October 18 2024

Steep Creek House and Five Gables House Win AIA Baltimore Awards

Ziger|Snead Architects were winners of multiple AIA Baltimore Excellence in Design Awards, announced Friday at the awards presentation at the Chesapeake Shakespeare Theatre downtown.

Steep Creek House won both a Residential Design Award and an AIA Baltimore Excellence in Design Award. The home is set on a thick concrete wall that acts as a dividing spine along the cascading contours of the steeply sloped and tightly constrained site. A large open living space with glass walls connects the interior to the forest below. Textured Shou Sugi Ban and integrated wood screens provide privacy and shading while allowing for outside air to flow through the home. Large expanses of metal framed window walls maximize views of the surrounding forest, blurring interior and exterior spaces. Clean and direct geometries combine with natural materials to express rawness and simplicity.

The Five Gables house won two AIA Baltimore Excellence in Design Awards for Design and Detail. Replacing a smaller single-story home on the scenic edges of the Lancaster Country Club and Conestoga River, the home is a village of five gabled structures, each tailored in size and height to meet specific functional needs: public, family living, kids, primary suite, and sports. The design shifts these gables along parallel paths, orienting interior spaces towards diverse elements of the surrounding landscape while shaping cultivated outdoor spaces. The gable forms are connected by a continuous single-story flat roof element clad in nickel gap ceiling panels and punctuated by large skylights that integrate the white brick volumes into a unified composition. Louvered walls serve as sun shields by day and transform into glowing beacons by night.

Congratulations to our team and collaborators on both projects.