Page 64 - ArchDC_Spring 2020

more deeply discounted rental rates. For the Highline,
the clients formed a partnership with Habitat for
Humanity, allowing some portion of the affordable
units to be built off-site as houses, reflecting the
need for larger affordable dwellings than most new
apartment buildings can provide.
The building, as expected nowadays, includes
a number of tenant amenity spaces both on lower
levels and on the roof. Creating such shared rooftop
spaces is complicated by DC’s Green Area Ratio and
stormwater management requirements, two different
but overlapping sets of regulations that typically result
in at least 50% of the roof area on new buildings being
covered in plants and soil. Mechanical equipment
takes up still more roof space. Even so, at the Highline,
ECA managed to provide reasonably generous rooftop
seating areas, grilling stations, and even an infinity-edge
pool for residents’ enjoyment.
Between the Highline and the railroad tracks is a
narrow swath of land that the clients for the project,
Level 2 and Clark Construction Group, agreed to
Kitchen in one of the building’s micro-units. Photo © Jeffrey Sauers

Apartment unit living area
with bedroom at right.
62 STACKED IN FAVOR