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Revived Steel Structure Becomes Graceful Perch for Art Lovers

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A gigantic roof deck creates the sense of an expansive “tabletop” sited amidst the tops of a towering old growth forest in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Tonic Design + Construction designed and built the contemporary 3500-square-foot house for art collectors John and Molly Chiles, set in the forest canopy.

The new house was constructed re using the metal “bones” of an abandoned 1960s era steel-framed and wood-paneled house overlooking Crabtree Creek.

The cladding had been overgrown by kudzu and ivy, rotting the wood. It was in terrible condition.

The architect did not repeat the original mistake of wood cladding in a damp forest setting.

The new house was an all metal re-design.

Instead, the wonderful “bones” of the neglected remains become the chassis for a dramatic new house.

The deck of the now clearly defined steel structure offers views across the treetops to the distant horizon.

The all white open floor plan with loft-like spaces makes this treetop perch an unlikely home.

A roof garden places trees below the steel walkway to the topmost deck,  to further a expansive sense of suspension above the trees.

The clients’ extensive art collection is housed in an all white gallery space.

Windows on all four sides of the open spaces keeps the ever present greenery close.

Interestingly, even interior ceilings are panelled in corrugated metal, also painted art gallery white.

Rich timber flooring is the only wood in the house.

Altogether a superb new house with both wide open vistas and delightful library spaces for its bookish art collector clients.