The National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) Metro DC Chapter awarded Hopkins & Porter Construction, Inc. of Potomac, Maryland Contractor of the Year (CotY) Grand Award for their design and construction of a sweeping rear addition to a local home. This coveted recognition was celebrated during NARI’s 2009 Capital CotY Awards ceremony on January 30, 2010, at the Marriott in North Bethesda, Maryland. The judges chose from among almost 200 entries, projects submitted by the DC area’s top remodeling and design-build firms. In the past 10 years that Hopkins & Porter has had its own Architecture Department, they have won the Grand Award for Creative Design every year they have submitted an entry in this category. This is particularly a tribute to in-house architect Kai Tong AIA whose winning designs have received 5 of these awards, one for each of the years since he began working for Hopkins & Porter.
The winning project, a rear addition to a traditional home in Damascus, Maryland, opened up cramped and dark interiors to a beautiful backyard. The final product included designing and building a living room expansion, a new family room with arced balcony, a mid-level landing, and a lower flagstone patio with stone fire pit. The design succeeded in unifying the kitchen, family room, and living room spaces which had previously felt isolated from each other and from the outdoors and natural light. The arc of the floor to ceiling rear glass wall and curved roof, which pitches upwards to the clouds, offers an ever changing panoramic painting of the great outdoors. The owners say a new energy has enlivened their entire home. A semicircular balcony cantilevers over the yard and reinforces the addition’s overall curved geometry. A separate intermediate deck transitions to the lower flagstone patio.
