Page 80 - Winter_2018

ArchDC Winter 2018.qxp_Winter 2018 11/27/18 9:42 AM Page 78

Washingtonian Award for Excellence
for Small Projects

Dream Addition for a
Kayaker
Washington, DC

Eric Colbert, AIA
Structural Engineers: Structura
General Contractor: Four Brothers, LLC

While some people enjoy swimming through the water,
others enjoy gliding over its surface. Eric Colbert, AIA,
a devoted kayaker, is one of the latter. So in designing a
new kitchen addition for the back of his 1940-built house
in Friendship Heights, he incorporated brackets on the
back yard’s enclosing wall to store and display his Renovated kitchen space. All photos © Morgan Howarth
kayak collection.
“My needs [for the project] were modest,” Colbert
said. “As a competitive kayaker living an active lifestyle
with a love for the outdoors, my goal was to bring natural
light deep into the house.” The project reworked 120
square feet of existing interior space and added 70 square
feet of new space on the main level, creating a sleek new
cooking and eating area that pulls more light into the rear
of the residence while improving the house’s connection
to its back yard.
Colbert’s design converted the house’s dated,
cramped kitchen into a more open, T-shaped area that
works as both a functional cooking and eating space and
graceful passage to the back deck and yard. A narrow,
freestanding counter runs down the renovated space’s
centerline, reinforcing the kitchen’s new organizational
scheme and creating an additional surface for food
preparation, eating a light meal, or socializing with
guests. Careful control of the project’s many details
created a clean overall appearance.
“There was little limitation on the potential size Extended kitchen at right, with kayak storage wall in the background.
of the kitchen addition,” Colbert said. “Early design
schemes were considerably larger. Discipline was
required to provide a functional solution that is in
keeping with the scale of the existing house.”
The project was previously covered in the Summer
2018 issue of ARCHITECTUREDC.

Rear of the house before the renovation and addition. Rear of the house with the new kitchen bay and deck.
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Studio 6420 as seen from the alley. LITTLE GEMS All photos © Anice Hoachlander / Hoachlander Davis Photography