Atlanta, GA

MSME Architects

When Hurricane Opal sent a tree through their 1940’s house in Brookwood Hills, renowned architects Merrill Elam and Mack Scogin decided to completely remake their home.  Despite limited space on the site, they wanted a swimming pool.  Thanks to two unusual imaginations and structural design from PEC, their striking glass, steel, wood and concrete home has a lap pool in their bedroom.  On the second floor.  The reinforced concrete pool spans the entire 50’ width of the front elevation with no interior structural supports at all.  Opportunity meets ingenuity.

Atlanta, GA

Archetype Architecture

Backing onto Atlanta’s Piedmont Park, the Kaye residence was a typical 1920’s cape style house.  Thanks to talented architect John Klooster and structural design by PEC it is now anything but typical.  The interior was gutted and completely redesigned.  A three story steel skeleton was added to the rear.  To match floor heights but maintain reasonable head heights, the addition incorporates very shallow steel and wood framing.  Rigid frames eliminate the need for cross bracing or shear walls that might block the park views, and clever detailing creates a roof top entertainment deck with a steel and glass soaking pool big enough to swim (short) laps in.  Nice view indeed.

Lake Oconee, GA

Archetype Architecture

John Klooster’s design for this weekend house on the shore of Lake Oconee blurs the line between indoors and out, and defines a clean and contemporary version of the modern lake cabin.  The roof is complex, with multiple intersecting gables and roof planes, but PEC’s design allows all the roof framing to be expressed as vaulted timber ceilings.  Rigid wall frames of engineered lumber and carefully detailed sheathing minimize solid wall and maximize views, and Klooster’s open plan with sleeping porches and decks that flow from inside to out unite the house and the lake.

GA

MSME Architects

So… imagine long cantilevers, spacious views and interesting crannies, cantilevered stair treads, a floating guest room, bamboo growing through a raised steel walkway, huge pivoting doors and intimate private spaces, exposed concrete, steel, and wood, crisp corners and elegant details, all tucked into a calm and soothing site in the north Georgia woods.  Sorry, it’s not for sale.

Atlanta, GA

Caldwell Cline Architects / Housing Trends, Inc.

Not all houses need full structural design by an engineer.  For Pittsburgh Steelers star and Super Bowl MVP Hines Ward’s house, PEC designed foundation walls, reinforced concrete porches and decks, cantilevered steel and concrete balconies, steel and concrete fireplace and chimney support frames, major steel beams and all the wood roof framing.  The remaining engineered package came from the lumber supplier.  Together they yield a complete, robust structure for this elegant new home.

Saudia Arabia

Harrison Design Associates

PEC has designed many residential projects, some of them huge, some tiny, some with major structural challenges, some straightforward, but we have done just one in Saudi Arabia – the Jawa residence.  The house is approximately 20,000 square feet on three floors, with reinforced concrete floor slabs, reinforced concrete and masonry walls and columns, exterior infill walls of cmu and stucco, and a cast-in-place sloped concrete slab roof.  It is elegant and well crafted, and for obvious reasons, built to last.