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A patient in one of the screened porches
when the complex was still part of the hospital.
Courtesy of Cunningham | Quill Architects

A former screened porch, now converted into
a common area for residents.
One of the big winners in this year’s AIA|DC awards
programs was the Residences at St. Elizabeths East
Campus, by Cunningham | Quill Architects, which
received a Chapter Design Award in Historic Resources &
Preservation, a Citation for Equitable Communities, and a
Washingtonian Residential Design Award.
The project entailed the adaptive reuse of the former
Continuous Treatment (CT) complex at St. Elizabeths
Hospital, which opened in 1855 as the first federally
operated psychiatric facility in the United States. After
reaching a peak of more than 8,000 patients in the 1950s, the
hospital’s population declined precipitously due to a series
of deinstitutionalization initiatives. In 1987, ownership of
the East Campus, which by then contained all remaining
hospital facilities, was transferred to the DC government (in
2004, the West Campus was transferred to the U.S. General
Services Administration, and now houses the headquarters
of the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S.
Coast Guard). The DC government subsequently built a
new, consolidated psychiatric hospital, and opened up the
rest of the historic East Campus, including a number of
landmarked buildings such as the CT complex, for mixed-
use redevelopment.
Built between 1933 and 1943, the CT complex consisted
of six H-shaped dormitory buildings, each holding 164
All photos © Allen Russ/ beds, surrounding a cruciform building that included a
Studio HDP, except as noted
central kitchen, cafeteria, and other common spaces. The

LIVING TOGETHER 45