CLEARING THE WAY, ONE PIECE AT A TIME

post by Catarina Ferreira, AIA

Our Porter House project, a ground up new construction contemporary house in Washington DC's Cleveland Park neighborhood, is about to go into construction. The DC Historic Preservation Office approved the razing of the existing 1950's house and the proposed design to replace it last year, the raze and construction permits have been issued, and the deconstruction work has begun. The existing house is being stripped down piece by piece by the non-profit charity organization Second Chance, http://www.secondchanceinc.org/, and many of the materials are being recycled.

Existing house being deconstructed

Stay tuned for more images as the work progresses. For more images of the proposed design go to http://www.architextual.com/on-the-boards#/porterhouse/

URBAN RUIN

post by Catarina Ferreira, AIA

While visiting a job site this morning we stumbled upon a nearby vacant building. Inside we found a cathedral of sorts: an almost empty shell, most of the floor framing removed, and the unique opportunity to experience a row house as a single volume with light piercing from various directions. The building will likely be converted to cookie cutter condominiums and the sublime nature of its current condition erased forever.

While we certainly have nothing against renovations, we wish there were more opportunities for maintaining some of the inherent beauty of these empty shells.