Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 28, 1994 TAG: 9412280034
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOANNE ANDERSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
So it is quite an honor that the 33-year-old Currie House in Blacksburg has been approved into this prestigious circle of important places.
Each property nominated for the National Register must meet one of four criteria. It must either be associated with an historic event or with an important person. It must possess distinctive design and physical characteristics, or it must have potential to provide important information on the past.
According to James Hill, National Register coordinator for Virginia's Department of Historic Resources, the state review board recognized "exceptional quality of the design" in the Currie House.
A series of nested squares from a bird's-eye view, the 40-foot square home encircles an eight-foot square center chimney and is wrapped with a deck that's around 49 feet on each side. The roof is appropriately square, extending over the exterior walls like a big Mexican hat. A square hat, that is.
Hidden gutters route rainfall and snow melt to open drains in the center of each side of the house. The water spills to concrete splash basins below, creating waterfalls that are delightful to watch from inside the house.
Simplicity is a key concept. It's the idea of using the "least outside envelope with the most space enclosed," explained architect Leonard Currie. Other examples of this architectural philosophy include the geodesic dome and the igloo.
Life inside this modified cube is unencumbered by pipes, wiring, heat vents, floor grills or radiators. The furnace, wiring and pipes all run inside the center chimney.
Copper tubing in the ceilings of the main level provide radiant heat, and iron pipes under the lower level tile floor provide warmth from below. It's a little like a sandwich effect, said Currie, now 81.
"You're not aware of where the heat is coming from. You feel comfortable, and the furniture and rugs are being kept at a reasonable temperature without having any air blasting at you." Additionally, there's no noise.
Ten-foot sheets of glass make up the south-facing living and dining room walls. While there is a lot of heat loss, mostly because double-pane and specially treated glass was not available in 1961, there is also heat gain. The sun hits the deck in June and streams inside the house when lower in the sky in December.
There are wood and frosted glass walls on the street side of the house and 10-foot sliding glass doors at each of three corners.
Currie admits he might have overdone it with the ventilation. "On a windy day, you couldn't have all these doors open. It would blow you and the furniture right out."
But this Harvard-educated architect sees no need for air conditioning. "At this altitude and in this climate, I don't see any reason for air conditioning and all these heat pumps that are so fashionable, not to mention noisy and energy-consuming."
A narrow row of glass at the top of the ceiling gives a floating roof effect. The galley kitchen, with black walnut cupboards and trim, originally had a horizontal refrigerator. The master bedroom behind it has glass barriers to the ceiling.
"I wanted everything open," stated Currie, "but my wife thought we should have a little privacy in our bedroom."
Currie, along with his wife,Virginia, and their three teen-agers were the first family to live in the house. Along with simplicity of design, Currie considered his family in the plans.
Contrasting the glass walls on the main floor are concrete walls downstairs with skinny windows, 4-by-72 inches. The fortress style was incorporated to create a feeling of safety and protection for the teen-agers. A kitchenette, "so the kids could prepare their own snacks and entertain friends," a workshop, laundry area, bedrooms that now serve as offices and a den make up the rest of the lower level.
Outside the house, one steps onto a wide deck with a view to the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was designed as a totally open area, without railings, for "socialization and relating to space and the scenery beyond," said Currie, who still lives in the Blacksburg area. Flower boxes were placed, as an afterthought, at the patio edge outside the glass doors. Thus, if someone walked out when the lighting wasn't real good, they'd walk into a flower box. A short railing of sorts has also been added, but not the entire length.
Currie, in keeping with his style, doesn't see the need for it. "Millions of people stand on the subway platforms in Chicago each day," he explained. "There are no railings there. If someone fell off and didn't get hit by a moving train, they'd be electrocuted. But no one does. People don't want to fall off things."
Open staircases - a granite cantilevered one outside and an oak and fir one inside - the center chimney of bricks hand-made at Virginia Tech, eight mahogany lanterns made by Currie and the redwood bevel siding exterior all contribute to the uniqueness of this home.
Owned by a Virginia Tech professor for the past 23 years, the Currie House is truly an exception to a lot of rules.
by CNB