Two Bald Head Island Homes Receive National Awards

BALD HEAD ISLAND, NC – Two homes on Bald Head Island originally designed and constructed as Idea Homes for Coastal Living magazine by BHI Construction Company, the building corporation affiliated with Bald Head Island Limited, were recently honored by both Professional Builder Magazine and Builder Magazine for outstanding achievement in design and construction. Both award-winning homes are located within Cape Fear Station, the preeminent residential development on Bald Head Island. Builder Magazine is a monthly publication of the National Association of Home Builders, and Professional Builder Magazine is a monthly publication for the residential homebuilding industry. BHI Construction builds spec and semi custom homes on Bald Head Island ranging in size from 1,100 to 5,000 square feet.
 
The Family Reunion House, a 4,362 square foot oceanfront home designed by architect George Graves, wonProfessional Builder Magazine’s prestigious Best in American Living Gold Award in the one-of-a-kind spec-built home category for homes ranging from 4,001 to 6,500 square feet. The Couple's Cottage, a 2,607 square foot marsh-view cottage designed by architect Chuck Dietsche, won Professional Builder Magazine’s Best in American Living Platinum Award in the best single-family detached home category for homes ranging from 2,401 to 3,000 square feet. Graves and Dietsche have designed numerous homes on Bald Head Island and both are residents of Wilmington, NC. 

The Best in American Living competition is one of the most prestigious new home design competitions in the industry.  The competition is open to builders, architects, designers, developers, land planners and interior designers.  The Family Reunion House and Couple’s Cottage appeared in a special winner's book, which was included in the January 2004 issue of Professional Builder Magazine, and will be featured on the National Association of Homebuilders website, www.housingzone.com, throughout 2004. The awards were presented at The Palms Hotel in Las Vegas on January 18, 2004.  Additionally, the Reunion House will be the featured home in the March publication of Luxury Home Builder Magazine.

The Couple’s Cottage was also recognized by Builder Magazine’s Builder’s Choice Award. As the winner of a merit award, the Cottage was featured in the October 2003 issue of Builder Magazine. According to the publishers of Builder Magazine, the Builder’s Choice Award sets the standard for design and planning excellence in the industry. Winners in 53 categories were chosen from a field of more than 400 entries.
 
Builder Magazine’s annual awards program recognizes entries that illustrate design quality and success in the marketplace, in addition to clean and simple design with a straightforward focus. Judges for the competition include architects, research and development professionals, builders and designers.
 
Both award-winning homes were featured in the November/December 2002 issue of Coastal Living as the 2002 Coastal Living Idea Homes.
 
According to Graves, the Family Reunion House was designed with broad overhangs, exposed rafters, and an abundance of outdoor living space to capture the spirit of the old houses of classic coastal North Carolina beach towns like Wrightsville Beach and Nag’s Head. The story-and-a-half design has a traditional floor plan with the living areas on the first level and bedrooms upstairs.
 
The Couple's Cottage is true to the Bald Head Island aesthetic with its outdoor living space, painted wood trim and steeply pitched metal roof. The cottage, which features an upside-down floor plan with the common areas on the second floor and bedrooms on the first, is an example of Dietsche's signature eco-romantic style. Eric Coffey, director of BHI Construction Company, accepted the Merit award at a ceremony held in Washington, D.C. earlier this fall.
 
Bald Head Island is a 20-minute ferry ride from Indigo Plantation and Marina in Southport, NC. Open to the public, the island features 800 homes, including condominiums and single family residences, and approximately 200 year-round residents. Of the island’s 12,000 acres, 10,000 acres of beaches, salt marsh and maritime forest are protected and will remain undeveloped; 2,000 acres are set aside for development.