<strong xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Warming Trend</strong><br xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"/> A concrete base holds the stainless steel <a href="http://www.ecosmartfire.com/" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">EcoSmart</a> fireplace insert fueled by denatured ethanol, which the company says burns clean with no smoke, soot, ash, or harmful emissions. Homeowners refill a fuel canister in the unit and turn on the unit with a switch.

Warming Trend
A concrete base holds the stainless steel EcoSmart fireplace insert fueled by denatured ethanol, which the company says burns clean with no smoke, soot, ash, or harmful emissions. Homeowners refill a fuel canister in the unit and turn on the unit with a switch.

Credit: Anice Hoachlander

Seeking openness and a contemporary feel for their home, the owners of this 100-year-old row house on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C., enlisted architects John Burke, Hans Kuhn, and Chris DeHenzel of Studio27 Architecture. The design — project of the year in the 2010 Remodeling Design Awards — simplifies the compartmentalized interior, most recently renovated during the 1970s, making it modern and airy.

A core part of the remodel is the creation of a “light box” to admit light and fresh air, while the open staircase and the glass bridge that spans two upstairs bedroom “cubes” allow light to penetrate the center of the house. Doors that fold back completely open the rear of the main floor to the outdoors. Read on for more about the project’s key design elements.

Project of the Year

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Category Whole-house remodel, $250,000 to $500,000

Location Washington, D.C.

DesignerStudio27 Architecture, Washington, D.C.

ContractorStalheber Construction, Bethesda, Md.

  • Credit: Anice Hoachlander

Air Currents

The Studio27 team came up with the light box idea early in the design process, and the homeowners were willing to sacrifice square footage on the second floor to create it. The purpose of the light box, which is topped with four standard-size 30-by-46-inch skylights from Velux, is to bring much needed light to the center of the row house.

Cool air moves from the shady backyard through the back window and on through the house. Upstairs, the door in the back bedroom and the bay window in the front bedroom align on the same axis, providing cross ventilation.

The skylights are not installed flush to the roof but are raised 2 feet 6 inches above the roof plane to increase the chimney effect. Last year, the owners say they appreciated the added air flow in their remodeled home and didn’t need to turn on their air conditioning until the end of June.

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Launch Slideshow

Beyond Beauty

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Beyond Beauty

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    Stair Down
    Rather than using C-channels for the treads, the designers had the steel contractor bend steel into a U-shape. The stair assembly is powder coated.

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    Before

  • The stairs lead to a tubular steel and glass bridge that spans two bedroom &#172;cubes.&#174; The bridge opens up the view from the back bedroom window through the front bedroom bay window. The operable skylight above the bridge allows the owners to control the homes ventilation.

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    The stairs lead to a tubular steel and glass bridge that spans two bedroom &#172;cubes.&#174; The bridge opens up the view from the back bedroom window through the front bedroom bay window. The operable skylight above the bridge allows the owners to control the homes ventilation.

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    Anice Hoachlander

    The stairs lead to a tubular steel and glass bridge that spans two bedroom "cubes." The bridge opens up the view from the back bedroom window through the front bedroom bay window. The operable skylight above the bridge allows the owners to control the homes ventilation.

  • The contractor removed the original two-story deck and replaced the small windows with large expanses of glass. The rear opening on the main floor has doors that fold back enhancing the connection to the outdoors. Behind the orange wall to the left is a closet for outdoor-furniture storage. The operable door in the upstairs bedroom provides needed egress and ventilation. The designers chose the door because the manufacturer does not make an operable window in that size.

    http://www.remodelingmagazine.org/Images/tmpF11D%2Etmp_tcm17-611032.jpg

    The contractor removed the original two-story deck and replaced the small windows with large expanses of glass. The rear opening on the main floor has doors that fold back enhancing the connection to the outdoors. Behind the orange wall to the left is a closet for outdoor-furniture storage. The operable door in the upstairs bedroom provides needed egress and ventilation. The designers chose the door because the manufacturer does not make an operable window in that size.

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    Anice Hoachlander

    The contractor removed the original two-story deck and replaced the small windows with large expanses of glass. The rear opening on the main floor has doors that fold back enhancing the connection to the outdoors. Behind the orange wall to the left is a closet for outdoor-furniture storage. The operable door in the upstairs bedroom provides needed egress and ventilation. The designers chose the door because the manufacturer does not make an operable window in that size.

