Modern Residence in Cameron Park To Be Open For Public Touring September 6th

 

During the evening “ModHop” Tour of private houses in Raleigh

 

(Photos by Raymond Goodman)

 The Hawthorne Residence (above left), a modern, award-winning home in Raleigh’s historic Cameron Park neighborhood, will be open to the public during the “ModHop” Tour, an evening house tour on September 6^th from 6 –  8:30 p.m. hosted by North Carolina Modernist Houses in association with the 2017 Hopscotch Design Festival.

Designed and built by Tonic Design principles Katherine Hogan, AIA, and Vincent Petrarca, this single-family home replaced a dark, cramped, early 20th-century bungalow to give the owners modernist light, space, and form, and a strong connection between indoors and outdoors.

To achieve the indoor-outdoor connection, the designers dropped the back elevation to grade and used floor-to-ceiling glass on the exterior wall to expand the view and living space into the backyard. A single-tilt roof with deep, cantilevered overhangs reference the covered porches of neighboring houses. Operable windows and extensive glazing throughout the house allow for daylight and natural ventilation, greatly reducing the homeowners’ reliance on electric lights during the day. A geothermal ground-source heat pump, fiber-cement rain-screen panels on exterior walls, locally available wood detailing, and Energy Star appliances make it 50 percent more energy efficient than a standard new home and 80 percent more efficient than the average resale home.

The two-story house is transparent from the front door through the main living area (above) and on through the kitchen and dining space to the backyard. A sleek staircase composition makes the vertical circulation a sculptural presence at the center of the interior while leading to the children’s bedrooms and central play space upstairs. Crisp white walls and warm wood flooring throughout the house underscore the simple, modern interior.

Hogan and Petrarca will be on hand to answer tour participants’ questions about the Hawthorne Residence during the ModHop Tour.

For more information on the tour and to purchase tickets, go to http://www.ncmodernist.org/modhop17.

For more information on Tonic Design, visit www.tonic-design.com.

 

 

 

NEWS & OBSERVER: “A new model for architecture”

1700 Glenwood, Tonic Design and Tonic Construction: A vintage 1965 midcentury modern landmark, 1700 Glenwood has benefitted from two renovations at the hands of Vinny Petrarca and Katherine Hogan. The first, in 2011, was a classic design-build for a new aesthetic and a reduction in solar gain. That meant energy-efficient glass, a sunscreen, and a zinc skin – all for $180,000.

By J. Michael Welton

For the past few years, I’ve been writing about a new trend in design and construction. It’s called architect-led design-build – and right now, it’s a rising star in certain circles. Builders have been embracing it for decades, but today architects are taking the lead, too – and for good reason…

…North Carolina law prohibits architecture firms from operating as construction companies, so two separate legal entities are required – one for design and another for building. That way, designers can work both inside the studio as architects and on the site as builders. It translates into accelerated schedules, too, because the two companies are freed from the bidding process usually conducted by general contractors.

“The bank loan is for a year, so we design in three months and build in nine,” says Vinny Petrarca, a partner in Tonic Design and Tonic Construction. “It gives you choices and options a little bit sooner,” adds his partner, Katherine Hogan. “We can understand the financial outcomes – and it adds design value.”  READ MORE…

GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN: “Architect To Watch – Katherine Hogan”

Interview by Erin Brereton

Katherine Hogan

Katherine Hogan spent the first few years of her career at a nonprofit that provided design services to small, low-income rural communities. In 2008, she joined Raleigh, North Carolina-based Tonic Design + Tonic Construction, which recently received a Small Projects Practitioners award from the AIA for its pavilion at the North Carolina Museum of Art. Hogan, an associate AIA member and a LEED AP, is a partner at Tonic, alongside firm founder Vincent Petrarca. She spoke to gb&d about the benefits of being a builder and how she plans to keep pushing the industry forward.

gb&d: How did your early work in your career help prepare you for your position at Tonic?

Katherine Hogan: I worked for Will Bruder + Partners in Phoenix for a summer and got to go back full-time when I first graduated, which was a very wonderful experience. One of his descriptors of his work is that he always tries to find the extraordinary in the ordinary—to look at a material and try to use it differently and to examine space and context, which were all really good messages. I did a fellowship after that, where I worked in year increments on particular projects. A lot of the work was to further socially conscious design. I’ve done some really interesting projects and got to understand the client as not just someone who comes to you with a significant amount of money—the client is any person who needs a building.

gb&d: You’ve been with Tonic Design since 2008. How did you come to specialize in residential and small-scale commercial projects? READ MORE…

 

 

 

Tonic Design + Tonic Construction Wins AIA NC’s Only Residential Design Award

For a modern house in Hillsborough, North Carolina

November 20, 2012 (Raleigh NC) – Tonic Design + Tonic Construction, an award-winning design/build firm in Raleigh, NC, has received a Merit Award from the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA NC) for its design and construction of the “Crabill Modern” house in Hillsborough, NC.

