Updated Accessibility Standards in Virginia

by Charles Hendricks | Jan 9, 2024 | architecture, Commercial Architect, Multifamily Design

When designing custom residences, we have maximum flexibility in designing spaces that accommodate our particular clients. This, of course, takes into account a client’s family size and structure, routines, hobbies, and future considerations. This is also true for a particular client’s mobility issues or concerns for the future. We are able to create spaces around custom equipment, body size and capabilities, and other individual considerations.

However, when designing apartments or commercial spaces, we are designing with the entire public in mind, which includes a very wide range of mobility issues and devices.

Pool access ramp at Meadow Branch Apartments

In the near future, Virginia will be adopting a new code cycle, which includes references to the revised 2017 version of ANSI A117.1, which is the accessibility standards referenced in the International Building Code. What is interesting about these revised standards is all of the research that went behind setting those standards.

Most of these changes are based on the 2010 Anthropometry of Wheeled Mobility report, which studied body and device measurements in individuals with a wide range of custom mobility devices, including standard wheelchairs, motorized wheelchairs, and scooters. The original ANSI 117.1 standards were based on a study in the mid-1970s that studied 60 wheelchair-bound individuals. This new study looked at almost 500 individuals and included technology such as 3D scanning to get accurate measurements and comparisons. The findings were then compared against standards in different countries to get an idea of how to set the “building block” dimensions.

The findings concluded that the latest standards from 2009 were accommodating roughly 80% of individuals, while the revised standard will accommodate closer to 95% of individuals. While it can be tricky to accommodate some special requirements in places where space is limited, it is exciting to know that the spaces we design will be accessible to a greater number of individuals. Navigating the built environment with a disability can be incredibly difficult, and we are in a unique position to make that easier on our friends and neighbors in our community.

#1 Gaines Group Architects Elevates New Partners

We rang in the 2023 New Year with the exciting news that many of our team members became partners. It’s no surprise that Gaines Group Architects Elevates New Partners has topped our blog charts of 2023.

#2 Casa Cielo: Blending the in-between spaces

This contemporary glass house is not only aesthetically beautiful but the story behind the design is meaningful too. Visit Casa Cielo: Blending the in-between spaces to view the rich colors and read the inspiration behind this custom home.

#3 Harrisonburg Headquarters

With the addition of new partners came the official naming of the Harrisonburg office location as the Gaines Group Architects headquarters. The Harrisonburg Headquarters ribbon cutting and celebration was filled with community, food, drinks, and artists galore.

#4 Should you install Solar PV on your Roof? Part 1

After seeing a flood of questions on social media about Solar PV (Photovoltaic), we asked one of our Architects, Charles Hendricks, and Eric Beck, owner Green Hill Solar, a Solar PV company, to answer a few of them. Should you install Solar PV on your Roof? Part 1 has a wealth of information on Solar Pv for your home and is the first of a two part blog series.

#5 #Hilltop House is in the final days of construction

This beautiful custom home garnered a following as it developed. Even in the construction phase, the #Hilltop House is in the final days of construction blog post shows the artistry of the modern, industrial materials bringing a warm character to the home.

#6 Celebrate the women of Gaines Group Architects #InternationalWomensDay

On #InternationalWomensDay we Celebrated the Women of Gaines Group Architects: Adrienne, Deborah, Carla, Mariya, and Asha (team additions since are also Aliyah and Aimee)! We appreciate them every day, but especially on International Women’s Day we took the opportunity to celebrate them and all of the knowledge, diversity, and skills that they bring to Gaines Group Architects and the community.

#7 Black Women in Architecture

In Black Women in Architecture, team Designer Aliyah D. White shares her experience going into the architectural field, the struggles that women of color experience in the industry, and what women of color bring to the architectural table.

#8 Project Update: Meadow Branch Apartments Phase II

Meadow Branch is one of our latest multi-family projects, and it has some unique features, including a dog spa, permeable pavers, and the preservation of many on-site trees! To see some of the incredible drone pictures from KBS and to read more about the special features, visit Project Update: Meadow Branch Apartments Phase II.

#9 Aging In Place – Part 1: Where to begin?

Aging In Place Part 1: Where to begin? is the first of a two-part series. In this blog, Asha breaks down the basics with a summary of an Aging in Place interview episode of certified aging-in-place specialist, Charles, and Beth Bland of Valley Program for Aging Services (VPAS) on the WSVA Early Mornings podcast. This design is all about making a home adaptable as we all inevitably age and abilities change. No matter who you are, this is a must-read.

