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Before constructing their outdoor living space, Lisa and Randy Pizzi had a simple wooden porch they rarely used: featureless, coverless, and made of wood that had begun to rot. Thanks to a creative collaboration that included architect, engineer, and builder, the new room that has replaced it has a soaring roof inspired by a ribbed boat hull and a diamond—and seems to float above the landscape.
The Pizzis are both retired; Randy is a veteran of the US Navy. Their home in Davidsonville, Maryland, just a mile or two from the Chesapeake Bay, is where they plan to enjoy the rest of their lives. The home itself is ranch style with a warm, woody color scheme of reds, taupes, and grays, and a stone chimney that rises out of the roof. As they considered new plans for the porch, the Pizzis imagined a covered patio like an outdoor living room, with a TV, barbecue, and fireplace as focal points. “[The porch] had come to the end of its life,” says James N. Gerrety, the architect the Pizzis tasked with the renovation. Because of the home’s proximity to the Bay, and because Randy had served in the Navy, Gerrety envisioned a nautical feel and sketched an exposed roof with white beams, similar to the ribbed hull of a ship.
The project was constrained by the Pizzis’ swimming pool and their septic tank. To optimize space, and to keep the fireplace from blocking the pool, Gerrety rotated the entire project 45 degrees, creating a diamond-shaped room, and added two wings covered by pergolas: one for dining and the other for barbecuing.
When it comes to a project with a unique, complicated shape, Gerrety says, “The key is to make it look effortless, as if there isn’t as much there—but there really is.” Gidon Carlin of Carlin Brothers Construction had to make a heavy, ribbed roof appear to float almost acrobatically. After expressing his admiration for Gerrety’s plans to “make an addition not look like an addition,” Carlin went the extra mile in the construction process, making the room feel like an organic limb of the house. Gerrety had consulted some engineers who believed that a diamond roof with elaborate detailing would be untenable. However, after adding engineer John Snyder to the team, Gerrety and Carlin eventually devised and implemented a viable roof supported by a ridge beam that projected from the house. Carlin worked alongside carpenters to ensure that the exposed rafters fit perfectly and to conceal any unsightly parts of the construction process. As a finishing touch, Carlin hand built columns on site to buttress the roof—convinced that less expensive, prefabricated columns would not do.
The porch fireplace is the first thing the Pizzis see when they walk onto their new deck. Gerrety knew real stone would best complement the Pizzis’ existing chimney, so when he designed a thin stone fireplace, Carlin had to build a wooden frame and then line it with stone.
Carlin says the Davidsonville space has proven to be one of his most challenging projects. The timing was right, though, and the effort and expense well worth it. The old porch had come to the end of its life, while the couple was, in a sense, starting a new phase. Their diamond-shaped outdoor room, lofty and true, is an imaginative vessel for their ongoing journey.
ARCHITECT: James Gerrety, jamesgerretyaia.com, Washington, DC | BUILDER: Carlin Brothers Construction, carlinbros.com, Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis Home Magazine
Vol. 11, No. 3 2020