The owner of this Kalorama property came to us for a complete transformation of the townhouse from a prosaic 1950’s structure into a residence evocative of the rowhouses of the Upper East Side with gracious interior circulation and private urban outdoor space. With a focus on refined elegance, we stripped the façade of its oversized shutters and twee decorative window trim. A central doric post-and-lintel front door surmounted by the framed large central window of the second floor creates a stately vertical emphasis of the tri-partite elevation. Reconfiguring the interior organization maximized the space while seamlessly integrating the original structure with a three-storey rear addition. Replacing an awkward switchback stair that intruded on each level, a beautiful circular stair stair crowned by a skylight rises through the center of the house –  a dramatic conceit that fills the core of the residence with light and allows rooms to expand to their full width across the front and back of the house. New crown moldings, framed doorways, and reclaimed walnut flooring elevate the sophistication of each room appointed in collaboration with the client’s decorator Josepha Faley. We took a stepped approach to the addition, with form indicating function of each massing. The ground-floor brick family room opens directly to a flagstone garden terrace that supports a patio above extending from the parlor. French doors signal the formality of the space with an iron balustrade facing the garden terrace and gracefully framed on each side to screen urban intrusions. Delicate juliet balconies, their iron design in dialogue with the balustrade below, indicate the more private space of the third floor. The doric reference of the elevation underscores the streamlined classicism organizing this façade, the underlying ethos that marks the transformation of this urban abode.

Photography by Gordon Beall