White House

Estate Cane Bay 

A refashioned "Hus af lys" or house of light in Danish is a contemporary residence located on the beautiful North Shore of St. Croix. This modernist design is derived from q parti of a circular plinth topped with a square volume as the catalyst for this distinct residence. This volume is divided into program zones: 1. Arrival gallery; 2. Open plan block with living/kitchen & principal suite; 3. Circulation bar; and 4. Bedroom suite block.  The geometries superimposed on the trapezoidal site maximize the views toward the Caribbean Sea and Hams Bluff towards the Northwest. These volumes are placed on a circular plinth which allows the residence to pivot specifically to capture stunning views while ensuring varying levels of privacy from adjacent subdivision roads. A large oversized gallery is created as a typical grand entrance to the residence situated perpendicular to the entry roadway and on the oblique. This residence is designed to allow integrated interior/exterior living which is a trademark of Caribbean living. Large openings and vertical spaces define brightly illuminated interiors while framing lush land and water views. The main living space is compressed by the principal suite and opens out to a circular terrace with an outdoor dining space that leads to a lap pool with a jacuzzi placed parallel to the Caribbean Sea. All bedrooms have beautiful sea views and vary in position ensuring each is unique in feel and volume. 

Finishes include a cream limestone gallery veneer wall, stained concrete, and terrazzo floors, smooth white plastered walls, translucent and corrugated galvalume siding and roofing panels, and concrete roofs that can support solar panels. Hurricane impact E-glass provides substantial glazing and light while being able to perform during high wind load events. 

Even as a contemporary design, the residence's volumes reference the large iconic stone structures strewn throughout the  St. Croix landscape: former vestiges of plantation architecture erected by exceptionally skilled enslaved African craftsmen. Left, at times, in a ruinous state, or rebuilt and incorporated in new developments, this architectural feature helps ground this design in the present while still respecting the site's rich cultural past. As a homage, the villa has been named Ile Imole: in Yoruba which means "House of Light".

Site: .625 acres Main Residence - 3 Bedroom 3.5 Baths: 2,400 s.f., Carport: 480 s.f., Cistern: 24,000 gallons
 

Services:

Conceptual Design
Schematic Design
Development Design

3D Rendering

Haiti: House for Life defines the basic need for human shelter with the concept that Caribbean residences must last a lifetime. The design is structurally resilient and is flexible to meet International Building Code requirements while allowing for varying forms of sustainable construction methods and different construction price points depending on the property owner, family size, and site conditions. For this prototype installation, the team decided to use a steel re-inforced concrete block masonry building system which has proven to be a very sustainable building system. As demonstrated on the team’s structural model on a RISA 3D structural modeling program, the curve is continually self-bracing. Modeling studies show the use of a continuous bond beam which adds rigidity throughout the form.

The design premise is to have a prototype that is as functionally self-sustaining as possible. We have included elevated cisterns that provide rainfall catchment with gravity feed to units on the ground floor. Electrical pumps powered by solar panels are to be installed on the roofing. Electrical power for lighting is to be provided with inverter boxes tied to solar panels on roofs. Solar water heaters located on the roof will provide heated water. Exterior areas will cultivate fruit and vegetable gardens and provide park areas and children's playgrounds. All sewage lines will be sent to artificial wetlands and/or sewage treatment plants. The design also 
celebrates Haitian culture with architectural detailing that is considered exclusively Haitian and is reminiscent of West African forms from which 90% of Haiti’s people are descendants. “Adding the fenestration and other Haitian architectural details to our Haiti: House for Life will hopefully encourage personal attachment for each owner and encourage the inclusion of the artist community,” says Nicole Hollant-Denis, President, AARRIS Architects, in her own words.

Haiti: House for Life was designed by St. Croix Architect Gerville R. Larsen, A.I.A., and New York Architect Nicole Hollant-Denis. Mr. Larsen and Ms. Hollant-Denis were classmates at Cornell University. Competition was funded by the Republic of Haiti and the Clinton Foundation. 

Services:

Conceptual Design
Schematic Design
Development Design
Construction Documents

Construction Administration

3D Rendering

Project Architect:

Gerville Larsen, A.I.A.

​Nicole Hollant-Denis, A.I.A.

Bohio Rojas, located in the architectural historic control district of Christiansted, is built on a site comprised of three plots subdivided over time from its original lot on Queen Street. The planned town of Christiansted dates back to its founding in 1733. Presently, the site accommodates two historic wooden vernacular cottages dating from the 1850s, as well as a masonry 2-story Mid-century modern townhouse built in 1954 which anchors the intersection of Queen & Market Streets. The 1779 Oxholm map indicates a large townhouse that spanned the original square lot which no longer exists as revealed in a 1925 photograph. The owner is developing the site's 3 abutting lots into a singular cohesive compound.

