Page 16 - ArchDC_Fall 2020

A community room in the Aya,
with a view of the Capitol.
Photo © Anice Hoachlander/Hoachlander Davis Photography

top pick of all the winners, selecting it for the Grand Award. The differences were exploited by the architects to allow and
Special congratulations go to the architects, a joint venture of justify many of the unusual forms and patterns of the façades,
Studio Twenty Seven and LEO A DALY. as well as atypical interior spaces.
The Aya occupies the entirety of a small triangular block— To serve families of varied sizes, each dwelling unit consists
one of those characteristic patches in the L’Enfant Plan—where of a fairly large single room with two to five beds, at least one
the diagonal Delaware Avenue intersects Eye Street and 1st desk, and sometimes a small living area. Some of the units have
Street, SW. Although Eye Street is the primary approach to the en suite bathrooms, but most use bathrooms off the common
building by foot or car, the site doesn’t have a clear front or rear. corridor. None have kitchens, dining areas, or laundries; each
The architects placed the semi-separate medical clinic (which floor has a common laundry room and kitchen with tables, and
serves the broader community, as well as residents of the Aya) there is also a dining hall on the first floor adjacent to the lobby.
at street level facing Eye Street, with a welcoming wall of glass For relaxation and recreation, each floor has an open-air play
showing bright colors and activity within. area and a community room facing toward the Capitol. The
The residential facility’s entrance is at the quieter, more corridors are wide, in some cases broadening into common-use
private north side of the building. The narrow north façade is areas with computer stations or other practical amenities.
mostly glass, with the lobby on the first floor and community Some of the atypical architectural moves, notably the
rooms above that have clear views of the U.S. Capitol building. ziggurat form along Delaware Avenue, make sense in light of
The east façade, on 1st Street, is flat with a checkerboard of these programmatic elements. The lower floors, which have
openings, most with windows but some with brick screen walls wider floorplates, have larger dwelling units (four to five beds)
that partially shield open-air outdoor play areas. The building’s complemented by more generous corridors and common spaces.
signature façade, however, is the west, which follows the As the building rises, floorplates narrow, accommodating some
diagonal of Delaware Avenue and faces residential areas dating smaller dwelling rooms (two to three beds) and more
from the Urban Renewal period of the 1960s. Its ziggurat-like standard-width corridors. In a typical apartment building,
form expresses each living unit within. stepped-back floorplates would rarely make sense, as a more
Although in many respects the project’s program resembles standardized program generally dictates stacking floor plans
that of a standard mixed-use building with apartments over to the extent possible.
commercial space, the components are somewhat different here.

14 DIGNIFIED LIVING