One of the four artists' studios we saw on our pilgrimage to Fogo Island, Newfoundland in September 2012
This one is called The Squish Studio designed by Todd Saunders.


We spent the summer working on all sorts of interesting feasibility studies: a multi-family condo project, a Duke Gardens masterplan, and a small museum in Granville County and now we have shifted to lots of great residential design work - both new and renovations.

The McGuffey Home

Liz and Mike McGuffey love their neighborhood of Morehead Hill so much that they bought the lot immediately adjacent for their new home. That way they can continue to enjoy the many conveniences of being so close to downtown. They came to us with a basic design idea of a three-storey home they wanted. And we worked it into a wonderful, bright, small (a hair over 2,000 s.f.), energy efficient home. The layout is a bit "beach house meets Charleston side porch" in that the living/dining/kitchen spaces are on the third floor along with a porch with a fabulous view - complete fireworks after the Durham Bulls games. The master suite and study are on the second floor and the ground floor houses the guest area/study, the carport and the elevator entrance! Leon Meyers was our contractor extraordinaire on this Vickers Street project. More images after they get moved in.

The Hapgood Home

We are excited to be adding on to a wonderful home in Chapel Hill. It was originally designed (mid 1970's) by Jon Condoret, one of the Triangle's most acclaimed architects. We are trying to keep true to the original modernist style of the home while incorporating modern green updates like solar panels, super efficient HVAC units, and lots of dense pack cellolouse insulation. The team at Frank Cole Building Company is doing a bang up job and sweating the details.

Are you dreaming of a custom Eco-Modern home near Forest Hills?

Ellen Cassilly Architect, and BuildSense are teaming up to design and build three wonderful homes at the corner of Kent and Ward Streets for some lucky clients. Your new home could be one of them! Please take a look at our informational flyer below and contact us to find out more. 919.530.1149.
We are speaking with some great folks about this project and hope to have a few signed contracts soon.

NCSU Design/Build Summer Studio

The last few years the Architecture Department at NCSU's School of Design has had a summer Architecture Design/Build Studio. It is a fast-paced 12 weeks where about a dozen students design, draw, estimate, procure, fabricate, and build the whole project start to finish. Ellen was team teaching again with Randy Lanou, Erik Melhman, Scott Metheny, and Aaron Trudo. The class was great and created a beautiful space on the grounds of the North Carolina Museum of Art.

The students designed a three piece cast-in-place concrete wall and a beautifully detailed floating ipe deck and railing. They fought the extreme heat and the isolated summer showers to get it finished by mid-August. Take a stroll along the fabulous art-filled walking path. When you are near the pond you will see The Turning Point. I love the great texture that they got from the board-formed tinted concrete.

Bending Sticks: The Sculpture of Parick Dougherty - the documentary

World Premier December 2nd at the Carolina Theater, Durham, NC 4PM Tickets available exclusively through the Carolina Theatre Box office 919 560.3030.
Filmakers Penelope Maunsel and Kenny Dalshiemer followed Patrick Dougherty through five of his major installations - and Cassilhaus was one of them. Patrick and Penelope will be interviewed on WUNC's State of Things on Wednesday November 28th.

Cassilhaus TMH tour

George Smart of Triangle Modernist Homes did it again - organizing another whirlwind tour of seven great homes. We were happy to have Cassihaus join this fabulous group.

Loewenstein house - 1954

Cassilhaus - 2008

Triangle AIA - Theory Forum

Ellen was on the Theory Forum panel in November discussing the unique design challenges of architects designing their own homes.

TMH Appetite For Architecture

Ellen will be speaking with both Phil and Nnenna Freelon about our collaborative work on the Freelon penthouse condominium of the Kress building in downtown Durham. Triangle Modernist Homes is organizing the dinner at 18 Seaboard this spring.

Eight more images

from Fogo Island, The international conference of Canadian Chefs, (check out the portable copper bread oven) and harbor life - including air-drying cod.

Thanks to all of our clients, contractors, friends and family for your support throughtout the year. Having you in our lives makes us love what we do even more.

Ellen, Esther, Keith and Meredith