  • A small bump-out in the kitchen houses a built-in desk above a radiator. A narrow window brings light into the house while maintaining privacy.

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    A small bump-out in the kitchen houses a built-in desk above a radiator. A narrow window brings light into the house while maintaining privacy.

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    Allen Russ

    A small bump-out in the kitchen houses a built-in desk above a radiator. A narrow window brings light into the house while maintaining privacy.

  • The owners wanted to preserve the existing front faade of the Capitol Hill row house for historic considerations and to blend in with the neighborhood.

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    The owners wanted to preserve the existing front faade of the Capitol Hill row house for historic considerations and to blend in with the neighborhood.

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    Anice Hoachlander

    The owners wanted to preserve the existing front faade of the Capitol Hill row house for historic considerations and to blend in with the neighborhood.

  • The house now has two full bathrooms upstairs. The master bathroom vanity was made by the same concrete subcontractor that provided the kitchen island.

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    The house now has two full bathrooms upstairs. The master bathroom vanity was made by the same concrete subcontractor that provided the kitchen island.

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    Anice Hoachlander

    The house now has two full bathrooms upstairs. The master bathroom vanity was made by the same concrete subcontractor that provided the kitchen island.

Steel Strong

To maintain the central living area’s open feel, the architects “didn’t want any [stair] stringer to be seen at all,” architect Hans Kuhn says. “That way the treads float with, visually, no support as they cantilever off the wall. This adds lots of lightness to the space.”

The stair’s steel treads are welded to a steel tube set in the wall. To install the tube in the wall, the construction team strengthened the brick wall by patching and replacing some of the old crumbling bricks, then bolted the tube to the brick party wall.

Once the tube was in place, the crew furred out the wall flush with the 5½-inch–deep tube to help it disappear into the wall. The added depth, says contractor Tom Stalheber, helped hide the HVAC ducts and plumbing and sewer lines to the basement. “It also lets you spray 3½ inches of foam versus just 1 inch of insulation, so it’s quiet,” he says. Stalheber suggests furring out both party walls and exterior walls on row-house projects despite concerns about loss of space in smaller homes. In this case, the furring detail works aesthetically because it helps the tube fade into the wall.

The beam, treads, and upper-floor framing were manufactured in the steel contractor’s shop, then assembled on site. The steel contractor made a stringer to hold the treads in place while he welded them to the tube in the wall.

  • Credit: Anice Hoachlander

Front Lines

The kitchen cabinets are a mix of custom and Ikea bases, fronted with Douglas fir veneer panels. “A carpenter would have cost the client significantly more due to additional labor, not so much by the material itself,” Kuhn says.

The architect originally specified Ikea for the entire kitchen, but Stalheber found that the store didn’t stock the right size cabinets for the wall configuration. He worked with a local cabinet shop to make the custom cabinets and door and drawer fronts.

All the door and drawer fronts are Ecolinea, a recycled wood veneer panel by Architectural Systems, that can be cut like plywood and comes in 48-by-96-inch or 48-by-120-inch sizes and thicknesses of 0.748 inches, 1.18 inches, or 1.654 inches. The clients liked the product’s sustainability and textured look.

The Road Not Taken

Side light: At the beginning of the design process, the architectural team considered bringing in light through the side of the row house, which is an end unit. But a narrow alley is all that separates the end wall and the next row of houses, so Kuhn and the homeowners were concerned about privacy — the neighbors could easily look into any openings on that wall. Instead, they opted to add a small bump-out with narrow windows at the top, sides, and along the bottom. This admits additional light without compromising privacy.

Light box: The team originally specified a six-skylight configuration for the top of the box. But because the placement of the box was dictated by the area cut out of the second floor and maintaining the existing window openings on the outside wall, the light box was resized for four skylights.

Bedroom door: The original design had a window rather than a door in the back bedroom. But building code required a means of egress from that bedroom, and an operable window was not available in the size the architects wanted, so a glass door was specified instead.

Railings: The design team wanted an open feel for the staircase railing with just a single guardrail. But, due to code requirements, the architects switched the specs to steel rods. They also planned for a glass railing around the bridge to match the bridge floor — seemingly invisible when you looked up — but the glass didn’t fit the homeowner’s budget, so the team opted for the same steel rods used on the stair railing.