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Kube Open House

I went to an open house a number of months ago for a new project by KUBE architecture. From the street, this Georgetown home, designed by Janet Bloomberg, seems to be yet another Georgian town house. When you open the door you find yourself transported to a modern space more at home in Los Angeles or manhattan than the 18th century streets of DC’s 2nd ward, yet the starck transition works. It sets you up for a series of well lit rooms that play with the modern trope of compression and release but manage to avoid the pitfall of hyper-glossy surfaces that are too often found in contemporary spaces. Instead Janet has chosen a muted palet of textural elements which alternate between the sheen of brushed metal, the warmth of rich wood veneers and the pleasantly imperfect nature of unglazed ceramics.

The house is anchored by a floating stair whose verticality is emphasized by a curtain of steel cables running from the ground floor to the second story. While an interesting architectural element, the steel cables at times present a bit of a challenge in visual and physical comfort. When I visited the house was very crowded, the steel cables made the narrow kitchen passage feel even tighter. While a wall would have made the situation even worse, an open void may have made this space not nearly as tight. Then again, in a day to day mode, this would never be an issue.

Light plays a big part of this house, Light is brought in through a skylight in the center of the house. Part of it is captured in the bathrooms through the use of a glass baseboard along the bathroom walls to allow subtle lighting in while still maintaining privacy. It should be noted that privacy is also an essential element for the master bathroom whose door is hidden in plain sight amongst the wall panels of the Master Bedroom. Light then filters through the stair cables and into the kitchen and is supplemented by a slim window along the south kitchen wall. The kitchen itself was an interesting mix of two wood tones, stainless steel counter-tops with an integral sink and a bright orange frosted a transparent polymer island top. Finally light filters through a glass panel under the stairs into the large finished basement with a bathroom. This space is nicely lit and could easily be adapted as an extra bedroom or as a guest suite.

The rear wall was a NanaWall like system; when opened it complete disappeared allowing the small rear yard to flow into the house as one living space. Combine this with the mostly concrete back yard and you have a space that easily could be an extension of the living room. The cast concrete backyard has a poetic 3 square feet of grass, which is just large enough to be noticeable, but small enough to be ironic. If there is anywhere where I felt things could be improved it would have to be the rear yard; while I get the statement that is being presented here, I would have loved to see a tree or two worked into the backyard, it felt like a missed opportunity.

DC at the Speed of Traffic

The majority of DC is a pedestrian city; it is meant to be viewed up close and slowly. The streets of row houses are hidden behind a protective screen of trees and gardens known affectionately as “The Parking” and can only be fully appreciated by a pedestrian wandering in this ribbon of green. Viewing these neighborhoods form a car is a difficult endeavor, first the greenery obstructs many of the facades and second unless you find a place to park, the buildings go by too rapidly (even at a leisurely 25 mph) to appreciate the finer details. The same goes for the grand vistas of the National Mall and the Federal City, while these are on a grander monumental scale, they are only really appreciated by pedestrians who can walk their lengths. Cars are able to drive down along the mall, but again the view across is screened by greenery and the few crossings do not provide a full appreciation of the structured view. Even the Modernist complexes of near South West are better appreciated on foot. Sure, you can see all of the buildings from the street, but only pedestrians can explore the rabbit warren of tunnels, paths and connections that link this Modernist Bloc into a city unto itself.

[Image via mgrass.]

There is a place in DC where this pedestrian preference disappears, and is in fact a hinderance, the golden triangle area of downtown. The buildings in this part of the city are not built with the pedestrian as the main consumer, sure there are pedestrian level storefronts and lobbies, but to be able to fully appreciate the streetscape you have to be driving. A perfect exmaple of this is K street. As a pedestrian the buildings on your side of the street seem to rise ever upward making canyons of steel and glass and the buildings across the way can only be seen at an almost worm’s eye perspective view perpendicular to the street or as an oblique two point perspective view down the street, either way the facades are not fully appreciated. Furthermore, the rhythm of the structures is such that a pedestrian it is boring, the bulk of the facades utilize very long elemental repeats which as a pedestrian are almost invisible.[There are a few exceptions to this, the buildings surrounding Farragut square tend to play to the park instead of the cars, and as such there are some stunning examples of intricate facades. But this is a a rarity] All of this changes from the perspective of the driver’s seat. The composition merges into a single point perspective view of the avenue where the bland facades suddenly reveal upper level details that were previously hidden. Furthermore, traffic not withstanding, the buildings read much more poetically at the stately speed of 25 miles per hour, their bland facades quickly passing and morphing into a steady stream of rhythm and order.

