Residential & Interior Designer in McLean, VA

From ramblers to new custom homes

Much of McLean was built from the 1950s through the 1970s: brick ramblers, split-levels, and center-hall Colonials on wooded lots. Many of these houses have sound construction and good orientation, but also low ceilings, compartmentalized rooms, and kitchens at the end of a narrow hall. At the same time, many of the area’s newer homes are custom houses of considerable size, some only a few decades old and already ready for a more refined interior plan. Mature trees frame many of these lots, and protecting them is part of planning any expansion.

Renovate, expand, or rebuild

An early design study is the most useful investment a McLean owner can make. Talha tests whether the existing foundation and framing can carry a second story, whether a rear addition can open the main floor to the garden, and how each option compares in scope with new construction. Split-levels deserve particular care: their stacked half-floors can be reorganized into a remarkably good house, or they can resist change at every turn. The study shows which kind of house you have, and what it would take to make it the house you want.

Fairfax County review

McLean is unincorporated and falls under Fairfax County. Building permits are issued through Fairfax County Land Development Services, and setbacks, height, and other standards follow the Fairfax County Zoning Ordinance. Lots near streams may include Resource Protection Areas under the county’s Chesapeake Bay Preservation Ordinance, where new construction is restricted, and additions that disturb more ground can require a grading plan. Talha identifies these conditions at the start, so the design never depends on an approval that is unlikely to come. Where a house is substantially enlarged, the drawings also consider how the new massing sits among smaller neighbors on the street.

Explore concept design and space planning