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Ground-floor living area and patio of one of the units at Linden Flats. Photos © Studio Trejo
Washingtonian Residential Design Award buildings once again. Linden Flats, by Square 134 Architects, is
Linden Flats one of the recent projects to take advantage of that change. The
five-unit residential complex involved the gut renovation of a
Washington, DC
two-story auto-body repair garage built in 1927 and the addition
Square 134 Architects of two stories above the existing structure. A small addition at
the southeast corner of the site filled in a gap on the property
Structural Engineer: FMC & Associates, LLC line along the alley while enclosing the rear yard, thus allowing
MEP Engineer: KK Engineering, LLC for private outdoor spaces behind the main living units.
Civil Engineer: Currie & Associates, LLC The complex consists of two pairs of mirror-image town
General Contractor: Monarch Urban houses plus a live/work unit at the corner where the narrow
main alleyway meets the somewhat wider cross-axis alley. Each
Between 1850 and 1900, the population of the District of of the four main units has a private garage space with a living
Columbia more than quintupled. The corresponding building area behind it on the first floor, a kitchen and additional living
boom yielded thousands of row houses lining Washington’s space on the second floor, two bedrooms on the third floor, and
streets and avenues, most of them accommodating middle- and a loft space on the top level. Private outdoor space includes a
upper-class families. Poorer residents, however, including many small rear yard at ground level and a terrace accessible from the
formerly enslaved Blacks, were often relegated to substandard top-floor bedroom. The live/work unit at the corner includes a
dwellings built along the alleys behind those row houses. The two-level retail space with a compact one-bedroom apartment
alleyways teemed with children playing and adults chatting (which has its own small terrace) on the floor above.
with neighbors, but living conditions were typically squalid. The architects restored and painted the existing structure’s
In the early 20th century, Federal and municipal authorities brick façade. The four garage entrances have paneled doors that
began evicting the residents of DC’s alley dwellings and recall those on historic stables and garages in the neighborhood.
changed zoning laws to prohibit the use of those buildings for The upper-level addition, which is clad in standing-seam metal,
housing purposes. The vast majority of alley structures that is angled away from the alley façade at the top floor, creating a
remained standing were converted into garages, studios, or mansard-like roofline that diminishes the apparent scale of
storage spaces. In areas near busy commercial corridors, new the building.
alley structures were built to house auto repair shops and Given the compact, low-rise character of the Linden Court
similar services. enclave, combined with its proximity to the lively H Street
The early 21st century saw both surging interest in urban corridor, the architects consider this to be a “best of both
living and rapidly escalating housing prices, and in 2016 the worlds” living arrangement. Not surprisingly, other residential
zoning code was revised to allow for residential uses in alley projects along the alley are under way.

48 LIVING TOGETHER