Solar Decathlon

Today I headed down to the Solar Decathlon on the National Mall. While there I was able to tour 15 of the 20 homes. I was happy to see that the Mall was crowded with people braving the wet and cold to visit these houses, even if that meant that the lines for some of the more award winning homes (like Germany and California) were so long that I chose to see 8 other houses instead of trying to get into them.

These houses all had innovative design solutions to create energy efficient and responsible homes. Interestingly enough, most of the homes used off the rack products, but just assembled them in innovative ways. Where I found the homes to be lacking was that most of them did not fully address their sites. Many of the homes did not interact with the portions of their lots that faced away from the main walk-way (those on the North were predominantly South focused, and those on the south were mainly North focused). Now I know a lot of this had to do with strategic window placement, but for homes which were little more than 15’x50′ rectangles it felt like opportunities to fully engage the site were lost. The teams DID engage the sites, they created decks, plantings and water features, but the houses often did not interact with these features.

One of the things that I found the most informative about the whole competition was not something anyone did, but rather what they were prohibited form doing. Most of the teams had integrated some form of waste water reduction technology through the filtration and re-use of gray and rain water systems. Unfortunately, they were not allowed to use these systems, because in DC it is a violation of plumbing code to use rain or gray water from anything domestic; it can only be used for landscaping needs. Apparently this is standard in many jurisdictions throughout the country. For a city that is trying to be more LEED friendly and at the same time develop its urban neighborhoods, this is a travesty. The student representatives at many of the buildings made it a point to highlight the water savings features and their inability to use them and encouraged visitors to contact their representatives to change this piece of legislation.

The Terra Cotta Rain Screens of South West

Here are a few images from some of the terra cotta rain screens found on the urban renewal towers in parts of Southwest, DC. I have always been a fan of these semi-enclosed balconies and they way they play with public and private space. Plus the non-rectalinear units create a lovely interplay of form while also creating a regular solid/void rhythm to the facade while still allowing maximum penetrations.

www.selophane.com/blog/Images

Saint Dominic’s Church

I love how St. Dominic’s Catholic Church in Southwest, DC combines classical masonry construction in the main church with modern design in the Priory.

Government Buildings as Time Capsules

I know this is being posted later than my self imposed deadline, but I had a meeting this morning for a job that actually pays money, so that took precedence.

To add to me weekly schedule (tuesday is links and wednesday iphone apps) thursdays will be image post days.

I was walking around near Southwest (Federal Southwest) DC on my way to my meeting this morning and I was totally struck by the fact that as I walked around town I was walking through time. The four photos below show a progresion from the Victorian Eclectic Arts and Industries Building through early International Style FAA building, Brutalism at the DOE entrance to L’Enfant Plaza, and finally historical Post Modernism at the National Museum of African Art in a series of 2 blocks of south west DC. Of course, these buildings are not arranged chronologically on the street, but the feeling is the same. Each is not only typical of the construction and ornament of their respective time periods, but also the treatment of public plazas and spaces.

The Danger of Cities

I love cities, I love the daytime hustle and bustle and the ease of access of everything. I also love the myriad of things to do at night. Yet, my interactions with cities have been largely shaped by the New York City of my Childhood and the New Orleans I knew as an adult.

In the 1980s and early 1990s when we used to drive into New York from Long Island it was always a place of mixed emotions. It was tall and grand with countless places to see and visit, but danger seemed to lurk around the corner. We didn’t take the subways, we took busses, and we never walked down dark alleys or empty streets. When someone asked you something on the street you kept your head down and kept on moving, you never knew if they were really in need or pulling some sort of grift. In addition, you never went into Central Park at night, nature was not to be trusted — it provided wonderful places for people to hide and attack you.

When I moved to New Orleans for college my conception of a city changed. The fear and danger were still there, but I quickly learned three cardinal rules of safety. First, If there are grand trees overhead, you’re probably ok: you may get mugged, but you’ll still live to tell about it. Thats not to say I would go to Audubon or City Park at night, they were still plenty dangerous in the dark, this rule pertained more to residential neighborhoods. Second, when in doubt, walk in the street, there are less places for people to hide. This rule was especially pertinent in all of the dark neighborhoods of the upper French quarter and Marigny. Third, open stores and other people make good witnesses, and while they might not help you, they can call 911 and get you to the hospital sooner and provide positive ID to the police later. This isn’t to say I always felt scared in New Orleans; I didn’t. I just knew where to walk and where not to, and what neighborhoods were fine to drive through, but never stop in.

