled
part of the stairwell was removed in the renovation.

Master bedroom, with study in the left background.

Kitchen before renovation.
Courtesy of Rill Architects
Renovated kitchen.
All photos © Eric Taylor, except as noted

to create a continuous band of glass running along the entire space to the rear. The interiors of the main level are united by a
perimeter below the roof. At the front of the house, which appears continuous mahogany ceiling.
on approach to be a single story, the glass forms a relatively narrow Successive owners made numerous modifications to the
strip over a stone wall whose varied color and irregular texture house, many of them unsympathetic to the original design. By the
contrast with the machined refinement of the steel canopy. The time the current owners bought it a couple of years ago, the basic
partial-height stone wall continues roughly halfway along each structure was still in very good condition, but the interiors were
side façade before dropping away as the site slopes, revealing a out of date and rather shabby in some areas. An elevator had been
daylight basement and allowing floor-to-ceiling windows to wrap added in the main stairwell, blocking light and interrupting the
the rear of the main level. Unexpectedly, the partial-height stone sense of openness that characterized much of the house. An indoor
walls and high glass bands appear on the interior of the house, pool lent an institutional feel to the lower level and left that space
too, defining a zone along the front of the main level that contains all but unusable for any other purpose.
distinct rooms such as the kitchen, bathrooms, and bedrooms, “This was a modern jewel that had been ignored and
while the principal living and dining areas occupy a single open misunderstood,” said Jim Rill, AIA, whose firm, Rill Architects,

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