TRIANGLE DOWNTOWNER: “SUSTAINABILITY + VISION + PASSION + RACo”

Robby Johnston and Craig Kerins, co-founders of The Raleigh Architecture Company (RACo) on South West Street, can point to several projects they’ve completed in downtown Raleigh within the three years that they’ve been professional partners.

On Hargett Street, Nuvonivo, a children’s clothing boutique, and Arrow Haircuts, a hip take on an old fashioned barber shop, sit side-by-side. On Hillsborough Street, they designed Runologie, an independent running supply shop, and State of Beer, a craft beer bar and bottle shop. Then there’s Crank Arm Brewing on West Davie Street and, by the end of this summer, Standard Foods market and restaurant on Person Street.

These projects are independent, but they resonate with RACo’s design sensibilities: They’re all “up-fits” in challenging spaces within old, existing buildings — a form of sustainability the partners encourage and enjoy. They’re also characterized by clean, uncluttered spaces, innovative uses of everyday materials, and deceptively simple solutions that generate a lot of surprise per dollar.

“Robby and Craig combine a big picture vision for a great modern city with a practical approach, mainly consisting of the hard work that it takes to actually get projects done,” says David Meeker, a managing member of Carpenter Real Estate, State of Beer, and Runologie, among other businesses. “Plenty of folks have one or the other. It’s rare to find a team that has both.” READ MORE (page 16)…

“HUNGRY NECK” HOUSE IN DOWNTOWN RALEIGH TO BE FEATURED ON 2015 HOMES TOUR

An award-winning Modern home in Raleigh’s old “Hungry Neck” neighborhood, designed and built by The Raleigh Architecture Company (RACo), will be open to the public during the sixth Residential Tour sponsored by the Triangle Section of the American Institute of Architects’ North Carolina chapter (AIA Triangle). The tour will take place on Saturday, September 26, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

One of only seven residences selected for the 2015 tour, the Hungry Neck house received an AIA Triangle honor award for design excellence and construction quality this past spring.

“Honor awards are granted to projects that exemplify excellence of architectural design on all levels of analysis and are reserved for those projects that stand out,” said design jury chairman William Carpenter, FAIA, of Decatur, Georgia.

This house is actually one of a cluster of compact modern houses in the old neighborhood just east of downtown Raleigh. Designed by RACo partners Craig Kerins, AIA, and Robby Johnston, AIA, it perches on an infill lot overlooking a busy thoroughfare. In the spirit of the neighborhood, the partners turned a corner of the façade into a front porch.

The owner is a chef by avocation, so the interior revolves around cooking and entertaining. A light-filled, double-height space in the center of the house connects the open kitchen to the rest of the house. At the rear of the house, large operable glazing lets the dining room expand outside and focuses the view on a 100-year-old oak tree. A balcony off the master bedroom suite provides outdoor living space on the second floor.

AIA Triangle encompasses members in Wake, Durham, Orange, Lee, Chatham, Franklin, Warren, Vance, Granville, and Person counties. The houses on the 2015 tour are located in Raleigh, Durham, Creedmoor, and Pittsboro. 

THE RALEIGH ARCHITECTURE CO. TO ADDRESS AIA WINSTON-SALEM

The young firm’s partners will represent an emerging and innovative design-build practice.
 

Robby Johnston, AIA, and Craig Kerins, AIA, founders and partners of The Raleigh Architecture Company (RACo) in Raleigh, will discuss their design-build work during the American Institute of Architects’ Winston-Salem section meeting on Tuesday, May 19, beginning at 12 noon in the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts in downtown Winston-Salem.

According to section president Jason Miller, AIA Winston-Salem has developed a “dual-pronged approach to section meetings: one focused on policy issues…and another devoted to emerging and innovative practices from across the state.” The RACo partners will represent the Triangle area for the latter theme.

Miller said he’s particularly interested in RACo’s work since he teaches in and practices through the “design-build-centric” Building Science program in Appalachian State University’s Department of Technology and Environmental Design in Boone, NC.

Johnston and Kerins founded The Raleigh Architecture Company and The Raleigh Construction Company, in the Warehouse District of downtown Raleigh in 2012. Since then, the young firm has completed 15 Modern residential projects and 15 commercial projects, including retail up-fits within existing historic buildings from Raleigh to Asheville. Kerins also designs and hand crafts Modern furniture.

For more information on AIA Winston-Salem, visit www.aiawinstonsalem.org.

NEWS & OBSERVER: “HOUSING STOCK EAST OF DOWNTOWN RALEIGH GETS A JOLT OF MODERNISM”

Local developer Jason Queen and The Raleigh Architecture and Constructioncompanies are partnering to build 3 modernist houses on Wynne Street. (Photo by Chris Seward)

By David Bracken
 

RALEIGH — When Craig Kerins and Robby Johnston began building a cluster of modernist homes on Edenton Street a few blocks east of downtown, the architects knew they were tapping into a shift in attitudes among the homebuying public.

“The second those homes started to take shape, there was lots of market interest,” says Johnston. “We started receiving lots of phone calls.”

But the five homes – which feature large overhangs, big shared spaces filled with light from 9-by-9 windows and skylights – were all done on commission and would not be listed for sale.

That is not the case for their latest project, a trio of similarly designed houses that are now going up on Wynne Street a block from Chavis Park.

While a small sample size, Kerins and Johnston’s work is a sign that many of the defining characteristics of modernist architecture – open plans, numerous windows, and easy accessibility from inside to outside – have become features prized by many of today’s homeowners. READ MORE..

ARCHITECTURE LAB: “Hungry Neck House / The Raleigh Architecture Company”

The Hungry Neck house home sits right in the middle of an old neighborhood in downtown Raleigh, NC, surrounded by busy thoroughfares and an assortment of frame houses from the 1930s and ‘40s.The thoroughfares suggested that the house “turn its back” on the street and focus on a huge, beautiful oak tree in the backyard. In the spirit of the neighborhood, however, a corner of the façade became a front porch overlooking the sidewalk. The owners, a young married couple, also enjoy the fact that their Modern house is helping to reinvigorate an old urban neighborhood that’s been overlooked for decades… READ MORE