Home & Design

At a time when the rest of DC seems awash in the chaos of new construction, Capitol Hill is an oasis of calm. In the sprawling neighborhood of late-Victorian row houses, historic designation makes new construction virtually non-existent. As a result, homeowners who want to update have to be creative: Front façades must remain unchanged, but interiors and back façades are definitely fair game.

Located a stone’s throw from the U.S. Capitol on stately East Capitol Street, one-row house combines charm and character with ingenious design elements that bridge eras and impart a modern touch. Owned by a DC journalist and her attorney husband, the four-story, the 5,000-square-foot house was built in 1870 and measures 25 feet wide (a typical Capitol Hill row house is 18). It was converted to apartments after World War II, then reconverted to a single-family abode in the 1980s during a renovation tailored to suit homeowners without children.

The house felt both dated and inconvenient. As soon as they bought it, the couple contacted Brooklyn architect Cynthia Wright to begin the remodeling process. A close longtime friend, Wright had renovated several other properties for them and understood what they wanted. “We’ve been working together for many years,” she observes. “My client has great taste and she’s decisive.”

The goal was “to restore the traditional detailing and create a light-filled, modern home for a family with two children,” explains the journalist. The wish list included overhauling the kitchen and three bathrooms; rejuvenating the outdoor spaces; and creating a strong connection between the backyard and kitchen. On the second floor, the master suite needed a more functional layout; both the husband and wife have a home office on this level. The third-floor houses kids’ bedrooms, a bath, common rooms and a guest suite.

The existing kitchen encompassed an area for food prep and a breakfast nook with an awkward spiral staircase. An over-large opening to the backyard included sliding French doors and an arch-top transom. The effect “was not aesthetically pleasing,” Wright recalls. “We wanted it to look modern, but fitting.” Since the owners envisioned a spacious farmhouse kitchen with plenty of natural light, Wright employed an unusual idea: She replaced the dated sliding doors with an aluminum storefront window. “I had never used one before,” she comments. “It was an experiment and turned out great—and very cost-effective.“ The curved frame of the opening mimics an already-existing arch in the brick exterior wall.

The result is a modern, industrial look that complements its Victorian context. In the kitchen, wenge and white-painted custom cabinetry and shelving, Absolute Black granite counters and cork floors convey warmth. A modern take on a farmhouse table, designed by Wright in walnut, centers the room.

Replacing a ramshackle deck out back, a new one made of Japanese-style horizontal cedar slats with cedar walls contains niches for plants along its sides. Stairs down to a concrete-slab play area and driveway are part of the deck construction; wisteria envelops a pergola overhead in summer.

A major goal was to bring in light without altering the home’s original footprint. Wright did this by raising the heights of the doorways in the front hall to emphasize the open line of sight from the foyer all the way through to the backyard beyond. Upstairs, the master suite—complete with bedroom, bath, and two closets—is now “an apartment inside the house,” says the journalist. Wright also designed walls of bookshelves in the husband’s front-facing, second-floor office.

Original moldings, ceiling medallions, and a curved marble fireplace had survived the previous renovation and the wife consulted New York-based color guru Donald Kaufman before selecting a palette of warm, earthy tones that would further reflect the home’s Victorian era. She also called on Brooklyn-based interior designer Karen Mauersberg for help sourcing furnishings and accessories throughout the house that would blend with what they already had. “She likes Mid-Century Modern classics and her husband inherited some antiques,” Mauersberg says. “My job was to combine the family heirlooms while mixing in interesting fabrics, textures, colors and floor coverings. The house encompasses what they love, without being a hodgepodge.”

It’s been some years since the renovation was completed and the family is still thrilled with it. “Cindy made my Victorian house full of little rooms and doors light and airy without blasting it apart,” the journalist observes. “I really feel her work will stand the test of time.”

Photographer Paul Burk is based in Baltimore. 

RENOVATION ARCHITECTURE: CYNTHIA J. WRIGHT, AIA, Cynthia J. Wright Architecture, LLC, Brooklyn, New York. INTERIOR DESIGN: KAREN MAUERSBERG, Karen Mauersberg Design, Brooklyn, New York.

Modern Re-Do As the co-founder of Naviance, a software provider of college and career-planning tools, Stephen Smith is in the business of readiness. So when he decided to move from the District to be closer to his Virginia office, he prepared a list of must-haves for his new house. “I wanted a master suite, a garage and a room where I could put my piano,” Smith says. “The house had to be big enough for family and friends.”

