Page 74 - ArchDC_Winter2017

ArchDC Winter 2017.qxp_Fall 2017 11/17/17 5:55 PM Page 72
Naylor Court Play House, with the enclosed
link to the main house visible at upper right.

Alley Up
Alley Up

Two Small Projects Make

the Most of Urban Sites

by Steven K. Dickens, AIA, LEED AP

The Washingtonian jury awarded two small-scale projects notable development than others. The larger blocks, once ringed with street-
for their alley sites. They are “good examples of what happens facing buildings, had substantial unused interior land areas. Some
when our cities fill up,” said juror Jason Forney, AIA, LEED AP. were developed as stables or carriage houses; others were developed
“We must use every available space.” as tiny row house dwellings, often lacking indoor plumbing.
Washington, DC, has a unique and somewhat tortured history Alley communities formed, many of them overcrowded and
regarding alley buildings. The L’Enfant Plan has variously-sized substandard. Long before the infamous postwar urban renewal
city blocks, some of which worked better for standard 19th-century period, the Alley Dwellings Authority demolished hundreds of

72 ALLEY UP Photo © Paul Burk Photography