Washington, DC
Built like its neighbors, over a century ago and part of a continuous network of buildings in a historical district, this 3,250-square-foot former commercial building has been completely renovated into a three-story town house that retained its traditional limestone facade—a requirement due to the historical status of the building. The 18-foot-wide-by-100-foot-long structure occupies the entire site. Interior spaces were typically dark with 9-foot-high ceilings, the result of a previous renovation.
Design concept and solution:
The architect reworked the bottom floor within the existing limestone composition in an effort to provide a separate entrance and storefront for a commercial tenant on the lower level. The exterior at the rear of the house, which faces an alley, has been completely redesigned to bring more light into the building.
The majority of existing floor joists were retained to reuse the existing structural system and leave the historical limestone façade undisturbed. To change the redundancy of continuous 9-foot-high ceilings, a 12-foot-wide section of the third floor, the width of the row house, was removed. Located directly above this opening, a similar sized skylight infuses the interior with light. Another section of the third floor was removed to accommodate a stair system. Above the new steel and aluminum stairs, a rooftop addition opens to adjacent terraces and provides outdoor living spaces with rooftop views.
Exposed brick walls, painted white, are juxtaposed to blue epoxy floors. Floor openings with bridges, skylights, and a three-story galvanized steel wall animate the spaces and integrate the floors vertically. Spaces comprise glass and steel elements and unify a diverse but consistent palette of materials, resulting in a modern spatial quality within a traditional town house typology.
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