Twin Turrets

Location: Great Falls, VA

When we’re hired to expand a home, we’re typically asked incorporate the addition in a subtle manner, working out designs that seamlessly integrate with the original and are hard to identify as new. With this project, the clients wanted visual impact. Something magnificent, unusual and worthy of the extensive architectural landscaping that they also commissioned.

For lack of a better description we settled on twin turrets. Though two different sizes, the octagonal turrets have essentially been “attached” to the back of the brick house along with multi-door entry and clerestory bank of windows that couldn’t be more dramatic.

Heavily windowed, the turret’s introduce abundant light to the newly designed spaces and provide spectacular views of the award-winning landscaping outside. The smaller of the two turrets is home to the new dining room and showcases the custom designed window panes. Above is a covered porch and sitting area which feels casual despite the more formal doric columns that surround it.

The large turret houses a lovely library/office upstairs and a great room with stone floors and a stone fireplace below. The new kitchen sits beside the dining room and enjoys great views of the landscape thanks to the abundant windows. Doric columns are reintroduced in the kitchen and feel at home with the rich cherry cabinetry, marble surfaces and twin chandeliers.

A master bath remodel and wine cellar were also part of the additions and renovations that have taken this otherwise ordinary 1970 brick home and turned it into an extraordinary showcase of sophisticated taste and first rate craftsmanship.