Page 37 - ArchDC_Spring 2020

Parallel Lines
Parallel Lines

Site plan. Courtesy of McInturff Architects
Project: House/Pool/Garden,
Washington, DC
Architects: McInturff Architects
Landscape Architects: Lila Fendrick Landscape Architecture
and Garden Design
Structural Engineers: 1200 Architectural Engineers
General Contractor: Zantzinger Inc.

“The site told us what to do,” Mark McInturff,
FAIA, said of a recent project on a pleasant street in
Northwest Washington. And indeed, the demands
of this long, skinny corner lot give new meaning to
the term “site specific design.” In this part of the city,
the amount of land a building can cover is strictly
limited by zoning in order to preserve trees and the
natural terrain. The house that McInturff designed is
not exceptionally large—the two main living levels
comprise approximately 3,200 square feet—but it
occupies every legal inch of the site: back, front and
sides. Not only that, his clients wanted a 75-foot pool
to boot.
The owners had already purchased the property
by the time the architect arrived on the scene. “There
was a small cottage on the site and at first we toyed
with the idea of reworking it,” McInturff recalled. “I did
Main entrance. Photo © Julia Heine/McInturff Architects several sketches, but the space was just too tight.” The
decision was made to replace the existing structure.
When the permitting odyssey confirmed
limitations of the unusually narrow building site,
McInturff thought of the iconic Charleston “single
houses” with their long side elevations running
perpendicular to the street, often with porches or
verandas opening to a side garden. He conceived a house
that, like the Charleston houses, would have a similar
reciprocal relationship with its garden and pool.
Through a series of double-height glass walls,
the house opens up almost entirely to the side yard
accommodating the garden and lap pool. “I have
probably built 100 pools, but I never built one 75 feet
Linear pool alongside the narrow house.

North façade with garden and pool in front. Photo © Anice Hoachlander PARALLEL LINES 35