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ArchDC Summer 2018.qxp_Summer 2018 5/25/18 2:18 PM Page 71

Ninth Street is one edge of the Shaw Historic District, and the Given 880 P Street’s proximity to the historic district boundaries,
buildings that face 880 P are primarily two- and three-story row its roof deck views will remain unobstructed far into the future,
houses. To avoid overwhelming its neighbors, the massing of the barring a major overhaul of DC’s comprehensive plan. While it
City Market development steps down from its tallest points along remains to be seen what effect the addition of luxury housing
the central 8th Street corridor to six floors at 7th and 9th Streets. replete with rooftop dog parks and lap pools will have on the
Sponseller also described breaking up the façades of 880 P to relate surrounding neighborhood in terms of driving up living costs
better to the residential scale of the surrounding neighborhood by for other Shaw residents, certainly the adept infill of two city
integrating staggered window framing and terraces on the 9th blocks’ worth of parking increases the number of housing units
Street side, which is clad in a custom, slurry-coated brick. On P in a beneficial way. “If you can get more supply on the market—
Street, dual-level townhouse-type units face lower-rise buildings obviously good quality supply—it’ll help prices,” Sponseller
to the north. Deep vertical fins shield glass from most of the day’s said. “The density is just better for the city.” With the project’s
direct sun while allowing expansive outward views. “When you’re massing and façade articulation, that density resembles less of
in these units with these deep fins, they’re kind of like shutters,” a superblock imposed upon the neighborhood than a
he said. “The only angle you can see in is when you’re looking compatible improvement.
straight at it. They do an amazing job of creating privacy and scale
for a residential unit.”

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