PRESS HOUSE, WASHINGTON DC

Reinvention and transformation is the most exciting opportunity in design and creation.
The project consists in the renovation and restoration of the National Capital Press building located in the NOMA District of Washington DC, as well as the introduction of 2 new residential multi-family and hotel buildings.
Built in the 1930’s, this landmarked building was converted to retail and creative office and gallery use. The existing windows were replaced with new energy efficient metal windows to match the existing pattern; the brick was repointed and restored and the existing skylights or “monitors” restored to their original beauty.
The two new buildings flanking the Landmark building were designed to provide a modern yet contextual backdrop utilizing similar proportions and materiality found in the Landmark building. The new building at 331 N Street NE consists of a U-shaped structure, 130’ tall. It is a double- loaded apartment building, with a 70’ x 115’ internal courtyard, open toward east. The street elevation is glazed and supported by a base consisting of a colonnade cladded in metal, 16’ high, inclusive of the residential lobby and retails.The north and east façades incorporate terraces framed by a grey metal structure, designed to enhance the industrial appearance of the building’s architecture and extruded from the wall of windows. These terraces create modular openings, combined to appear randomly connected to each other, in order to break the building mass into different elements. The overall massing of 301 and 331 combined, appeasr to raise form east to west, as the different components relate among each other in order to respect the proportion of the existing historic building at 301.

DESIGN: Aldo Andreoli
AOR: Torti Gallas Architects, Sarah Alexander (Project manager)
TEAM: Edoardo Coticoni, Claudio Delmonte, Matias Estrany, Enrico Gessaroli, Diego Pabon, Merve Poyraz, Caitlin Ryder, Peter Turba, Carlo Turati, Vanessa Valerio
INTERION DESIGN: The Rockwell Group
RENDERINGS: Jim Prieu
DEVELOPER: Foulger Pratt
PHOTO CREDITS: Foulger Pratt