Page 64 - Spring_2019

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New home office in the Jones Condominium. Photo © Anna Meyer Living room, with

Small Spaces
Small Spaces new corridor at right.

Made Right
Made Right

Two Young Architects Smartly Remake

Their One-Bedroom Condos by Ronald O’Rourke

One-bedroom apartments might seem to offer little opportunity to Project: Jones Condominium,
reshape spaces for better livability, but two young Washington
Washington, DC
architects, each of them first-time home buyers, recently showed
otherwise. With a few well-chosen design moves, they dramatically Architect/Interior Designer: Jobi Jones LLC
improved the functionality of their newly purchased one-bedroom Contractors: Sestak Remodeling
condominium units. The projects may inspire local owners of similar
apartments to explore what an architect could do for their residences.
After years of renting, architect Jobi Jones, RA, the principal of requiring visitors to pass through the bedroom to access the
Jobi Jones LLC, a residential architecture and interior design firm, bathroom. The arrangement at first seems to use space efficiently
purchased a one-bedroom condominium apartment at the Montello, by eliminating hallways, but in fact turned part of the bedroom
an eight-story, 37-unit condominium building in Washington’s into a de facto hall.
Kalorama Triangle area. Completed in 1922, the building is one of Jones’s main intervention, as shown in the post-renovation floor
several early-20th-century apartment buildings that line parts of plan, was to shorten the bedroom by inserting a new wall fitted
Columbia Road as it runs from Connecticut Avenue northeast into out with a pair of sliding doors. This one new wall accomplishes a
the Adams Morgan neighborhood. lot: Most notably, it allows visitors (including overnight guests
As purchased, the second-floor unit was reasonably cozy, with sleeping on the sofa) to access the bathroom without entering the
a series of windows along one side that admit ample morning bedroom. It also creates a distinct space for a home office. The entry
light while providing views of Columbia Road. As shown in the into the bedroom, which was previously directly off of the living/
pre-renovation floor plan, however, the unit’s layout created a dining room, is now around the corner, enhancing the bedroom’s
problematic relationship between its public and private spaces,

62 SMALL SPACES MADE RIGHT