January/February 2008

High-Profile Homes

HRM gives you another exclusive look inside a notable abode in Hampton Roads.

By Jessica Carlson
Photography by Veronica Dana

In the past two issues, we’ve shown you how a local artist adorns her walls and where two home design connoisseurs spend their Sunday mornings. Where to next, you say? The last stop on our tour of High-Profile Homes brings us to the doorstep of one of the most celebrated names in regional sports—Wendy Larry. The winning coach of Old Dominion University’s women’s basketball team put down her whistle and gave HRM an exclusive look inside the place where she relaxes when off the court.

Wendy Larry built her home similarly to the way she assembled a great basketball program—she started from the ground up, found and collected things she liked, and somehow made everything work together. On the court, her work has resulted in 20 spectacular seasons of championship-caliber basketball and more than 500 career wins. And in her house? Well, that’s a slam dunk too.

In 1987, the same year Larry was named head coach of the Lady Monarchs, she purchased a diamond-shaped lot shaded in pine trees at the end of a quiet neighborhood in Virginia Beach. For two years prior (during her tenure as a head coach at the University of Arizona), Larry had been dreaming of building a home and spent her spare time clipping out pictures of things she liked from magazines and newspapers.

When she arrived in Virginia and was ready to start building, she stuck all the clippings in an envelope and handed it to local architect. He spread them out on a table and tried to piece it all together—there was a spiral staircase, high ceilings, a black-and-white tiled kitchen floor, a diamond-shaped window, and many other general and specific home features that Larry had fallen in love with throughout the years.

“It was difficult coming up with a design and building it with everything I wanted,” Larry says. “I definitely went the eclectic route. But the architect saw what I clipped and put it together.” Two years later, Larry moved into her dream home, spiral staircase and all.

Unfortunately, the life of a coach doesn’t leave much time to relax around the house. So, Larry says, her friends and family frequently enjoy the comfortable home, particularly the pool and big backyard.

“They spend more time in this house than I do,” Larry says. “It’s affectionately known as ‘The Larriott.’”

But when Larry does get to enjoy her time at home, she doesn’t shoot hoops or watch endless amounts of basketball, as some might expect. Instead, she relieves the stress of her high-intensity job by playing the piano, listening to show tunes, watching movies, enjoying a glass of wine or gardening. Larry loves gardening.

“This is my refuge,” Larry says, walking through her perfectly manicured backyard. “This is my relief.”

To see the pictures from inside Larry’s home, see the January issue of Hampton Roads Magazine, currently available on newsstands.