#10 Should you install Solar PV on your Roof? Part 2

Part 1 was so popular that we had to continue with Should you install Solar PV on your Roof? Part 2. This blog post expands on the first in the series to help give you the information you need to decide if installing solar is for you.

#11 Sometimes Being an Architect is a Roller Coaster

Charles gives his perspective on the challenging yet rewarding emotional nature of architecture in Sometimes Being an Architect is a Roller Coaster.

#12 #hilltophouse is complete

Click #hilltophouse is complete for pictures of the finished custom home, Hilltop House.

#13 Thinking of Building a Custom Home? Start Here First!

Thinking of Building a Custom Home? Start Here First! is a well visited blog, and it consistently makes it to our top lists each year. Although it’s not a blog post written in 2023, we include it because it’s your go-to resource guide for beginning your custom home.

#14 Time to Renovate Your Home? Here are some things to consider when doing a renovation and addition.

Another blog post that consistently ranks high on the “most-visited” scale each year is Time to Renovate Your Home? Here are some things to consider when doing a renovation and addition. This is your go-to resource guide for renovations and additions.

#15 How often in a day do you get to use your soul? How Sambo changed my life as an architect.

Finally, number 15 is: How often in a day do you get to use your soul? How Sambo changed my life as an architect. Charles writes about the impact of Sambo on his architectural career, realizing that he could marry his love of problem solving and design with his desire to serve others in my community

The Kitchen is the Heart of the Holidays

by Charles Hendricks | Dec 28, 2023 | architecture, family, Interior Design

By Aliyah D. White.

During a recent weekend, my family and old friends gathered around my parents’ kitchen and blessed the food for the first Christmas party they have hosted since before the pandemic. My parents’ kitchen has always been more than just a place to feed the body. The conversations and laughter that have been shared while my mom whips up medal-worthy meals and my dad whips up his delicacies, like beanie weenie, are some of my favorite memories from growing up. For as long as I can remember, the kitchen has been the central part of the house I grew up in, and during the holidays the warmth I feel there extends to the many people we welcome in from the cold.

Beulah Kitchen Addition

Frank Lloyd Wright believed that the hearth was the psychological center of the home. In the past the hearth was where families would gather around for warmth and cook their meals. But, as times have changed, it has become a bit obsolete as the anchor of the home. Central heating takes care of warmth, and the kitchen is now where meals are prepared and shared with loved ones. Someone, who I am sure was equally as wise as Frank Lloyd Wright, once claimed that the way to a person’s heart is through their stomach. So, as the location of where we make meals has shifted, so has the path to our hearts.

Elk Rock Vista

Coming home for the holiday season means spending time with family, sharing meals, and catching up on life’s big and little events. The kitchen is often the busiest room in a home and because food is such an important part of familial culture and heritage, the kitchen becomes the most treasured room during the holidays. It is where recipes are passed onto the next generation and family history is made more vibrant amidst delicious smells and tastes. Opening the kitchen to the rest of the home not only increases functionality of the room, but it can also nurture greater interaction among family and friends.

Hilltop House

The heart of your home may look very different from mine. We have designed kitchens that double as gathering spaces by using methods like opening them up to other living areas or adding large islands that can still conceal the mess that comes along with holiday cooking. Our work as designers is to ask you specific questions to figure out what would make your kitchen gathering space the dream you have always wanted. From renovation to new construction, we have seen so many different options and know what questions to ask to uncover just the right solution. In the gallery below, you can view a few of the kitchens that we have designed, each for a specific client’s needs.

So, as you gather together this year – if you find yourself thinking, “What if we made this little change?” give us a call to talk about your dream. We would love to help you figure out what is possible and what works best. We would love to help you enhance the heart of your home for future holiday seasons.

4 Staircases to Inspire Your Home Design

by Charles Hendricks | Dec 18, 2023 | architecture

A staircase can play many roles in a home. It’s an integral part that connects floor to floor and a visual connection that draws the eye through the space. It’s a part that connects the forms and materials of the design and a part that celebrates movement. The ways that stairs can interact with your space are endless. Here are four examples of staircases we used to enhance the visual interest of a space to inspire your project.

