Studio/Guesthouse

Location: Hillsborough, NC

Completed: 2001

Square footage: 742 (heated), 315 (exterior)

The rolling farmland of Hillsborough, North Carolina, suggests simple pleasures, peaceful evenings for contemplation, and a timeless quality. The architects designed a special retreat to be located on ten acres of sparsely wooded meadow here, a place that would be as calm and bucolic as the land around it.

Reminiscent of the North Carolina tobacco barns of old, the studio and guesthouse echo tradition while adapting to modern needs. The building was designed as two volumes connected by a screened breezeway that forms the entrance. The structure was sited as an outbuilding to the main house, which sits on an adjacent twelve-acre lot. The barn red board-and-batten siding and the gray metal roof give the building a sense of continuity with its countryside setting.