Charles Goodman house in Hammond Wood for sale

Hammond Wooden, which was detailed on the Countrywide Sign up of Historic Destinations in 2004, has 58 Goodman-designed properties created involving 1949 and 1951. According to the Maryland Historical Belief web site, “Hammond Wooden conveys Charles Goodman’s innovation in suburban setting up in the metropolitan Washington area in the publish-Entire world War II interval by telling the tale of how revolutionary architect/builder teams have been redefining the monotonous suburban cultural landscape into enclaves that have been overwhelmingly naturalistic. Hammond Wood conveys the most effective of Goodman’s architectural legacy.”

“The homes in Hammond Wooden have often been definitely cost-effective for what they are,” said architect Michael Prepare dinner, who realized about this property from having lived in the community in the early 2000s.

Cook dinner and his partners, Sidney and Derek Kowalczyk, despatched a letter to the proprietors telling them of their interest in getting it. Prepare dinner experienced renovated 4 other Goodman properties in the cluster bordering this dwelling and confident the house owners that he was intent on preserving the “soul of the household,” not just correcting and flipping as some developers do.

The dwelling was not in wonderful condition when they acquired it. The greatest challenge was that the basement windows ended up buried in mud, trapping humidity and rotting the window frames and support columns.

“We had no strategy all of them were being rotten,” Cook reported. “The entire dwelling was slipping down.”

To take care of the problem, they raised the composition, inserted new window frames and help columns, connected them to the foundation and extra back the glass.

Another difficulty was rebuilding the retaining wall on the exterior. It now goes three toes underground. The wall, which charge all around $20,000 to correct, was painted with a layout to give it visual desire.

With the mud eradicated, the reduced amount now is a light-weight-crammed room with two bedrooms, a lavatory and a spouse and children area that opens to a patio with an out of doors fireplace. The primary level has a dwelling-dining place, kitchen area, two bedrooms and a bathroom.

When designing residences, Goodman constantly took into thought the topography. Residences are angled for maximum sunlight publicity and privateness. Trees have been preserved. Grading was minimum. In this situation, the property is tucked between significant oak trees.

“It’s portion of this cluster of 7 Goodman households, all organized all around a downhill gully, that actually displays the genius of Charles Goodman,” Prepare dinner claimed. “To me, it makes a constructed environment that definitely resembles California hillsides.”

Starter homes this kind of as this one particular are typically in jeopardy of currently being razed. The land tends to be a lot more beneficial than the home. For most developers, it would make additional sense financially to make a new property than restore the current one, even 1 developed by a well-known architect. But Cook dinner has extensive required to demonstrate that households like this one particular even now have price and can work for today’s households. He considers his function on these homes to be architectural restoration or historic preservation.

Prepare dinner has renovated 35 of Goodman’s houses above the years. This is the 12th mid-century fashionable house he has labored on with the intent to provide, and he said it might be his previous.

“It just does not make monetary sense for us to continuing creating historic neighborhoods like Hammond Wooden and [nearby, Goodman-designed] Hammond Hill due to the fact the margins only are not there,” he reported. “We’re competing against flippers and structure-establish businesses that are searching to make the most revenue though paying out the least.”

Cook will keep on to do the job with consumers on transforming their mid-century modern-day residences. He explained he is functioning with 25 purchasers and has 10 much more lined up. But his times as a developer are coming to a near. He hopes somebody else will be prepared to choose on assignments like this a single.

“It’s actually unlucky that we can not proceed creating in historic neighborhoods like Hammond Wooden and Hammond Hill for the reason that we really feel strongly about preserving these special houses and historic neighborhoods,” he mentioned. “To make economic sense for us, we [would need to] go into an space like McLean, but we’d like to devote in a assorted community like [Hammond Wood].”

The 4-bedroom, two-toilet, 1,863-square-foot house is mentioned at $829,000.

11705 School Look at Dr., Silver Spring, Md.

• Bedrooms/loos: 4/2
• Approximate sq.-footage: 1,860
• Good deal dimension: .16 acre
• Features: The 1951 Charles Goodman-made dwelling in the Hammond Wooden community has been restored by Prepare dinner Architecture and Rate Road Development. The kitchen has Poggenpohl cabinetry and Bosch appliances. The patio has a wood-burning fireplace.
• Listing agent: Michael Shapiro, Compass