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General and replace it with a collection of smaller facilities
dispersed throughout the city’s wards. The new buildings,
with no more than 50 units each, are to offer dignified
and attractive facilities designed specifically to meet the
needs of families. The 850 Delaware Avenue facility is a
project of DC’s Department of General Services.
The structure will occupy a narrow, trapezoidal site
bounded by Delaware Avenue, H Street, 1st Street, and I
Street, SW. The 61,769-square-foot building, with 53,002
square feet on seven levels plus an 8,767-square-foot
cellar, will provide 50, two-, three-, and four-bed units.
A smaller existing building on the site that houses a
health clinic is to be demolished, and the new building
will have a replacement clinic on the cellar level.
“The building will include seven to 10 housing units
per floor, along with community rooms, laundry facilities,
trash rooms, private and family bathrooms, and monitoring
stations on each floor,” said John Burke, AIA, a
principal at Studio Twenty Seven. “The ground floor
will include a dining area, computer room, exam room,
and administrative areas. Wrap-around services will
be provided to all tenants, including connections to Aerial rendering, with Delaware Avenue, SW, in the foreground.
permanent housing programs, housing search
assistance, social work staff, early childhood screenings
and school liaisons, education, training, and employment
services, health care, and financial and budget
management counseling.”
The design goal “was to develop a building that has
no front or back [as neighborhood residents requested],
and that responds to the Delaware Avenue viewshed,”
Burke said. “The ziggurat [stepped-tower] shape
articulated most prevalently on the west side of the
building is a response to both site factors and building
program requirements. It transitions the mass of the
building away from the Delaware Avenue viewshed,
preserving the existing tree canopies, and allows for
abundant natural daylighting and views for the living
units on the west elevation.”
The design “yields in height to both the future
Randall School development to the east and the Capitol
Park Plaza apartment building to the west,” Burke
developing Southwest skyline while creating an optimal Rendering of the south façade (at left), including the entrance to the new health clinic,
added. “The building is intended to complement the
living experience for the tenants with natural lighting and
views out to the city. The building’s skin is an integral-
colored white brick. The use of masonry as a material and the east façade (at right), which faces the Randall School building.
and the detailing of the brick lattices on the east side
reference the mid-century modern architecture found in Project: Ward 6 Short-Term Family Housing,
the neighborhoods of Southwest DC.” 850 Delaware Avenue, SW, Washington, DC
The building will be visible on all sides, and the
Architects: Studio Twenty Seven Architecture/LEO A DALY Joint Venture
design reflects that. “Each elevation of the building is
Structural Engineers: Silman
uniquely different,” Burke said. “The glassy north façade MEP Engineers: Setty & Associates
contains community rooms on each floor that look out Civil Engineers: A. Morton Thomas & Associates, Inc.
towards the Capitol; the dynamic south façade frames Geotechnical Engineers: ECS Capitol Services
the entrance to the health clinic; the calm east façade Cost Estimators: TCT Cost Consultants
Land Use Attorneys: Holland & Knight
contains screened outdoor play spaces on each floor; and
Archaeologists: John Milner Associates
the stepped west façade creates green roofs outside of Acoustical Engineers: Acoustical Design Collaborative
each living unit that recall the lawns of individual Contractor: BlueSkye Inc.

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