This project, just completed, occupies an extraordinary location in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The immediate site forms a kind of saddle, on the intersection of a ridge on the East-West axis and a valley running North to South.

The house runs along the ridge and bridges the valley, opening its long sides to the long North-South views. The pieces of the program — a 2 bedroom house, screened porch, pool terrace, painter’s studio, entry court and garage — are articulated and aligned along the ridge axis. A continuous roof spans the entire collection, transforming the modest scale of the individual pieces into a unified composition over 200 feet long, carrying a single line across the entire facade. Only one space rises above the continuous roof, elevating a special room for taking in distant views.

Like a bridge, the structural system is continuous and insistent. Steel frames at 16 feet on center march the length of the building, inside and out. All exterior surfaces — windows, walls and ceilings — are arranged in modular subdivisions of this structural bay.

Low-maintenance metal and fiber cement panels clad the exterior walls. Inside, white wall planes will form a backdrop for nature outside, and the owners’ art collection within.