What does the Food Network’s hit show Chopped have to do with a luxury townhome development in Chesapeake? According to Stephen Quick IV, everyone in the development and construction business has essentially the same “basket of ingredients” with which to create; his company just thinks about how to use them differently.
Quick, a principal with Stephen Alexander Homes and Neighborhoods, is specifically referring to his team’s approach to Urbanna, the 2023 CoVa Idea House, one of the Legacy 168 “Row Townhomes” nestled into Traditions at Great Bridge. The Idea House is a long-running partnership with Coastal Virginia Magazine, though this year’s iteration represents the first townhome in the series and the first Idea House in Chesapeake. For its part, the Traditions development is a multi-generational commercial/retail/residential project—another first in Chesapeake—created in partnership with Taylor Grissom and Prempay Development in accordance with the guidelines of the historic Great Bridge Village Design District.
With Urbanna, Stephen Alexander introduces their “Mid-Century Coastal” concept. This home offers all the luxury lifestyle, amenities and upgrades of an upmarket single-family home, but none of the high mortgage, tax and insurance costs. The only thing standard about this three-story townhome is its 21 x 42 footprint and just over 2,100 square feet of living space. Through innovative design and space planning, this end unit offers “full size everything,” placing Legacy 168 and the Idea House squarely at the intersection of the high-end of luxury and the moderate end of price.
Living large within a smaller, more efficient and more cost-effective envelope is the name of the game in the current economy with its high interest rates. Considered a Zero Energy Ready Home—”a high-performance home that is so energy efficient that a renewable energy system could offset most or all the home’s annual energy use”—Urbanna meets rigorous efficiency and performance criteria based on features like a SEER 18.4 ducted mini-split HVAC system, LOW-E (emissivity) argon gas windows, and a tankless hot water heater. Estimated energy costs are only $100 per month. And as one of Cox Communications Direct Fiber Neighborhoods, internet upload and download speeds are lightning fast.
But what does this economic and environmentally responsive townhome look like? Like a lovely, luxury single family home. The exterior exudes a crisp, classic vibe with a modern edge. A rhythm of both vertical and horizontal sections of white board-and-batten siding is punctuated with tasteful color blocking in the form of box bays clad in a calming coastal palette of grays and sea blue. Gabled roofs—along with metal-clad bracketed porch overhangs—lend approachability and quaintness while the roof design visually lowers the height of the three-level units and creates an appealing vaulted ceiling on the third floors. Communal green space invites neighbors to gather in a brewery-style environment for grilling, games and glows around the firepit.
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Urbanna, an end unit, projects a special sense of arrival with a recessed black front door and transom flanked by gray-blue board and batten siding and planters illuminated by a pendant light overhead. This design suggests a welcoming front porch—which as Quick points out, no one ever uses—and allows for a highly functional 10 x 19’ screened porch to be integrated into the main living and entertaining space on the second level. Just inside the front door, an ample foyer doubles as a mudroom with a built-in gray-blue bench sporting basket cubbies above, shoe cubbies below, and hooks on its back wall.
Like an invitation to a party or the wrapping on a gift, this space creates anticipation for what is to come by establishing the gray-blue, white and neutral color palette; the clean lines and crisp feel; and the mid-century modern (MCM) and bohemian undertones. Natural materials and textures, like the satin-finished wide plank hickory floors, subtle geometric patterns, and green plants embrace a mid-mod boho aesthetic from a 21st C. perspective. But little could prepare anyone for the soaring, bright and airy feel of the open-plan living space just up the stairs on the second level.
Huge windows flood the quietly dazzling flow of 10-foot-tall spaces from full-size living room to full-size dining room to—you get the picture—full-size kitchen and full-size encapsulated screen porch. Each is defined not by walls, but by architectural features and Susan Wilson’s signature interior design point of view. Layers of tone-on-tone white—walls, ceilings, trim, floating shelves, cabinetry, counters, gourmet appliances and both wood and upholstered furnishings from Esprit Décor—are offset by the tailored electric fireplace and range hood. Both vertical accents are painted a rich but understated gray-blue reminiscent of the Gulf Stream but with a nostalgic name: Needlepoint Navy, the home’s signature accent color.
