Inside

The house named Shibui perches on a narrow point of land, its angled walls dipping towards the waters of Linkhorn Bay like some great seabird unfolding its wings before taking flight. Even after 35 years as a waterfront landmark, the Birdneck Point residence designed by the late Lewis A. Rightmier still seems daringly contemporary.

The architect’s creativity was fueled by the fortuitous combination of an intrepid client and a lovely waterfront site. Tom Turner was a Navy flight surgeon whose aesthetic sensibilities had been sharpened by living in Japan for more than a decade. Lew Rightmier was a transplanted Kansan who’d fallen in love with Virginia Beach’s watery vistas and maritime forests.

Architect and client decided to site the house on the most challenging part of the two-acre parcel, the slender finger of land pointing into the bay. This was 1972 and the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act, with its increased setbacks, was 16 years beyond the horizon. After Turner told Rightmier that he wanted a house that looked like a piece of sculpture, the architect was emboldened to design a structure unlike any other in coastal Virginia.

As in all Rightmier houses, capturing the view was paramount. Every room had a window on Linkhorn Bay. Nature was so integral to the design that the sight of the wind-tossed water whipped up by coastal storms could be downright unsettling, especially to unsuspecting landlubbers. With exterior walls angled about 70 degrees off vertical and cantilevered over the water, the illusion was almost like being on a boat.

Rightmier’s love of nature extended to selecting materials that made a home seem part of its setting. His trademark was his use of riprap, the broken chunks of granite used to prevent erosion in front of bulkheads and around pilings. Shibui’s foundation is faced with riprap and seems to grow out of the piles that secure the shoreline. The chimney and retaining walls are also made of the rough-hewed stone.

The architect’s understanding of the power of weather, especially on such an exposed location, dictated a support structure of timber pilings linked by steel I-beams. He enlisted the expertise of structural engineer and longtime friend Al Abiouness to figure wind loads and beef up his design if necessary. The result is an uncommonly sturdy structure with a reassuring solidity, comforting shelter from an outdoor environment that is always in motion.