DANKE development

Sagamore Farm. Glyndon, Maryland. 1925. Isaac Emerson, the man behind Bromo-Seltzer, bought the land. His grandson, Alfred G. Vanderbilt II, got it as a 21st birthday gift in 1933 and built it into a thoroughbred operation that produced Bed o' Roses, Discovery, and Native Dancer - the Gray Ghost. Twenty-one wins in twenty-two starts. The only one that got away was the Kentucky Derby, lost by a head; that head was the whole Triple Crown. When Vanderbilt buried him at Sagamore in 1967, he buried him whole: halter, blanket, a bag of treats.

Kevin Plank bought the farm in 2007. By then the buildings had been quiet for more than a decade. Daniel led the restoration team during his years at Blackburn. The interiors were gutted and two barns rebuilt as mirrors of each other: a 20-stall broodmare barn and 16-stall foaling barn.

The owner forfeited the historical tax credits so the horses could thrive in modern naturally ventilated barns. We modernized air circulation by cutting out the overhead haylofts - removing a fire and a respiratory hazard; adding Dutch doors pull air in low; and installing a vented ridge skylight over the length of each barn - allowing air to expel vertically.

What stayed, stayed on purpose. The 5:12 rooflines. The stucco. The red and white racing colors. The original wood was salvaged and became tack-room millwork. A new 24-stall yearling barn went up on the old footprint, in the same language as the rest. Fourteen miles of white fence were laid out to frame the pastures.

Sagamore Farm · Glyndon, MD · Restoration led by Daniel Blair at Blackburn Architects · Photography: Cesar Lujan (.leisurely)

If you're just finding or rediscovering this page, welcome! I'm Daniel Blair, the founder of DANKE, which is German for “thank you” and the name of our design studio based in the DC area.

I kept seeing the same problem: clients hand over their vision to an architect; and receive something that felt like it came from someone with their own agenda. I founded our studio with a simple belief that most firms seem to have forgotten: our job is to listen and support the client; not our ego.

We specialize in custom residential, equestrian, and sustainable architecture for clients across the country. If that sounds like what you have been looking for, then you are in the right place - thanks for joining us!