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Adels spent most of his professional life based in Washington, D.C., but he has worked all over the world. In 1983, he cofounded Architects International and served as its managing partner until 1995, directing the firm’s foreign projects. In the Sultanate of Oman, he designed and managed such far-ranging projects as the capitol building at Muscat, numerous royal mosques and state palaces for His Majesty the Sultan of Oman. In Dubai, Adels designed the interior of the royal guest house for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum as well as the Dubai Dhow Wharfage and the parks and open spaces that now form the edges of Dubai Creek—the historic trading entrepôt at the city’s center. “We became very good mosque designers,” says Adels. “I think I’ve done more mosques than anyone in the world. We learned the architectural language and aesthetics of another culture. We developed a working knowledge of the arabesque.”

During the 15 years he lived in D.C., Adels spent at least half of his time abroad. In 1987, he had built a very modern house nestled into Washington’s Rock Creek Park. Among locals, it was known as the “little white house” and was often featured on city tours. But with his foreign travel, he had very little time to live there.

Adels was long intrigued by the idea of building a country house while keeping a city pied-a-terre, and in 1990, that idea moved from concept to reality. Well, almost. “My sister and I had always flirted with the idea of a house in France, so we found a property—a dilapidated old mas [a French stone farmstead] with a lovely walled garden below the ancient village of Eze. We spoke with a local architect and began to push ahead.”

While in Eze, a dinner with good friends prompted a serious shift in Adels’ plan. The friends, Jean-Louis Raynaud and Kenyon Kramer—distinguished interior designers who had worked for the Rothschilds, director Ridley Scott and Ann Cox Chambers, among others—began to recite a few of the horrors of owning a sometimes-occupied house far from home. “Say you put together a house in France, then the gardens go to hell and you think you have a gardener getting things perfect for you and he hasn’t been there in six months,” says Adels, recalling the words of caution from his friends. “‘Why not build it in Virginia?’” asked Raynaud and Kramer. “‘Middleburg is Provence with green trees.’ So we transferred our dream from France to Virginia.”