Though sofas that lean into mid-modern design are typically low and lean, Wilson chose a sectional with a higher back for a more pleasing proportion in relation to the tall ceilings. A lower accent chair and neighboring dining chairs embrace the MCM aesthetic, as do the trios of thick floating shelves flanking the fireplace, the two-toned buffet and lighting fixtures. All seating is upholstered in a luxe off-white fabric that is at once cozy and stylish. Mounted well above the windows on stainless steel rods are gauzy, but substantial, curtain panels that extend to the floor to visually stretch and anchor the space simultaneously without, as Wilson notes, adding visual weight.
Porcelain-like matte white appliances from the GE Café series are not the ho-hum white appliances of yesteryear. Their luscious surfaces and industrial stainless handles and hardware are right at home in this gourmet kitchen sporting a 10-foot island, upholstered metal stools, marble countertops, miles of soft-close Shaker-style cabinets and drawers with brushed stainless hardware, and two show-stopping feature spaces.
Behind heavy, sparkling glass barn doors with a brushed stainless steel track system and handles is an enviable combination pantry and baking station. Open white shelving creates three tall banks of varying-sized cubbies, some with pullouts, plus a counter to corral and contain every imaginable cup, canister and kitchen necessity.
Next door, an architectural niche with an arched opening defines a culinary space with built in beverage cooler. The white cabinets, counter, and pair of floating shelves above are ideal for entertaining with easy access to the screened porch. But this special bay is equally suited for showcasing the homeowners’ gastronomic passions in style, be they bourbon buffs, charcuterie board connoisseurs, or vintage appliance aficionados. For the backsplash, Wilson chose a wallcovering with a subtle gray-blue geometric pattern, which she says can be warmer than the glazed finish of tile.
That wallcovering is repeated in the half-bath to create a sense of cohesion. Similarly, organic textured rugs and runners with a gray-blue geometric pattern are repeated in the living room, kitchen and culinary space, tying those areas together. In the kitchen, white subway tile with a geometric dimensionality subtly embraces the theme, as does the incised pattern on the white painted doors of the natural wood buffet.
A consistent style carries through to the screened porch with its wood and light-neutral upholstered loveseat and chairs. A striped rug, slatted coffee table and throw pillows with horizontal bands of a gray-blue and white geometric pattern infuse the space with an outdoor entertaining feel while still nodding in a mid-mod bohemian direction.
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This home, with one bedroom and bathroom on the first level and two ensuites on the third level on the first level and two on the third—both with French entry doors—provides maximum flexibility for homeowners, whether they are young professionals looking to rent a room or parents with adult children living at home. The bedrooms and baths are all stylish variations on the whole-house blue-gray and white color palette and Mid-Century Coastal look. Varied interpretations of soothing colors, organic textures, subtle geometry and narrow stripes on soft goods and shower curtains, and a board-and-batten feel to some of the furnishings achieves concurrent contrast and cohesion. Light fixtures lean mid-mod and Delta faucets with square contours put the modern in mid-century modern.
The floors of the laundry room and homeowner bath are enlivened with two complementary gray and white tiles with an unexpected starburst motif. In the latter, the tile continues into the water closet and is repeated in the spacious shower’s shampoo niche creating an eye-catching focal point. Large concrete-look wall tiles skew industrial modern while small hexagon floor tiles lend a “penny round” appeal. A blue-gray vinyl grass cloth wall covering enhances that back-in-time look with a forward thinking easy-to-clean surface.
With closets tucked everywhere space allowed—including his and hers in the homeowner ensuite—this townhome offers storage space on a par with any single-family home. There is even an under-stair dog kennel accessible from both the rear-loading two-car garage, with its spiffy epoxy floors, and the front foyer.
Inside, outside and everywhere in between, the 2023 Idea House is a deluxe case study in simultaneously downsizing and upgrading without breaking the bank.
2023 CoVa Idea House Open House Events:
Sat., Sept. 16-Sun. Sept. 17
Sat., Sept. 23-Sun., Sept. 24
See all 2023 CoVa Idea House builder info, partners, schedules and more: www.coastalvirginiaideahouse.com.
Betsy DiJulio
Betsy DiJulio is a full-time art teacher, artist and curator with side hustles as a freelance writer, including for Coastal Virginia Magazine, and a vegan recipe developer, food stylist and photographer. Learn more on her website thebloomingplatter.com.
