Historic Franklin, Tenn., comes by its description honestly. Between bullet-riddled battlefields and antebellum homes, buildings and, for good measure, entire sections of town, the mists of time, should they descend upon the growing exurb and reclaim it for their own, would recognize Franklin immediately. Well, most of it, anyway.
Set amid some eight wooded acres not far from the scenic Natchez Trace Parkway, Scott and Lorie Lee’s ode to modernism stands in stark contrast to its more traditional neighbors, but that’s not to say it doesn’t fit in—with its artfully uneven roofline and natural colors, it’s far more in tune with its surroundings than the thickset brick colonials nearby. Even so, you can’t miss it: It’s the one with three stories of hard stucco, sheet metal and floor-to-ceiling windows sticking out of the hillside.
“It all started with me wanting a home office,” recalls Scott with a chuckle. Two things about that comment sparked his amusement: 1. it’s kind of a standard joke in the construction business that most major projects start from such unassuming needs, and 2. three stories, four bedrooms, three-and-a-half baths and 3,900 square feet later, the Lees’ exquisite new home, by design, has no home office. Scott’s design business (Scott Lee Designs) has office space in The Factory at Franklin.
What the Lees recognized, inadvertently sparked by the need for more space, was the perfect opportunity to build their dream home.
“I’ve always loved architecture, and followed it, and I’ve always loved modern architecture and design and furniture, in particular,” Scott says. “So when I saw the land and saw what shape would be required, I just started thinking about building a modern house.”
With the basic design in hand, the Lees were referred to Quirk Designs and architect Preston Quirk, who was able to take Scott’s sketches and solidify them into detailed plans.
“I told Preston roughly what size the rooms needed to be, the general layout,” says Scott. “We mostly designed the house around the furniture we already owned—I measured it all and gave it to Preston and said, ‘Can you make sure the table fits in this space?’ etc., etc.”
Not surprisingly, this attention to detail shows in the final product. As open inside as its free-form facade would suggest, the Lees’ home is as airy as a city loft, but warmer, more nuanced. The primary living space consists of a living room area (complete with a 106” High Contrast DaLite electronic projection screen with an HD Sony Home Theater projector), an open dining room space, and a large, gleaming kitchen furnished with Venicia Onyx gloss cabinets, custom concrete countertops, stainless steel appliances and an oversized island with a Fisher Paykel Iridium cooktop and downdraft.
Personal touches pop up throughout the home, not least of which is the custom-designed 360-degree wood-burning fireplace that anchors the open living space on the second floor. “I drew the fireplace and had it made by a metal worker”—R.D. Herbert—”in town,” Scott says. Another of Scott’s creations is the master bedroom’s headboard, a huge, dramatically backlit silhouette of the grasses and overgrowth of the forest floor seen outside the two windows that surround it, a witty homage to their chosen homesite.
And that, more than anything, is what the Lees’ home is about: exceptional design created specifically for its environment. Contrary to what the uninitiated might think, its modern vernacular freed the home—and the Lees themselves, and architect Preston Quirk, and David Gibson and Noel Jones of Bison Home Builders, who built the house—to take from its natural surroundings whatever worked best, without being beholden to certain strictures of traditional design. Probably the best example of this is the home’s main staircase, its riser-less treads hewn from a white oak tree found on the Lees’ property, a part of the surrounding forest that is literally rising again inside the house.
Local traditionalists, passing historians, or any stray Battle of Franklin reenactors that may happen by might not immediately see the sense the Lees’ home makes of its environment, but that’s not the point. What Scott and Lorie Lee, along with their team, came up with was a home that’s both in and of its surroundings, both inside and out.
“Sometimes contemporary furniture and design can be cold and sterile, but everyone who comes through comments on how warm and comfortable it is,” says Lorie. “And that’s what we were trying to achieve.”