Project size: 4,600 square feet

Program: The project, on a 14-foot wide garden plot within a neighborhood of late nineteenth-century row houses, worked with challenges such as little outdoor living space and minimal natural light to reimagine a row dwelling with a unique situational aesthetic.

Location: The Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC.

Solution: Two metal clad walls veil the adjoining masonry row dwellings and act as light baffles and support for vertical gardens. These living walls serve a dual purpose: providing a socially-sensitive elevation and acting as organic screens to the street and adjacent apartment blocks to the rear.

Construction and materials: The three-story volume, clad with burned siding, was inserted between two row houses. A perforated steel stair is incised through this volume, animating the interior and allowing daylight to saturate the house.  A stucco-clad service volume supports the metal walls and wood volume.

Additional Information

Completion date: August 2014

Gross square footage: 4,600 square feet

Total project cost: Withheld