The two-acre site facing Battery Kemble, a national park in Northwest Washington, was a tangle of bamboo and invasive weeds when the developer assembled a design team. For architect Wouter Boer, Campion Hruby Landscape Architects and the building company Zantzinger, the challenge began with a steep, eroding slope and ended with two boldly contemporary houses and a modern landscape complementing a 270-degree view of the treetops.

On a recent morning, sunlight illuminated the high modern achievement: a white stucco-and-glass house set into a slope bristling with native grasses. In form, the dwelling resembles randomly stacked boxes, their flat roofs topped with sedum.

Boer, principal of his eponymous Dupont Circle firm, leads a tour of the first of two houses he designed on the site. Completed in 2021, this one is not yet occupied (and is on the market for $11.95 million). The second is occupied by the project’s developer, Bryce Arrowood of Cliveden Group, LLC, who walked over to join the tour. Both men are unapologetic about departing from the classic Tudor-and-azalea persona of the surrounding Wesley Heights neighborhood.

“I wanted it to feel modern for today,” says the architect. Over the years, he contributed his share of historically styled residences to the cityscape in partnership with architect David Jones. But since Jones retired in 2020, Boer has given license to his own Bauhaus leanings. “I’ve always had a passion for modern architecture,” he says. “Mies van der Rohe is sort of my hero architect.”

For this house, Boer drew inspiration from Mies’ iconic 1945 Farnsworth House. A masterpiece of white steel and glass, the weekend cottage in Illinois contains just one room. In contrast, Boer’s homage boasts 8,600 square feet of pristine plaster and floor-to-ceiling glass, with six bedrooms and seven and a half baths; its four levels are linked by a steel-and-glass staircase with floating oak treads (plus an elevator).

Boer calls the house “sparsely detailed,” yet the material palette is anything but spartan. Portuguese limestone paves the main level, warmed by radiant heating, while white oak flooring prevails elsewhere. Gleaming accent walls and kitchen cabinetry are teak veneer. The primary bedroom closet bears 17 layers of high-gloss white lacquer. As Boer observes, “modern architecture is all about the quality of the materials”—and in this case, luxurious surfaces are more than a sleek backdrop. “The [lack of] ornament becomes the ornament,” the architect explains.

Anodized aluminum doors on the two-car garage shimmer in the morning light. From the spare entry court, a three-story, glass-walled hall leads to a dramatic, 65-foot-long rectangular living space. A floating teak partition holds a two-sided-fireplace. The room’s long, west-facing wall offers floor-to-ceiling glass overlooking the adjacent park. Beyond, a streamlined kitchen with Calacatta Covelano marble counters opens to a terrace nearly 30 feet above grade.

Four of the six bedrooms are organized on the second floor, while the top level is devoted to a private study with a terrace set above the tree canopy. A lower floor with extra bedrooms, a 1,000-bottle, glass-walled wine cellar, a yoga studio and gathering space gives way to a terrace and a 25-foot-long, infinity-edge pool. In the living room, Boer points out slim steel columns that almost disappear in alignment with the silvery window frames. Not visible is the footing—15 feet wide and eight feet deep beneath the pool—which stabilizes the entire house. “It takes a lot of structural finesse to make it look so simple,” the architect affirms.

Before this project even began to take shape, an existing house had to be demolished and the street extended to enable access. (That spur is now a private drive to the two houses Boer designed, as well as a third dwelling in a transitional style.)

“We literally had to carve each lot out of the woods,” recalls Zantzinger construction manager Gavin Stannard, who spent three years on site during construction. Landscape architects Kevin Campion and Stephen Makrinos planted 40-foot-tall pin oaks to screen a barely visible neighbor to the south while also dealing with stormwater interventions. Managing the flow opposite a national park engaged the Army Corps of Engineers and required multiple bioretention features. A six-foot-wide swale filled with 80 tons of large gray rock snakes along the drive in front of the houses.

“It’s not a small amount of water,” points out Makrinos, who was pleased that there was a budget for plantings to make the area look more natural. “There is an allée of river birch coming out of the grasses; it feels modern, like the architecture.” Golden groundsel, blue camassia and amethyst blazing star soften the hardscape surrounding the house.
Flat roof surfaces, visible from within, were planted with sedum by Furbish, a Baltimore green-roof specialist. “Aesthetically, you’re bringing the landscape up to the house,” Makrinos says. “All you see is green.”

As for realizing Boer’s vision, the challenges appear to have been met. Stannard observes that in modern architecture, “All the conventions, everything you know about making a house, go out the window.” Specialized craftsmen are required, tolerances are small and framing must be precise. If everything is ordered carefully, it all works. In Stannard’s opinion, this project was close to flawless. “Wouter Boer,” he concludes, “is an artist.”

Architecture: Wouter Boer, AIA, principal; Phillip McGee, project architect, Wouter Boer Architects Inc., Washington, DC. Landscape Architecture: Kevin Campion, ASLA, principal; Stephen Makrinos, senior associate, Campion Hruby Landscape Architects, Annapolis, Maryland. Builder: Zantzinger, Inc., Washington, DC. Structural Engineer: Ehlert Bryan, Washington, DC.

RESOURCES
Windows: westernwindowsystems.com through thesanderscompany.com. Upper & Lower Level Wood Floors: classicfloordesigns.info. Kitchen Range: subzero-wolf.com through build.com.