1. Hilltop House

Hilltop House is designed to draw the family together and be a space where memories are made. This home is a beautiful, modern / industrial take on a farmhouse style with materials to stun galore. Functionally, the staircase connects the open first floor with the second floor. The open floor plan is an important characteristic of the home, and the floating staircase design maintains that sense.

wide of the two-story high interior brick wall hill top house

The material choice of this staircase also acts as a connector. The open cable rail system provides an industrial twist on a modern style while the steps themselves maintain the warmth of the wood and exposed beams. These two materials complement the two story brick wall to one side, which grounds the overall space and gives it a historic feel.

floating wooden staircase hill top house

2. Carbon Neutral House

The Carbon Neutral Home was both a new home and a research project. Each space was designed using building science best practices, and there is a solar array on the roof that offsets the total carbon footprint for the homeowners lifestyle.

An important goal for the spaces was to build sustainably in the most economical way, and that meant maximizing functional space. The chosen staircase for this home is another floating staircase which allows the most sunlight to come through, keeping the space bright.

When attempting to maximize space and lighting, floating stairs can create both physical and visual space.

staircase from underneath hill top house

3. Penn Laird Residence

The Penn Laird Residence is luxury in a traditional farmhouse, and the U-shaped staircase maintains a sense of grandeur. The reclaimed wooden floor carries the warmth and rustic feel from the first floor to the next.

Although floating staircases have become popular in modern style homes, don’t discount having a closed space below. This staircase is perfect for this home both in form and function. It provides for visual depth, classic trim details, and brings light down into the basement space from above.

When a closed staircase is against a wall, there is also opportunity for closed storage or a hideaway for shelving, storage, a dog bed, or even a secret room.

4. The Glenmore

The motion of the curved stairs at The Glenmore makes it easy to imagine gliding down in your finest formal wear.

The sweeping curved staircase brings motion to this house. It’s not only the shape of the stairs themselves that are important in a staircase design but the railing can also be a statement. The swirls of the custom ornamental railing are eye-catching and lend a sense of grand elegance.

Curved staircases are typically more challenging to design and build, so they tend to be more expensive. However, if you have ever dreamed of descending down a grand curved stair, it would be hard to not want this one.

How to pick your paint: High Gloss, Semi Gloss, Satin, Eggshell, and Flat/Matte

by Charles Hendricks | Dec 14, 2023 | architecture

Painting is a cost-effective way to spruce up your home, but choosing the wrong paint finish could mean pricey do-overs later. So how to pick your paint is an important question. There are 5 main types of finishes to consider: High Gloss, Semi-Gloss, Satin, Eggshell, and Flat/Matte. Due to their durability, each finish has its own practical location based on the intensity a space is used.

High Gloss:

High Gloss has both pros and cons. Out of all the options, it is the shiniest, most reflective, easiest to clean, and most durable. It’s easiest to think of this as appliance-paint-tough. Due to these factors, it contains too much shine for interior walls and requires the most amount of prep work since it will show every flaw. This finish will require multiple coats to get the smoothest turnout. Practical locations for High Gloss would be on high-use areas such as cabinetry, doors, and trim work.

Semi-Gloss:

Also in the shiny category is the Semi Gloss. While this finish can provide a sleek look to spaces, it can also withstand a lot of wear and tear and is very easy to clean. Semi Gloss will also require multiple coats to achieve the best look. Practical locations would include kitchens, bathrooms, trim work, and chair rails that would be high-traffic and/or high-moisture areas.

Satin:

The Satin finish name is deceiving. While still offering a luxurious feel, this finish is more often described as velvety or pearl-like. It is an easy-to-clean finish that is also good in frequently used areas. The biggest downside with this paint finish is that application flaws are easily revealed and touch-ups are difficult. The most practical places to use the Satin finish are in family rooms, foyers, hallways, and kids rooms.

Eggshell:

Eggshell bridges the gap between durability and sheen. Just like its namesake, a chicken egg, there is almost no shine to this finish, but that says nothing about its durability. This finish can cover wall imperfections and does great in spaces that are not as frequently scuffed up such as dining rooms and living rooms.

Flat/Matte:

Sometimes the Flat and Matte finishes are split up, but they are very similar. They have low light reflectivity, meaning that they are friends to walls with imperfections. These are much harder to clean without taking the paint off with the grime, but touch ups blend easily. The best applications for these would be in low traffic areas such as bedrooms, ceilings, and other interior walls that won’t be roughed up.

Rule of Thumb

The best rule of thumb to remember with picking out paint finish is: the higher the shine, the more durable it will be. Knowing how you use your spaces and how much they are used will help with the paint finish decision making process.

