Home of the Year 2012
Our editors selected this Victorian-inspired home, with traditional design and green innovation, for the 2012 Home of the Year honor.
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Photography by Kristina Helen Schmidt
Jonathan and Shelly Iams spent more than three years creating their 8,500-square-foot dream home in the Lake MacLeod neighborhood of Gibsonia, which they share with their 4-year old son, Benjamin; 2-year-old daughter, Emily; and their Airedale Terrier, Arthur.
“One of the goals of our project was to develop a home that would have all of the character and style of a traditional older house with the infusion of highly sustainable green design concepts,” says Jonathan, owner of Iams Consulting, LLC in South Side. “We both liked the style of older Victorian houses with the wrap-around porches and distinct architectural features.”
“We wanted something that looked different from all of the other new-construction homes in our area. There are very few Victorian-style homes in the suburbs. I couldn’t see our family in a very ornate Victorian home but I love the big wrap-around porch, the turret on the front and the fact that we could put some color on the outside of the home,” says Shelly, a physician assistant.
While looking at hundreds of blueprints online, the Iams found a custom plan by Seattle-based CornerStone Designs, which has a niche for designing Victorian-style homes.
“The plan had many of the features that we were interested in — such as the wrap-around porch, turret and center rotunda — so we decided to use the plans as a starting point,” says Jonathan.
This article appears in the March 2012 issue of Pittsburgh Magazine
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