Art-filled haven on an Annapolis creek
Couple create a waterfront residence built in 1930 that isn’t moored in the past
If you take the “back way” through parts of Annapolis, you’ve likely seen the Ugiansky home with its arrangement of crossed orange steel support beams that appear to soar around the house’s exterior. Or is it art? Both Ugianskys, Marilyn and Gil, are artists.
“We do nonrepresentational art,” said Gil, showing off his series of cast-metal sculptures of often precariously positioned cubes.
Marilyn’s art is more two-dimensional: abstract paintings that occasionally incorporate found materials.
While a working artist, Gil is twice retired, in 2004 from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and again in 2015 after 11 years with a Baltimore publishing company.
While at NIST, he was part of a team that refurbished the gilded bronze equestrian statues — “Arts of War” and “Arts of Peace” — on the D.C. side of the Arlington Memorial Bridge, a complicated task that involved more science than art.
Marilyn also worked at NIST as a graphic designer and creative director until her retirement.
They met on a blind date 46 years ago. Both were divorced and parents of two children.
Before the date, each had nervously devised an escape strategy if the date was a dud. Instead, Marilyn said, “We had a really lovely dinner.” The first of many.
The Ugianskys treat their home like a work of art in which they live, play, entertain and create. When you walk inside or around the exterior, it’s like strolling through an exhibit — you don’t know where to look first.
They lived in Montgomery County for years and kept a boat in Severna Park. Eventually, they decided it was unfair for the boat to have all the fun and they searched for a waterfront abode in the Annapolis area. In 1990, they found a two-story home built in the 1930s and extensively renovated in 1977, with a pier. It is on the banks of a creek that flows into the Severn River. The creek angles slightly near their residence so they have a view of the opposite bank, and a wide view of the far Broadneck side of the Severn.
For the remodeling of the three-bedroom, four-bath house, the duo assembled Main Street architect Tobian Sullivan, builder Scott Blackketter of Blackketter Craftsmen, project manager Courtney Foster and landscape architect Heike Nolke.
The living room and the east-facing East Wing — named for the East Wing in the National Gallery of Art — were furnished with pieces from BoConcert on M Street in Georgetown. Additional living room pieces were purchased at Ligne Roset in D.C.
One of the stucco home’s many wonderful details is the glass, wood and steel custom-made staircase. The inner walls are thick sheets of clear glass with sleek, brushed steel handrails. On the second level, a floor-to-ceiling “barn door” — actually a frosted sheet of glass hung on sliding door fixtures — forms a partition, when needed, between the bedroom and work areas of that floor. With a gentle tug, the glass panel glides silently into place.
Another door, this one of clear glass, slides into position at one end of an industrial steel catwalk-bridge with glass half-walls. The bridge connects part of the second floor with the couple’s office and studio area.
Throughout the house, there are angled surfaces that jut out: a fireplace mantel that is more a wedge than a shelf, hidden cove lighting over the bed in the master bedroom beneath an oddly angled ceiling, angles formed as the catwalk meets a wall. Brushed steel is a repeated motif. Above the six-burner gas stove in the steel-and-white kitchen with mottled gray granite countertops hang more than a score of steel cookware and utensils. In the dining room, a lightweight, open, ribbed and curved panel casts a steel-gray geometric pattern on the ceiling.
In a second-floor bathroom, a mottled steel basin from a long-gone ocean liner is set into a curved wooden vanity with a stained oak veneer. The brushed steel fixtures seemingly sprout from the mirror behind the vanity.
The primary effect of their extensive renovations is the view afforded. The priceless views had been obstructed by small, rough-sawn cedar window frames that obscured the vista beyond. Now, in several places in the house, the view is untrammeled. Floor-to-ceiling windows have been installed.
Elsewhere, the windows are wide, letting in ample sunlight. Above, in the new addition, part of the vaulted roof has been sliced open to insert a large, bold, angled skylight.
One of their favorite spots inside the house is the East Wing, a new comfort zone added as part of the renovations. On one side is a large-screen TV. Facing it are all-white couches. One wall bears an abstract artwork that suggests a campfire under a tree.
Examples of the couple’s art are on the room’s shelves and throughout the home. Directly above are the steel catwalk-bridge and a large skylight.
With the open floor plan, the East Wing flows into the living room and foyer, then beyond into the dining room and kitchen. The modern dining room set is placed to provide views of the creek.
Just outside the kitchen door is the outdoor, tiered patio that wraps around two sides of the house. Wide stairs lead down to the lower level, and another set goes to the pier. The outdoor area brims with wildlife, four-legged and fowl.
Back inside, on the staircase is a metallic, modern chandelier that encapsulates the vibe of the house as it scatters geometric shadows across the stairwell walls.
On the second floor the bedrooms, studios and office spaces are bathed in sunlight.
And everywhere you look is the view.