His search led to a sprawling, 1965 home in Arlington that had been expanded in the 1980s. “The house looked different from anything I’d seen,” recalls Smith. “It was quirky.” Multiple, one-story wings were arranged around an entrance courtyard at the front and an indoor pool at the rear. Two of the bedrooms in the addition had no windows and the master bedroom opened to an interior courtyard.

Still, Smith saw potential in the tall, timber-ceilinged rooms and bought the property in 2012. A major renovation followed under the direction of McLean architect Randall Mars, who opened the interiors to the outdoors and added a second level with a large master suite. “I liked that Randy’s designs are modern, but also warm and inviting,” says Smith. “I didn’t want a house that felt like a museum.”

Confined to the home’s existing footprint by local zoning regulations, Mars simplified the layout of the rooms and brightened the interiors by adding numerous windows and opening up the floor plan. “We wanted to eliminate the dark, windowless areas and create bedrooms that take advantage of the landscape,” the architect says.

As it happened, Mother Nature helped with Mars’s reorganization of the house when a severe thunderstorm caused a tree to fall into the indoor pool. Rather than rebuild its enclosure, Mars left the pool exposed as the centerpiece of the backyard.

The biggest alteration was the addition of a prominent stair tower to reach the new second level. Clad in mahogany, the tall structure acts as a punctuation mark within the low-slung brick home. Mars further accentuated the horizontality of the original house by extending broad eaves from its hipped roofs.

At the front of the house, the entrance courtyard was remodeled to emulate the serenity of a Japanese teahouse. Staggered concrete pavers lead past low plantings and river stones to the new mahogany front door and a view of the mahogany slats enclosing the second-floor balcony.

Just inside the front door, a formal living room centers the house. The 1980s addition, which flanks one side of the entry, has been reconfigured and its roof and window replaced. The wing now encompasses a music room—home to Smith’s 1920s baby grand piano—and two guest suites. The wing opposite the music room opens to the courtyard through floor-to-ceiling glass walls. It has been remodeled to create a new kitchen, dining area, and family room—one of Smith’s favorite spaces, where he can relax on a sectional sofa next to the granite-framed gas fireplace or lounge on the cushioned window seat.

These living spaces are divided by freestanding storage walls fitted with anigre-finished cabinets, drawers, and shelving. Crafted by Silver Spring-based Allegheny Woodworks, the built-ins stop short of the ceiling where the original wood paneling and beams are preserved. “The new millwork warmed up the house and added even more detail to transform the architecture,” says Mars.

Modern pendant lights in the kitchen, dining area, and stair hall reinforce the 1960s character of the home. Dark slate floors unify the main living spaces, while pale oak flooring extends through the bedrooms.

Upstairs, the new master bedroom opens to a private terrace and a sleek bathroom with a freestanding soaking tub. Two more bedrooms, a bathroom, and a laundry room occupy this level with access to the deck overlooking the front courtyard.

Smith worked with interior designer Sarita Simpson, formerly of the now-closed store Vastu, to furnish the rooms with contemporary pieces. “Steve is meticulous; we started working on the furniture plan before the house renovation even began,” recalls Simpson, who now runs her own firm in Arlington. “His design aesthetic is modern, but he isn’t interested in Minimalism that is stark and cold. So we played up the earthy, Mid-Century design of the house.”

Smith says he loves the way Mars used windows to connect indoor and outdoor spaces. “In almost any room, you have a view, making the landscape design an integral part of the interior,” he says. One evening while the homeowner was sitting in the family room, “I noticed something moving in the courtyard,” he recalls. “When I got up, I saw that a fox had curled up under the Japanese maple tree. Apparently, he found the courtyard as relaxing as I do.”

Writer Deborah K. Dietsch is based in Washington, DC. Anice Hoachlander is a principal at Hoachlander Davis Photography in DC.     

ARCHITECTURE: RANDALL MARS, AIA, principal; ROBERT DEANE, project architect, Randall Mars Architects, McLean, Virginia. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: JOSEPH RICHARDSON, Joseph Richardson, Landscape Architect, Washington, DC. INTERIOR DESIGN: SARITA SIMPSON, Sarita Simpson Design, Arlington, Virginia. BUILDER: Gruver Cooley, Leesburg, Virginia.

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