This residential and commercial project was a case study within the Christiansted Town Plan competition won in 2013 and enacted in 2016. The plan's primary catalyst was to increase the number of habitable residences in the town by restoring shuttered and dilapidated residential properties.

The compound is defined by a new perimeter fence and entry gate along Queen Street. The resulting outdoor spaces enhance the infill and historic structures by promoting indoor/outdoor living while buffering them from the bustling intersection. The addition to the townhouse structure references the building footprint from the 1779 map while preserving its hierarchy at the corner. Metal and glass are used to create a clear separation between the old and new structures. New steel colonnades reference the unique loggias that are found in the (2) designed historic towns on St. Croix: Christiansted and Frederiksted. Slatted wood screens and opaque translucent panels afford layers of privacy from the street while allowing light and airflow in varying spaces. Using a traditional Christiansted color scheme, the delineation between new and old is marked by using a rose limewash pigment for historic structures and distinguishing contemporary ones with ivory, white, and pale-yellow pigments.

As the largest building on the property, the Mid-century modern structure, with its clean geometric lines and banding, provides the design cues for the contemporary infill structures. Neighboring town structures built around the same period exhibit similar detailing which gets reinterpreted in the new design. The design intent is to harmonize varying building periods with fenestrations that are still sympathetic to the overall Danish West Indian colonial architecture, built by ancestral Enslaved Africans and found throughout the town.

The existing townhouse has a professional office and art gallery on the ground floor with a private residence located on the second floor. The vacant vernacular cottages are being restored to become short-term rental units. These units, in conjunction with a new L-shaped contemporary structure with a 2nd-floor apartment and ground-floor lounge, will create a new bed & breakfast business for the property owners. The compound will have off-street parking for four vehicles, a swimming pool with a deck adjacent to a dining room, a chef kitchen, and a lounge area. This space will also accommodate rentals for small corporate events, allowing guests/visitors to mingle with locals. The newly accessible rooftop will also be open for use by the owners and guests, providing panoramic town and sea views. 

Sustainable components in the design include recycling existing and installing new cisterns, constructing with bio-blocks, using percolating ground cover systems, slatted units to promote maximum natural ventilation, skylights for increased interior natural light, corten steel perforated with an Akan symbol Krapa which is a symbol of protection and solar power systems installed on flat roofs.

"Architectural Design is always a journey, fraught with twists and turns. We architects navigate the challenges, divots and pitfalls of each project on behalf of our clients.  We are trained with a skillset to navigate, help interpret and realize the needs of each client with cogent solutions that inevitiably give them joy. Design continues until it is built. This is why we do what we do. - GRL"

Services:

Conceptual Design
Schematic Design
Development Design
3D Rendering

Project Architect:

Gerville Larsen, A.I.A.

The Lost Cemetery of Estate Bethlehem is a unique project that develops the sacred burial site of enslaved Africans recently uncovered under an Emperor Tamarind Tree. Their unmarked graves are being preserved through the creation of a monument honoring their lives and names. To enhance the site's sanctity and to define the burials, an ADA ramp leads to (2) mounds that surround each site allowing persons to visit, meditate, and reflect on the contributions of these formerly lost but not forgotten people.

Creating earth mounds that rest respectfully over the burial sites allows the graves to remain undisturbed while providing a base for the new concrete walkways and curbs to be constructed. Using the Tradewinds as a catalyst to move sculptures in the tree and produce musical notes that help ensure this sacred space is not static and helps resurrect the memory of those individuals resting there. Indigenous materials such as caliche stone & shells are infused in the curbs and walking surfaces as a tribute to those same materials that are encapsulated in the rubble stone structures built by our ancestors. The placement of burials beneath the tamarind tree is not solely for the deceased as a sacred space, but is also a convening place for our storytelling (oral history traditions) locally known as " 'Tory Under deh Taman Tree". Many former plantations on St. Croix and in the Territory, have these sacred burial sites of our ancestors which were typically located in similar places, especially under large ceremonial trees such as the Tamarind: all divine places found in African culture and folklore transplanted to our shores. 

Due to concise records, the history of the Enslaved Africans that were forcibly brought to the former Danish West Indies, the present U.S. Virgin Islands can be found and their stories told. The conch shells' grave markers are a traditional element in formal cemeteries on the islands and are eloquent symbols to be placed on each burial. Also, an Enslaved African blowing a conch shell is a well-known image representing the emancipation achieved by their revolt on St. Croix, July 3, 1848, which is an apropos symbolic marker for this project. Kinetic sculptures in the Tamarind Trees and chimes embedded in the concrete berms activate these solemn burial sites. Sound as well as textured surfaces give homage to these former plantation laborers who built the former structures that still stand at the site today and are responsible for the rich culture and heritage that graces this Territory.

Services:  

Conceptual Design

Schematic Design

Development Design  

Construction Documents

3D Rendering