By Jacqueline L. Salmon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 3, 2006
Six years ago, Chris and Kira Brunjes were looking for a bigger place than their Sterling townhouse. On one house-hunting trip, they drove around Vienna, where Kira grew up, and stumbled on a number of elaborate Victorian-style houses rising on a cul-de-sac.
They were hooked. They located the builder, Ayrhill Homes of Vienna. Ayrhill partner Steve Bukont designed for the couple a four-bedroom cottage-style house with two stories, a low roof and a wraparound porch.
"We love it," said Kira, 39, who is an interior designer. "It's not a big brick Colonial."
Like many other parts of Fairfax County, Vienna is undergoing "McMansionization." The town's small brick ramblers on large lots are gradually being replaced by larger, grander homes.
But on the winding streets south of Route 123, the transformation has taken a different twist. The brick suburban tract behemoths proliferating elsewhere in the county aren't as evident here.
Instead, fueled by Vienna's tight zoning laws and a few builder-residents with a passion for historic architecture, the new houses seem to have sprung from the past: low-roofed Arts and Crafts bungalows, elaborate Victorians, rustic shingle-style homes, columned plantation-style houses.
More than 100 of the distinctive houses speckle southern Vienna. More are going up every day, as builders buy ramblers for their large, leafy lots.
But the houses, which sell for as much as $2 million, trouble some town officials and longtime residents. Builders and residents say lots in southern Vienna are selling for more than $550,000.
Residents say they are grateful that the new houses don't resemble the brick monoliths looming over other older communities in the county. But they blame the houses for higher taxes and worry that they alter Vienna's small-town feel.
"You can't condemn the McMansions out of hand," said Maud F. Robinson, a Vienna Town Council member who has lived in the town for 55 years. "It's the American dream to build and rebuild."
Nonetheless, she said, she worries that rising property values will drive out longtime residents who can't afford the taxes.
"All these people who are of retirement age -- I hate to see them forced to leave," she said.
Retirees Sam and Gertrude Savia, who have lived in their three-bedroom home in southwest Vienna for 55 years, said their rambler is surrounded by construction and new houses.
"For the most part, they're pretty attractive," said Sam Savia, 80, a lifetime resident. But the couple's taxes have more than doubled since 1998 -- a rise he blames on the construction.
"I don't know why I should have to suffer because of what is happening around me," he said.
Builders counter by saying they often buy neglected or dilapidated houses. But they agree that soaring property assessments are hard on longtime residents.
"I think we're pushing our old people out, and it's sad," said Deborah Brehony, a partner with her husband in J.P. Brehony Homes, which has built two dozen custom houses in southeast and southwest Vienna.
Despite those concerns, the metamorphosis of southern Vienna has gained momentum in recent years and has shown no signs of subsiding in the slowing real estate market. It had its genesis a dozen years ago, when Bukont, a fan of historic American architecture who majored in engineering and architecture at Virginia Tech, began renovating homes in southeast Vienna. He and his wife, Anna, had bought and rebuilt a ramshackle cottage on a narrow street a few blocks from the center of town.
In 1997, Bukont teamed with fellow resident Doug D'Alexander, a real estate broker, to form Ayrhill Homes LLC (Ayrhill was the area's name before it was incorporated as a town). Since then, they have been buying property and replacing older homes with houses designed in a "uniquely American" architectural style, Bukont said.
They have built 73 houses, using architectural styles from 1875 to the 1940s. Another dozen are under construction. They've also branched out into commercial development along Church Street, the heart of downtown Vienna.
They stick close to home. Their motto is "22180 or we won't go," a reference to their Zip code.
Other builders have joined the trend. J.P. and Deborah Brehony moved in three years ago after tearing down a rambler they bought on Park Street and building a Southern-style farmhouse with a deep porch and detached garage. Since then, they have concentrated their work in southern Vienna, building homes with a "distinctive Southern look," said J.P. Brehony.
Builders and town officials say that Vienna's zoning laws, which are more restrictive than those of Fairfax County, limit the size of the dwellings. In Vienna, houses can take up no more than 25 percent of a lot; the county has no such rule. Vienna also limits building heights to 35 feet, but Fairfax County -- by measuring to the midpoint of the roof and not to the peak -- allows taller houses.
Some residents have followed the builders' example. Andrew and Caryn Baum bought a brick rambler and tore it down, and Brehony Homes is building them a Mission-style five-bedroom house that will have offices for Andrew, who owns a marketing agency, and Caryn, a speech therapist. The couple, said Andrew Baum, didn't want to leave southwest Vienna for a larger home.
"We really wanted to stay where we were," he said.
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