It was the only residential project to win an AIA NC design award this year.

This simple, modern home is located in a clearing amidst a lush, five-acre forest. The Crabills wanted the house to disturb the natural environment as little as possible and to accommodate local wildlife.

“They also wanted a unique live-work house that provides interesting spatial overlaps,” said project designer Katherine Hogan, who co-owns of Tonic Design + Tonic Construction with her husband, designer Vinny Petraca. “And they wanted it to be constructed in a simple and cost-effective way.”

The house is sited to avoid disturbing the environment, to maximize natural lighting and ventilation, and to frame views of forest, including a three-trunked tree.

To reflect the rural setting, the design references regional agricultural structures yet renders them in a modern composition using simple, inexpensive materials. Recalling old farm sheds, the house’s skewed cubic form is clad in solid and perforated COR-TEN®, a steel alloy developed to eliminate the need for painting. The steel forms a stable rust-like appearance when exposed to the weather. As a result, the house will be a constantly evolving element in the landscape as a rich patina develops over the years. The COR-TEN also acts as a rain screen, canopy, sunshade, and visual screen.

Spray foam insulation, tightly sealed ducts, low-e glazed windows, and Energy Star® appliances contribute to the home’s energy conservation. Despite the fact that their new house is 800 feet larger than their previous house, the Crabills report that their energy bills are, on average, 30 percent lower.

The first floor includes the entry, a spacious kitchen/living/dining room, a studio/music space, and two decks. The second floor includes the master bedroom suite and two bedrooms for the Crabills’ children, who share an extra loft space and bath.

Tonic Construction completed the house for $155 per square foot, due in large part to the design/build process and the creative use of materials.

The annual AIA NC Design Awards celebrate the achievements of architects and designers across the state and recognize a select group of diverse projects that distinguish themselves both in response to their clients’ needs and design excellence. For more information, visit www.ncaia.org.

For more information on Tonic Design + Tonic Construction, go to www.tonic-design.com.

Raleigh Designer Joins Nationally Acclaimed Firm El Dorado

Tonic Design + Tonic Construction’s Ted Arendes moves to Kansas

Ted times two.

City.

July 17, 2012 (Raleigh, NC) – Tonic Design + Tonic Construction in Raleigh recently announced that designer/project manager Ted Arendes has joined the nationally acclaimed firm El Dorado in Kansas City, Missouri.

Arendes is a graduate of the University of Kansas. He worked with Dan Rockhill at Studio 804 in Kansas before joining Tonic, a construction-led, design/build studio located in Raleigh.

For five years, Arendes has worked on both the design and construction sides of the firm, both in the office and in the field. He has managed construction on many of the firm’s modernist houses, including the award-winning Smart-Stell residence in Durham; the Crabill residence in Hillsborough, which was featured in Dwell magazine in March of 2012, and the Rank residence currently under construction in Pittsboro.

“It isn’t easy to find someone who is talented and highly skilled at both design and construction,” said Tonic co-owner Katherine Hogan. “Usually you have someone who is much stronger in one area. That’s why it has been great working with Ted. And we couldn’t be happier for him that he’s found a position in such a prestigious firm as El Dorado.”

No doubt that dual expertise appealed to the El Dorado principles. As El Dorado partner Dan Maginntold Dwell in 2006, “The bottom line is that architects should know how to build. The best way to know how to build is to get in there and do it.”

Tonic co-owner Vinny Petraca noted, “One of our first clients told me that, in any profession, you never know how much time you will spend with your colleagues. He told us, challenged us, to make each day count and to push each project to the highest limit because you never know how long, or short, that moment together will be. Ted has always been motivated to achieve success. I am so proud of our time with him. We definitely made our time together count.”

El Dorado was founded in 1996. Its primary office in is Kansas City, MO, and the firm maintains a satellite office in Wichita, Kansas. For more information visit http://www.eldo.us.

For more information on Tonic Design + Tonic Construction, visit www.tonic-design.com.

RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECT: “tonic design offers feasibility service to clients”

By Stephani Miller

Raleigh, N.C.-based design/build firm Tonic Design | Tonic Construction has developed a flat-fee service for its clients to help them understand the process and realities of building a home before they commit to moving forward with construction. The service, dubbed Tonic Express, helps clients determine the scope and financial feasibility of their home building project, for a fee of $3,000.

“Our goal is to get more people to use architects and not spend their cash out-of-pocket until they [secure] a loan with a bank,” says Vincent Petrarca, partner and general contractor at Tonic. “Ninety-eight percent of the public doesn’t use architects—I think it’s just because it’s so costly. What we did was streamline the process, so that people can have more options for using architects.” READ MORE…