Very recently, a couple had a custom home built for their family on a beautiful site with water views in Chesapeake. However, the finished interior space lacked cohesiveness; more than that, in their words, it lacked a soul. WPA was brought in and tasked with harmonizing the residence, pulling its spaces and materials together, and infusing it with some much needed Zen. To do this, WPA went to as potent a source as possible locally: the Boat House concert venue in Norfolk, which was being torn down after sitting in a decayed state after being badly damaged by Hurricane Isabel. Eight of its timber columns were salvaged and set aside to be installed in the residence, replacing haphazardly-placed drywall-clad wood studs throughout the living space. Steel details were designed to tie the timbers gracefully to the house and to each other. An up-lit, Venetian-plastered barrel vault was designed to float above the music room. A once arbitrary soffit above the main path of circulation was stitched from the timber columns to the adjacent open kitchen by steel “light troughs.”