Highland House

Almost 40 years ago, a family purchased a tract of land nestled in the Shenandoah mountain range in Pendleton County, West Virginia. At that time a small, one room A-frame hunting cabin sat in relative isolation at the base elevation of the rolling property along a winding dirt road that served as the only vehicular access to the site. Over the years the hunting cabin was expanded to include a living space and bedroom, roughly tripling the size of the house. The space accommodated scores of visitors and became embedded with personal memories and family history.

Eventually, the structure deteriorated, water began to creep into the roofing, and the low slung lay-in ceiling of the living room began to show signs of mold. This sparked the undertaking of a significant, yet restrained renovation predicated on re-inventing the place while maintaining traces of its past. Given the low budget ($90/ft), the transformation was only possible by maximizing efficiency within the original footprint. The roof over the living space and the hunting cabin was completely removed and the beautiful dimensional lumber of the original A-frame roof was left exposed within a new library space. This gave way to a more expressive roof structure which springs from four timber columns offset from the original footprint to allow the composition to become unified beneath. A linear set of clerestory windows tie the new form to the old and a new loft hovering over the kitchen signifies a new generation of inhabitants.