N Street Duplexes Win Architecture Award

Posted By Sam Farmer, 02/01/07 8:24 PM

The Washington Chapter of the American Institute of Architects has given a 2006 Award of Merit for Architecture to Suzane Reatig for the N Street Duplexes. The duplexes are split on the 2nd floor with one unit having the the first floor and the other the third floor and roof deck. One parking spot exists for each unit from the alley between Ridge and N Streets. The award was reported in the winter issue of ArchitectureDC which has yet to make its way online. Here is an excerpt:

"This project," the jurors said, "is exciting to see because it's clearly constrained by a tight budget." The project is "cleanly detailed—a fresh interpretation of type. There are no extraneous elements. This was cost-effective construction. Its hard to find nice interiors and livable spaces filled with light in [this cost range]. [The architects] did more with a constrained budget than we've seen in a long time."

Reatig has won other awards most notably for the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) at 5th and Ridge. While many in our neighborhood are highly critical of Reatig's work I am a fan of most of her work. She brings a good blend of modern and traditional, yet always interesting, architecture to our neighborhood.

I am not sure who owns the 5th Street Duplexes but I am surprised to hear about the tight construction budget because I think less than half of the units appear to be rented out. Well, perhaps, that is how the owners can afford to only rent out half the units.

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Comments

United House of Prayer owns the N St Lofts or "Madison Deelux" They are market rate rentals.

I dont like her work and I'll leave it at that.

Posted By si kailian / At 2/1/07 9:51 PM

she lives on 8th St NW across the street from the Immaculate Conception RC Church.

Posted By rogers, richard / At 2/1/07 10:24 PM

I'm not a fan either, though I think her project on the 500 block of O Street with the "cinderblock look" is actually worse than the 400 Block of N Street. My guess is that they are probably very nice on the inside, but they stick out in the historic district, in my opinion, from the outside, and they are so glassy that the residents have zero privacy.

I look at both projects and think how some minor tweaks could have made a huge difference, and perhaps its partially our responsibility for not providing sufficient community feedback during the HPRB process with respect to N Street. For example, on N Street, varying facade materials/colors, individual fences for each entrance, and more brick/less glass on the first floor of each unit would have went a long way. The O Street project would be much nicer but for the unfinished cinderblock exterior.

Posted By Cary Silverman / At 2/2/07 1:30 PM

One other comment -- after the N Street project was finished, the sidewalk was entirely repaved eliminating all of the treeboxes in front of the building. As we review new projects, we need to be diligent in ensuring that the developer provides assurance that it will preserve existing tree boxes and possibly add additional trees, including iron tree boxes to protect them. Now we have nearly 1/3 of one side of the 400 block of N Street with zero trees.

Posted By Cary Silverman / At 2/2/07 2:45 PM

compare what happened to the tree boxes on the 400 block of N with the tree boxes on the 1400 block of 35 street. on 35 street all the trees in the tree boxes were pulled and replaced with new trees. and on N, it's all paved over.

i like both N St row and the 5th and O bldg. hey, i even like her work on 444 N St. NW. light and airy with simple lines and all you need is a quiet low crime neighborhood. perhaps if N street were safer there would be more units occupied. there really are quite a number of vacant houses on the 400 block of N, 1300 block of 5th and the 1500 block of 6th.

Posted By rogers, richard / At 2/2/07 3:46 PM

" There are no extraneous elements."

personally i prefer extraneous elements that we often see in our neighborhoods.

Posted By sean / At 2/3/07 2:23 PM

Trees -- I agree. No idea why more trees where not put in as they would have made the street and the properties more appealing. No surprise to see that the properties are owned by UHOP. They always seem to stop at satisfactory and not go further with finishings. Cause while I like the amount of glass I do agree that better fences would have made the properties even better. Those fences are actually plastic not metal as they may look to the eye.

Sean -- Please post your full name when posting here. (I like your blog, btw).

Posted By Sam Farmer / At 2/3/07 3:08 PM

my apologies. thats actually a good policy!

and thanks.

sean hennessey.

Posted By sean hennessey / At 2/3/07 4:40 PM