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Typical family dwelling unit. Play area.
Photos © Anice Hoachlander/Hoachlander Davis Photography

Similarly, when market-rate apartments are divided into rectangular tiles. Walls are almost entirely painted drywall.
smaller rooms, each with a limited amount of exterior wall, Lighting is mostly straightforward, but positioned to have
windows usually end up more or less aligning from floor to impact. Color coding—the second floor is blue, the third is
floor. At the Aya, the architects took advantage of the relatively green, and so forth—is intended to foster a sense of community
large rooms to shift window locations, creating the distinctive and ease orientation, two important qualities when the residents
checkerboard patterns. At the ziggurat side, the combination are inherently disoriented and in need of community ties.
of setbacks and window shifts creates a façade that in most Although no material or fixture selected for the building
buildings would be almost purely an aesthetic exercise, but at is in any way lavish, it must be noted that the Aya does not
the Aya it works beautifully for its particular program. fit the stereotype of the low-budget, government-sponsored
Another influence on the exterior design is the building’s social services building. For this initiative, the DC government
architectural context. At a basic level, the choice to clad the recognizes that quality is important, first and foremost to
building in brick is consistent with all of the nearby buildings, convey to the residents and workers that they are valued,
both Urban Renewal-era and older (an 1887 church and a second to support the social workers and other employees,
1915 school), but at the Aya, the architects introduced a bold third to assure the long-term viability of the building, and
pattern making it clear that this is a 21st-century building. fourth, to ease such sensitive projects through often-treacherous
More subtle are cues taken from context, especially the Capitol community review processes. Quality costs money—both
Plaza Apartments across Delaware Avenue, facing Eye Street, the capital expense of constructing the facility and ongoing
designed by the esteemed architect Chloethiel Woodard Smith operational expenses—but that’s what it takes to provide the
in 1964. The most direct quotation is use of brick screen walls help these citizens need.
(the Aya’s at open-air play areas and shielding street-level In selecting the Aya for the Grand Award, the jury naturally
glazing, and Capitol Plaza’s at the balconies). Less directly, cited its eye-catching architecture. But their summation was
both have slightly irregular checkerboard patterns in their that “[T]he building conveys a lot of dignity,” an often-elusive
facades—the Aya’s expressed via windows and Capitol Plaza’s quality that’s especially important for the next generation of
via balconies. homeless facilities.
The interiors are fairly simple, with vinyl flooring in
most areas—a mix of wood-grain planks and boldly colored

DIGNIFIED LIVING 15