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ArchDC Winter 2017.qxp_Fall 2017 11/17/17 5:55 PM Page 73

Lower level of the play house. Photo © Paul Burk Photography
alley buildings in the city, forcing a diaspora of poor, garden space. The lower level has a playroom that converts
primarily African-American residents. Subsequent zoning to a guest room and flows freely into the yard. The upper
and other laws clamped down on alley buildings in level has a children’s bedroom and bathroom, with a
general and dwellings in particular. This was especially mezzanine loft space above tucked under the sloping roof.
true of buildings accessible only by alley, but it was also The white color of the structure keeps the garden bright,
the case for carriage houses located in the rear yards of and the contrast with the dark red brick that dominates
street-facing row houses. the area appropriately marks the pavilion as new. The
In recent years, with the resurgence of interest in roof is sloped to maintain sun exposure to the full rear
urban neighborhoods (as well as advances in firefighting wall of the pre-existing building. The garden, say the
and sanitation), the city has relaxed standards somewhat, architects, has become a “secret courtyard,” a center of
creating a modest boom in alley redevelopment. This is seen family life that is remarkably private considering the
most clearly in Blagden Alley—now packed with trendy dense urban setting.
restaurants and galleries—but also, incrementally, elsewhere. Juror Forney noted that it was an “unconventional
choice to pull the addition away from the house, but very
Washingtonian Small Projects Award successful.” Juror Paul Masi, AIA, noted that the pulled-
away “Play” pavilion “creates a spectacular view from
Naylor Court Play House
Washington, DC two-story brick wall of a neighboring structure.
the main house,” where previously there was just the
Adding to the praise, juror Natalye Appel, FAIA, LEED
EL Studio PLLC
AP, noted, “The creation of an outdoor ‘room’ seems so
Structural Engineers: Linton Engineering right. [Compositionally,] the negative is as important as
In 2011, in Naylor Court, which is the name for several the positive.”
The project’s materiality was also noted, especially
wide alleys within the block bounded by 9th, 10th, N, the peek-a-boo character of the pre-existing brick side wall,
which is partly indoors and partly outdoors. Also, the
and O streets, NW, a young couple converted a former
stable into a live-work unit, with a design studio at the architects took care to specify clapboard the same width
street (alley) level, a one-bedroom-plus-den apartment as a brick course, to relate the scale of the new white
building to its surroundings.
above, and a generous walled rear garden area. Within a
The interiors feature what might be called practical
few years, children came, and with them the need to
minimalism—a clear preference for simplicity and un-
expand into a “live-work-PLAY” program, as the architects
fussiness, making the most of architectural elements
from EL Studio PLLC put it in their competition entry.
(doors, windows, skylights) and tempered in a pleasant
A two-story pavilion was added in the rear corner of
and pragmatic way to the realities of family living.
the garden, connected to the existing apartment via a
glassed-in corridor/bridge, open at grade to preserve
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