Gold Award

Huseby Homes, Nashville, Tenn.
Project location: Belle Meade, Tenn.
Sq. ft. before: 350
Sq. ft. after: 350
Project cost: $311,382

The Georgian Colonial, originally built in 1910, is considered a gem of the city of Belle Meade, Tenn., due to its regal front elevation and mature landscaping. During the past century, several families have owned the home and have made various modifications. For the most part, these additions did not interfere with the home’s classical architecture, with the exception of a glass conservatory, or Florida room, that connected the main house to the library in the rear. The cheap addition was leaking and cut off the language of the otherwise great architecture of the home.

Huseby Homes of Nashville was engaged to build a new conservatory designed in the classical Doric order by architectural purist Eric Stengel. Nashville-based Stengel is among a minority of residential architects that practices true classicism in his designs.

To execute the vision provided, the remodeler removed the existing structure and built a conservatory that is founded in a steel structure which provides the rigidity necessary for the clerestory and the intricate, yet understated, trim.

The conservatory is an octagon located in a tight space, connecting the main block of the home to the rear library.

The project presented several challenges related to its tight location. The new conservatory is located at the rear of the main house between a detached garage and small courtyard area that is terminated by the property line and is defined by a brick wall. In order to excavate for the new addition, the contractor had to hand-remove the existing brick pavers and concrete slabs.

Secondly, the location mandated the existing rear wall of the garage serve as an interior brick wall of the room. Also, the roof structure needed to be built to properly shed water not only from the new building but also from the existing two-car garage. The drainage had to be effective without diminishing the original appearance of the architecture, which uses inbound gutters.

The project presented estimating challenges because the intricate nature of the architecture and assembly of materials are difficult to exactly estimate. Due to the amount of unforeseen labor in the trimming out of a steel structure with an irregular shape and with a full Doric entablature, most contractors would have used a cost-plus model. Huseby, however, committed to deliver the project for the original estimate, excluding owner approved increases in expenditures.

“The detail, construction and looks blew me away,” said one of the judges.

Specified Products

Exterior doors: Marvin
Windows, skylights: Marvin
Wood flooring: Jeffco Flooring
Paints/stains: Sherwin Williams
Roofing: Rubber membrane and copper

Silver
Donatelli Builders, Inc., Wheaton, Ill.

Bronze
Team Entry: Schulte Restorations, Hopewell, N.J. and Maxmillian Hayden Architect, Inc., Princeton, N.J.