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Living area of Studio.MP2, looking toward the bedroom. Bedroom, as seen from the bathroom. All photos © Anice Hoachlander/Studio HDP,
except as noted

Renewed for Life
Renewed for Life

Four Award-Winning Renovations

Create Modern Residences

by Ronald O’Rourke

Washingtonian Residential Design Award is an interior renovation of an existing masonry shell, is situated
Studio.MP2 behind a 1913-built building that fronts onto Mount Pleasant
Street, NW.
Washington, DC
Accessory dwelling units (ADUs)—usually described as
Robert M. Gurney, FAIA, Architect self-contained, secondary living units located on the building
lots of primary single-family residences—have become a
General Contractor: ROC Builders major topic of interest in recent years for city planners and
elected officials seeking ways to create affordable living units
Like a physicist smashing two subatomic particles together to in existing urban and suburban neighborhoods, as well as for
create something new and notable on a tiny scale, Robert M. homeowners seeking to make the best use of their properties.
Gurney, FAIA, combined Washington’s rich history of alley Studio.MP2 technically might not qualify as an ADU, since the
dwellings with its current housing affordability challenge to primary building on the lot is not a single-family residence
create Studio.MP2, a small and beautifully conceived single- but a mixed-use structure with two street-level commercial
bedroom alley residence in the heart of Washington’s Mount spaces and eight apartments on two floors above. However, the
Pleasant neighborhood. The 375-square-foot linear unit, which

58 RENEWED FOR LIFE