RESIDENTIAL RENOVATION

Cathedral Heights

This Tudor Revival house originally was designed with an unusual plan that included a living room at the front of the house that opened directly onto a little-used porch.

The owners wanted additional living space, both formal and informal, though there was no room on the site for new construction. The design solution included enclosing the front porch and including it in a reworked living room and new music room.

The new plan also called for reworking the grade to allow for a new family room and raised garden terrace at the back of the house. An axial path connects the front of the house to the back garden and organizes a sequence of spaces from the most formal rooms to the least formal. The axis is elaborated using a series of groin vaults, in keeping with the Tudor references of the exterior of the house, and of the Washington National Cathedral which is only steps from the house.

The back façade continues the language of the Tudor Revival character of the house, and opens onto the beautiful and peaceful garden above the noisy alley below.