At long last, home in Raleigh’s modernist Oakwood house

Louis Cherry and Marsha Gordon had big New Year’s Eve plans: At long last, they would stay home.

“We’ll sit in every room,” Gordon said Wednesday afternoon.

And they did. They started 2015 in the now-iconic modernist house that nearly wasn’t built and may yet be demolished.

Gordon and Cherry are the couple at the center of a neighborhood fight that spiraled into a city-wide debate with national reach. Their plans for an angular house with cedar walls were delayed for months as their neighbor, Gail Wiesner, challenged its presence in historic-minded Oakwood.

“We were so engaged in the sort-of struggle that it was really impossible to get our mind into what it would actually be like to live here,” said Cherry, an architect, who designed the house with wife. “And now, honestly, it just feels incredible.”

The house had a tortuous route to its fully-decorated, well-lit state. Wiesner, a real-estate agent, persuaded the city’s Board of Adjustment to revoke approval of the construction plan in February, mid-construction. Cherry and Gordon recaptured that right in September when a Superior Court judge ruled in their favor.

With Wiesner’s appeal of their victory still pending in the N.C. Court of Appeals, Gordon and Cherry began moving into their new home late in November. By Dec. 1, the next challenge was underway: decoration.

The 2,100-square-foot house is built around a wide-open living room lined on one side with narrow windows and on the other by a wall of glass. The space is meant to be “spare but rich” with detail and color.

A huge pot by Mark Hewitt of Pittsboro balances the look of a white wall hung with textured paintings. The great room’s book shelf is sorted by color, while a zen-like corner is tucked beneath an airy staircase.

Gordon and Cherry feel ready now to step back from the public eye – Vanity Fair sent one of the country’s best-known architecture critics to write about the controversy – but they’re also eager to show the place off, especially to the people who pitched in thousands of dollars to help cover their legal bills.

“We feel inclined to welcome people to see our house, to talk to people,” said Cherry. “People drive by. There’s someone right now.”

Outside, a woman in shades was gawking from a slow-rolling mini-van. Across the street stood the mint-green home, looking historic beyond its six years, where Wiesner lives.

“I see them every day, almost, in the street,” Wiesner said Wednesday. But she bears no ill will to her new neighbors, she said. She even has called the house “lovely.”

“I’m very pragmatic when it comes to buildings,” Wiesner said. “I’m not that emotional about this.... I like all kinds of houses.”

What has kept her in the fight, she said, is respect for the rule of law. She believes that the city’s ordinances don’t allow for such a modern-looking house in a protected neighborhood like Oakwood, and she has had the support of some neighbors.

This sort of fight happens all over the city, she said. And it’s not surprising to see it here, since Oakwood is a neighborhood where people have strong opinions and aren’t shy about expressing them.

“There are many, many people who are very active politically, who are very outspoken, who are in professions where they speak up freely,” Wiesner said. “And that’s one of the reasons I like it.”

Yet this one has stung. She has lost real estate business, with some clients turning away when they learn of her association with the controversy. She also says that she has been maligned in comments online, though she says her social life in the neighborhood is just fine.

If Wiesner wins her appeal, the house could be demolished. But for now, Gordon and Cherry are relaxing in the sunlight, enjoying their geothermal heating and thinking about finishing touches, like the interior trim.

“We feel very much a part of this neighborhood,” said Gordon, an associate professor of film studies at N.C. State University. “We’re very happy to be here.”

This story was originally published January 1, 2015 at 3:11 PM with the headline "At long last, home in Raleigh’s modernist Oakwood house."