I am still trying to figure out the danger map of DC. At first I thought the Tall Tree rule of New Orleans was the same up here, but I’ve been in neighborhoods that most people up here consider safe and they are absent of trees, and I’ve heard of muggings and other crimes occurring on and around the National Mall, which might just have the tallest trees in the city. In addition, friends of mine will have no qualms about walking down residential blocks at night, and this has always been a major danger sign for me. I know that eventually I’ll figure it out, though it would be easier if I was living in town instead of our in the exurbs.

Designed to Fail?

I was going through my RSS feeds today and I came across a post from the Washington Spaces blog indicating that Yesterday was Consumer Day at the Washington DC Design Center. On this day, the showrooms that are normally open only to the trade (architects, designers, etc) were open to everyone.

While this sounds like a rare opportunity, it’s not really: showrooms that are not open to the public are a rarity in the building. In addition, most of the things that you can see in the show rooms are available to browse online, plus you can find out more information without having to interact with a sales clerk. Sure, its nice to have a lot of vendors in one place and be able to see and feel their products instead of having to shop from a catalog, but I wonder about the viability of this market model in today’s world. The Design Center is located mid-block in Federal Southeast, far removed from any of the major architecture and design hubs, like Dupont or Georgetown, and out of the way for most aspiring home owners. On my first and last visit to the Design Center the building was practically empty; it was a rarity to see another designer in any of the showrooms. I believe I saw the same three other customers on each floor. Also, a good quarter of the showrooms were unoccupied, including 90% of the kitchen and bath center in the basement. A friend of mine, who is an interior designer, told me that some of the companies in the Design Center pay as much as $80,000 a month for their showroom leases. This seems outrageous, I cannot believe that prices like this are sustainable even in a good economy, I would imagine that the showrooms would need to be writing an order daily or at least 3 times a week to just break even. I have to wonder how much longer this marketplace will be around, if the recession doesn’t kill it I’m sure internet purchasing and its poor location will; its just a matter of time.

Anacostia: Le Nouveau Rive Gauche?

On yesterday’s Kojo Namdi Show Nir Buras, head of Buras Architecture, spoke about his proposal for a new Anacostia River. Mr Buras, who is a Classical Architect, suggested the narrowing of the river and creating of European style quays on both banks of the river. His proposal also included the creation of a Naval Museum and a shopping district and marina development.

I have to say, that this is something I could really get behind. I’ve always felt that the waterfront on the Potomac was wasted. The river is too wide to be a focus for development, not to mention that there is the hurdle of getting two different municipal planning bodies to agree. In addition, currently the Rock Creek Parkway extension does a tremendous job of cutting the steps at the end of the mall off from the river. The South bank of the Anacostia, on the other hand, is ripe for development as a new urban node, with its easy access to downtown through the Green Line and the proposed streetcar lines in Southeast. This part of the city has maybe suffered the worst from mid-century urban renewal, with the destruction of the historic waterfront and creation of interstate 295 this strip of land has been effectively cut off from both near Southeast and the rest of Anacostia for decades. With some decent planning and effort I can see Anacostia becoming the next Columbia Heights.

The major issue I can see with Mr Buras’s Porposal, besides drumming up enough political will and public support for something this extreme, would be creating a method to mitigate possible flooding from constricting the river. By changing the topography and constricting the river, this plan faces many of the same challenges that currently plague the Mall and West Potomac Park. In addition, I can see there being a lot of backlash if the current green buffer is lost in place of more urban developed.

[Thanks to And Now, Anacostia for the heads up about this show.]

I’ve been cheating on my own blog!

I’ve been harboring a secret for the past few weeks and been dying to post about it but had to wait until it went live. I am now a weekly feature writer for the DC architecture and property blogDC Metrocentric. Its one of the reasons O haven’t posted on here very much, that and just plain laziness. I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying to develop a writing identity for that site. I will be analyzing and criticizing local architecture within the beltway. If anyone has any suggestions I would welcome the input.

You can find my first post, a criticial analysis of the architecture of the Metro system, live on the site now. Feedback would be greatly appreciated.