Exploring Ecology Modernism, Storytelling, and The Design Philosophy of Architect Travis L. Price
We sat down with architect Travis Price at his iconic home in Forest Hills, Washington, D.C., to delve into his design philosophy and how it shapes his work with new clients. He reflected on the spirit of his own home, sharing a powerful moment when he recited a poem before the Commission of Fine Arts - an homage to a sacred tree in Bhaktapur, Nepal.
The home on Chesterfield Place is both his residence and his thesis. By blending environmentally responsive siting, natural materials, transparency, and poetic symbolism, he demonstrates how modern architecture can honor its context, embrace beauty, and serve everyday life. It’s an embodiment of his belief that buildings should be living art - ecological, experiential, and deeply connected to their place.
Suspended above a hillside overlooking Rock Creek Park, the house hangs from steel columns, never touching the ground. The home intentionally preserves the natural topography, allowing the architecture to coexist with the mature oak and birch trees that surround it. Natural materials like patinated copper, stone, and wood echo the woodland palette, reinforcing the seamless connection between structure and setting. A wall of floor-to-ceiling glass transforms the forest into a living backdrop, while the home’s cascading volumes and open layout let light flow freely, creating an immersive, treetop experience. Rooted in what Price calls “organic modernism,” the home balances modern design with warmth and livability, featuring inviting elements like a fireplace, spiral staircase, and intimate, thoughtfully scaled spaces. Symbolically, the house is conceived as a “floating abstraction of a tree,” with a bridge entry and cantilevered forms that evoke movement and transcendence. It’s a poetic and purposeful expression of architecture that honors place, ecology, and the mythic resonance of home.
<>
Nature as Foundation
-
Suspended over the landscape, the house hangs from steel columns above Rock Creek Park's ravine, never touching the ground—an intentional act to preserve the site’s topography and ecology properties.lefigaro.com+13washingtonpost.com+13dc.curbed.com+13.
-
The home is integrated within the preserved mature oak and birch trees, blurring the boundary between built and natural environment mads.media.
-
Materials like patinated copper, wood, stone, and super‑insulated glazing echo the local woodland tones and textures, reinforcing this seamless connection to nature washingtonpost.com+1mads.media+1.
Light, Transparency & Visual Flow
-
A rear wall of floor‑to‑ceiling glass ensures the forest becomes the living room’s backdrop, flooding the interior with natural light and creating a sense of timeless calm coldwellbanker.com+8washingtonpost.com+8propgoluxury.com+8.
-
The cascading volumes and open-plan layout allow light to travel through the house, evoking an immersive experience in the treetops, not just a view of them.
Organic Modernism & Livability
-
Price’s vision of "organic modernism" emphasizes warmth and sensuality over cold minimalism. He aimed for a residence that was modern yet inviting -“warm and not sterile,” with space on the fourth floor offering sky and canopy views.
-
Interior comfort was paramount - he prioritized livability, incorporating features like a fireplace, wood-burning stove, spiral stairs, and fewer but more meaningful spaces over excessive closets.
Architectural Poetics & Symbolism
-
The home’s form is intentionally metaphorical, resembling a “floating abstraction of a tree.” The bridge entry, cantilevers, and suspended volumes evoke movement, nature, and transcendence mads.media.
-
Price refers to this as authenticity and metaphor simplified - architecture that speaks not just to function, but also to myth, place, and poetic experience mads.media<>
When working with clients, Travis Price Architects takes a deeply personal and narrative-driven approach. They begin by eliciting their client’s own story, asking open-ended questions and listening attentively to their cultural background, values, and aesthetic preferences, while uncovering their poetic impulses and emotional vision. Their process emphasizes ecological sensitivity, integrating sustainability seamlessly into elegant, modern design. With a small, collaborative team and in-house construction, they maintain close client relationships and guide projects from concept to completion. The result is architecture that is not only environmentally responsible and contextually responsive but also poetic and deeply meaningful to those who inhabit it.
In short, clients aren’t given architecture - they discover it through their own story, refracted through Travis Price’s narrative-rich, eco-conscious modernism.
<>
Travis Price Architects follows a deeply human-centered, narrative-driven client process shaped by four core elements:
🎙️ 1. Eliciting the Client’s Story
-
Travis begins by asking open-ended questions—“What’s your story?”—and listens attentively for their cultural background, emotional resonances, and aesthetic preferences leadafi.com+11foresthillsconnection.com+11re-thinkingthefuture.com+11georgetowndcblog.com.
-
This “cultural literacy” uncovers mythic or poetic impulses. He describes the moment clients’ eyes light up when they connect emotionally to an idea: “That’s where you start shaping modern architecture” .
🌍 2. Spirit-of-Place & Contextual Sensitivity
-
The firm integrates ecology, technology, mythology, and modernity to craft architecture rooted in both cultural and ecological contexts listmodern.com+6foresthillsconnection.com+6houzz.com+6.
-
Every project is faced with understanding and responding to its setting—natural, historical, legal. Preserving trees, respecting zoning, and aligning with bodies like the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts are standard listmodern.com+8foresthillsconnection.com+8re-thinkingthefuture.com+8.
🌱 3. Eco-Modern Innovation
-
Travis draws from his early experience—solar design in New Mexico, building Manhattan’s first wind turbine—to incorporate sustainable technologies (passive solar, renewable energy, green materials) into elegant modern forms foresthillsconnection.com+1inspired.uberflip.com+1.
-
Sustainability is treated as pragmatic, narrative-rich, and integral rather than an afterthought .
🛠️ 4. Collaborative, Small-Team & Realization-Focused
-
His lean team (~7 people) and in-house construction arm foster direct collaboration and strong client relationships re-thinkingthefuture.com+9foresthillsconnection.com+9trustburn.com+9.
-
Clients praise the process as “educational, exciting, and enjoyable” with “attention to detail” and proactive support through technical and regulatory phases .
🔍 Summary: A Metaphorical Modernism Grounded in People
TPA’s client approach blends listening, poetic expression, ecological ethics, and hands-on experience. It’s about:
-
Listening for personal myths and cultural narratives 🔄
-
Delicately rooting design in unique site and community ecology 🌿
-
Fusing sustainability and modern elegance with meaning
-
Collaborating in a direct and transparent process until reality
In short, clients aren’t given architecture—they discover it through their own story, refracted through Travis Price’s narrative-rich, eco-conscious modernism.
<>
Each work from Travis Price Architects' speaks to the heart of the built environment’s natural and human stewardship. Guided by a humanities-based perspective with a passion for sustaining nature and culture, their quest for the mythic modern inspires a reinvigorated architecture of the 21st Century and creates an enduring archeology of tomorrow.
We have been lucky enough at listModern to represent a variety of homes in the region designed by Travis Price, while even featuring a few of them, including his own home, on the DC Metro Modern Home Tour, where he has graciously interacted with guests as a speaker and host.
Explore More
Architect Spotlight: Travis Price, FAIA
