This AIA Merit Award Winning home was designed by Bob James, who was the founding architect of James, Harwick + Partners, a firm known for its work in planning, architecture and urban design. Bob James has been involved in many large, award-winning projects and in 2000, designed Vicki's Creek House.

Bob James designed this AIA award-winning home to blend into the neighborhood and provide dramatic views by the surrounding creek and woods. With 3,450 square feet, it is both stylish and practical. It is sited on one-half acre overlooking Royal Branch Creek and a public wilderness park behind it. In a gesture to the neighborhood of 1960s ranch style homes, Vicki's Creek House blends into the streetscape.

As you pass through the front facade of translucent glass that provides privacy from the street, you discover a splendid and open floor plan with expansive walls with a grid of horizontal windows separating the interior from the woods and rugged terrain of Royal Branch Creek and the park. The striated detailing of the limestone wall surrounding the fireplace is illuminated by a skylight emphasizing this sculptural element.

The kitchen is blond with sleek, flush panel cabinet doors and unobtrusive knobs. A broad stone peninsula both separates and integrates the kitchen and family room. Going outside, you step onto a deck that juts like a pier towards the creek, extending the home into nature, continuing the solitude you find within the home protecting you from the demands of the city. The ambiguity of the interior and exterior space is further enhanced by the generous use of exterior materials within the home - exposed concrete floors, clear maple cabinetry and a subtle blend of texture, color and shadows.

For more information see: www.jhparch.com