Goochland Residence

The Goochland Residence, designed by Josh McCullar | SMBW and completed in 2013, is sited in rural Goochland County, Virginia, within the rolling Piedmont landscape. The house is positioned to take advantage of views over a broad pond and employs a U-shaped plan to frame a rear terrace and define a series of outdoor spaces. The design brief called for a dwelling that engages both the open meadow and the wooded edge, resulting in a composition that reinterprets the idea of an early American ruin adapted for contemporary living. In plan, the residence forms an axis through the site’s forested areas, with horizontal masonry walls visually anchoring the house as seen from the woods. Toward the pond, the building opens up vertically with large windows and a stepped connection to the exterior terrace. The structure is defined by two systems: load-bearing masonry walls composed of dark gray manganese brick and ground-face concrete block, contrasted with wood-framed walls clad in Corten steel panels. Points where these materials meet are articulated with glass, deliberately emphasizing the transition and contrast of color, texture, and construction.

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