We love Harrisonburg downtown

by Charles Hendricks | Nov 17, 2023 | architecture, citizen architect, Harrisonburg Architect

Recently Harrisonburg has been getting national press for what we already know about our community: it’s an amazing place to live, work, and play. We love Harrisonburg, we absolutely love Harrisonburg downtown, and we know that you will too. As hype for ESPN College Game Day at JMU covers the town this weekend due to an undefeated JMU Dukes football team (we are also celebrating JMU’s #24 in the country basketball team), we are seeing so much hype for our friendly city. Recently, Southern Living Magazine wrote a love letter about the place where author Tara Massouleh McCay says “she could live.”

The beauty of our city is that we know each other and want to see each other do well, thrive, have fun. We are the Friendly City in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley, surrounded by nature’s beauty and close enough to the bigger cities that we have access to what we don’t have in just a short drive (and still the ability to come back home the same day). If you have not visited our city, whether you are here for football, hiking, food, or just fun – here are some of the places and things you should know about that the national magazines and out of towner reports have not told you.
Visit the Harrisonburg Farmer’s Market on a Saturday morning, ask David Sutton with Port Farm about his plants, cutting boards, and rolling pins. Mention that you would love to hear more about his Dad and the Chesapeake Western Depot. Go see Nico at Mill Song Bakery and get a lunchbox loaf (maybe get two because it will not last long once you taste it). If you want the bread to disappear even faster, stop by to see Mike at Hott Apiary for some local honey. Pick up some flowers from Mary Jo’s Flowers and give them to someone you love – they will love them.

We have the best Children’s museum, Explore More Discovery Museum, for young innovators, creators, and investigators. You can be a news reporter, car mechanic, doctor, dentist, scientist, actor. veterinarian, farmer, or builder. There is a maker space, airplane, ambulance, and stock market all inside the building. There are scheduled activities, classes, and even a Lego league available. The work that Lisa, Melanie, Marcia, Caroline, Kelly and their team do to make this the best museum possible is inspiring. Visit and see this amazing facility when you are downtown – shop in their store to help support them or just make a donation online to allow them to continue to grow this amazing community resource.
A must visit is to go see Mira at Rocktown Kitchen for lunch. Get the Fried Chicken sandwich (or the wedge salmon salad, or the burger, or the BBQ – everything that Chef Kristo creates is amazing). If you decide that you must return for dinner, you will probably need to reserve a seat while you are there for lunch. Word is out about how good it is to eat there. If Rocktown is too busy or not on your way, stop at Texas Inn for a Cheesy and say hi to Angie or pop across the street to one of Aaron’s places and get some fried mac and cheese at Billy Jack’s or Jack Brown’s for an Elvis (one of the best burgers you will ever experience).
You don’t want to miss Ten Thousand Villages for their amazing creations from around the world and stop in Agora Market to see what Heartworn Vintage has found that will have your vintage heart thumping.

If you have someone that likes stickers, keychains, wall hangings, pens, candles, or jewelry, you have to stop by The Lady Jane to see what Sara has stocked for the holidays. The store is FULL of amazing finds. I always stuff the stockings at Christmas with the awesome things she has procured for the shop. This is also the shop where I find Ros O’Brien’s natured inspired ceramics. Her creations are beautiful and always a popular gift from Christmas ornaments to coffee cups.
As you continue up main street, drop in Oasis Fine Art and Craft to talk with Barbara and the other artists about their creations. You will want to see what Delaney has painted and let your young artists make something in the Kid’s Corner.

Now that you have made it to the historic Court Square you will want to take some time to enjoy the architecture of our courthouse, read about Charlotte Harris’s fate in 1878 on one of our local historic markers, and find out more about the springhouse.
Go visit Glen’s Fair Price Store – Harrisonburg’s most Unusual Store – to find rare and not rare toys, games, costumes, pranks and other fun things you did not know you needed.
That is a full day of fun and I did not even mention The Golden Pony pizza, Clementine’s Concerts, Kline’s ice cream, the shows at Court Square Theater, the games at Horizon gifts, the Massanutten Regional Library, The Lo (get the small) at Lola’s Deli, the murals throughout, the duck scavenger hunt, the buenos dias at Cuban burger, salmon at Beyond, the records you can find at Wonder Skate shop, or stopping in to talk to Mike at Water Street Vintage.

Then there is north downtown and all the shops and restaurants you should visit, the amazing team at HDR that works on programs and events for downtown, and of course my favorite place in all of downtown – The Depot. Come visit, see our art gallery, explore our historic artifacts, or get a building designed.