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“This certainly was not a blank slate,” said Sponseller,
rejecting the suggestion that the sprawling, razed site
freed him from the usual design constraints of historic
district regulations. “The city mandated very high retail
density—an unprecedented amount of retail—and lots of
public space for this development.” He explained that
even lining the entire street perimeter of the complex
with shops would not satisfy the city’s retail requirement.
His solution was to split the building site, create two
apartment buildings separated by a pedestrian alley, and
thus provide space for more stores.
The architect noted that a dense network of service
alleys was once a feature of Downtown Washington.
Many of those alleys were swept away in urban renewal
programs or disappeared under the construction of modern
building blocks. “We really focused on that tradition of
alleys,” Sponseller recalled, and on his frequent trips to
Europe, he looked closely at the alleys in historic city
centers. He concluded that 24 feet was the ideal alley
width: wide enough to be functional but narrow enough
for pedestrians to engage with both sides.
The east-west Palmer Alley spans the length of
CityCenterDC with the two apartment buildings at the
buildings lining his perfectly sized alley must not be so tall The paired buildings of the Apartments at CityCenterDC. Photo © Maxwell MacKenzie
center of this spine. But Sponseller realized that the
as to threaten the intimate scale he was trying to create.
The result is that the asymmetrical facades along the alley
and facing the public plaza have been lowered, carved Architectural Photographer
out, and stepped back at various levels to break up the
mass of two eleven-story buildings—moves that would
have been near-impossible on a privately owned site
where the maximization of sellable square footage likely
would have yielded boxier buildings. This varied massing
provides residents with human-scale courtyards and
rooftop gardens, as well as apartments filled with natural
light. A glassy bridge spanning the alley connects the two
rental apartment buildings at the second floor.
The two buildings offer a total of 458 units, of which
92 are designated affordable, and are packed with amenities
including a two-story fitness pavilion, a bar/lounge with
a glass wall that opens onto an outdoor pool, and a
rooftop bocce court with barbecue grills and dining spaces.
The triple-height building entries are spare and serene,
and the first and second lobby levels are connected by
dramatic glass stairs that ascend to distinctly designed
interior courtyards.
Architect Sponseller is particularly proud of the skin of
his new buildings. “I’m interested in new technologies,”
and when he traveled to Germany he noticed a number of
recent buildings clad in contemporary terra cotta tile. He
explained that terra cotta, once widely used, was sturdy
and inexpensive, but not always beautiful. He explored
setting the glazed tiles in slabs of precast concrete hung
on the building by cleats. The meter-long tiles in varying
shades of beige and brown that catch the light are paired
with ceiling-high windows and punctuated by horizontal
metal strips, all combining to create an attractive color
and materials palette.

Palmer Alley, NW, running between the two buildings. Photo © Maxwell MacKenzie
Architectural Photographer