Kube Open House

Street View of KUBE House in Georgetown

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.

Front Window Bay of KUBE House in Georgetown

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.

Kitchen and Stair of KUBE House in Georgetown

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.

Rear Operable Wall of KUBE House in Georgetown

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.

Article: Urban Renewal or Malpractice?

Workers are tearing off the old skin to make this Katherine Hepburn into Kathrine Zeta Jones.

[Image via curbed.com]

Curbed has an article about an early 20th century façade being torn down in Manhattan to put up a glass box (apparently, this project has been in the works for some time, but is just starting construction, see this other article for before and after pictures of the overall building). The preservationist in me cries out in disgust.

This building is a great example of early 20th century architecture. The chicago style windows fitted between corinthian columns and thinner windows above that emphasis the vertical nature of this early 20th Century skyscraper scream pre-Modern to me. In an other time, the loss of a fabric building like this wouldn’t even be a story, but in the age of historic preservation and with New York City rekindling its romance with glass and steel it begs me ask the question: Do famous buildings, like famous people, deserve celebrity treatment, or is the fabric of a city an integral part of its cultural landscape worth preserving just as much as its standouts? In cities with historic districts the answer has been a resounding yes, but this historic treatment does not always extend to this past century. Some architects/preservationists who would chain themselves to a building by Burnham and Root were the ones calling the loudest for the destruction of the Rivergate in New Orleans. Again this leaves me to wonder, should history be forcibly frozen in the streets of our cities and towns, or should innovation and advancement be allowed free reign and history left to a museum and historical parks? I don’t have the answer, but I know that there is a livable middle between those extremes.

As for 3 Columbus Circle, I wish the architect and developer had looked at the Hearst Tower before they decided that total skin replacement was the way to go.

Article: Saving Venice

World Architecture News has an interesting article about the plan to save Venice from rising sea levels by raising the city above sea-level. At first mention this seems like a crazy idea. It doesn’t seem logical to raise a building and then add below it, a little force called gravity seems to argue against this; it would seem that it would be easier to building up and out instead.

In reality, this is not the case, raising a building is actually a preferred method of renovation for a number of reasons. First, shoring (the process of supporting a building for raising) allows for a new stronger and more stable foundation to be created. Second, raising a building from below allows for the opportunity to build the walls and integrate modern electrical and HVAC systems into the new interstitial spaces. Third, raising a building allows for a more Historic Preservation friendly adaption; an addition below can be built to so that the design of original building above is minimally affected. This method of house renovation has been continually used in New Orleans for over a hundred years, if not more. In fact, this can be used not just to raise a building, but it can also be used to move a building to a new location.